One of our goals this year is to homeschool Conner for 3 Year Pre-K. The truth is, I have zero desire to homeschool my kids but since we do not have the room in our budget to send Conner to private pre-k, we decided that homeschooling him was the best option. We do not want Conner to be behind when he enters Pre-K and as such, the hubs and I put together our own preschool homeschool curriculum.
This was not as easy as we thought it would be. There are so many preschool homeschool curriculum’s that you can purchase, “Preschool in a Box” that we were so lost on what we actually needed to be teaching our son. After speaking with one of my best friends who is a former preschool teacher and doing hours and hours of research we decided that we were way overthinking this whole thing.
Preschool is meant to be fun and learning through play. Therefore, we decided to give structure solely for our (i.e. the parents) benefit so we can gauge how well Conner is doing in certain areas.
We are using several different resources to help us with our homeschool preschool:
Pre & Post Curriculum Objective Checklist (this is a great resource to help you determine where your child is and it is FREE)
Wipe-Clean Workbooks <<< Best thing ever y’all! My kids have so much fun with these and there’s NO MESS. 🙂
ABC Mouse Academy (this is an online education site and it’s amazing! They literally have full curriculums you can use with your kids, ages 2-7! You can try it for 30 days for free here.)
I also purchased the majority of my resources from the Dollar Store with the only two things not coming from the Dollar Store being my crate and folders which were purchased on Amazon. I am organizing our homeschool lesson plans using the folders in the crates and labeling them “Week One”, “Week Two”, Week Three”, etc. This will allow me to have flexibility when there is something that we need to spend more time on or if we have an “off” week.
We will not be following a strict “school year” schedule since we are expecting our third child in October and I will be going to a blogging conference in September. We are planning to start our homeschool in June and revise our schedule as needed to fit our family’s needs. So hopefully, this all goes well! 🙂
Week 1: Letter “Aa”, the color red, apple projects (apple painting w/color red and counting with apple slices). Alligator dot activity and “I Spy” outside for things red. Review the Bible story of creation (use creation wheel to help visual story).
Week 2: Letter “Ee”, letter crafts: q-tip painting, reading activities, and number three.
Week 3: Letter “Ss”, scissor activities, playdoh learning activities, counting activities.
Week 4: Letter “Bb”, the color blue, read Little Blue Truck, review the story of Noah’s Ark, water table activities.
Week 5: Letter “Tt”, number four, shape square, salt tray writing, letter recognition.
Week 6: Sorting by color, matching activities, writing practice, bake cookies using counting skills we have learned.
Week 7: Letter “Gg”, color green, collect grass, leaves and other material outside that is green. Finger paint trace letter “Gg”, “good vs. bad” lesson, play redlight/greenlight.
Week 8: Letter “Oo”, number five, shape circle, “all about Daddy” activity, make homemade donuts, counting book, read Five Little Ducks.
Week 9: Letter “Cc”, the color orange, letter c craft, number matching, scissor activities, playdoh learning activities. Play letter game on ABC Mouse.
Week 10: Writing and letter-sound practice, comparison practice with items found on nature walk, practice location (behind, in front of, beside, on top, below) with various toys.
Week 11: Letter “Pp”, color & dissect pumpkins activities, practice reading on own, sequencing, sorting by color.
Week 12: Letter “Nn”, the story of Moses, Watch Prince of Egypt to help explain the story, number six, identify animal activity.
Week 13: Reading Practice and numbers/counting work, tooth brushing practice with eggs.
Week 14: Letter “Dd”, letter D activities with animals, scissor practice, puzzle activities.
Week 15: Review week – where do we still need help/more practice? Go through lessons on ABC Mouse to see where we still need to work through. Revise accordingly.
Week 16: Letter “Mm”, the story of Mary, play iSpy using empty toilet paper rolls, shape triangle, number six.
Week 17: Read The Gospel for Little Ones and ask Conner to retell the story to me. Practice identifying shapes and colors. Bake Daddy a special treat using our counting skills.
Week 18: Letter “Ff” (practice “f” sound), count fish in Papa’s pond, number seven, practice writing name.
Week 19: Nature walk identifying different shapes and practice letter sounds. Use a water table to identify objects that float and sink.
Week 20: Reading practice, online activities, number eight, and writing name practice.
Week 21: Shape rectangle, the color purple, coloring activities, and number nine.
Week 22: Letter “Rr”, shape review, numbers 1-9 review, matching games with colors.
Week 23: Writing name practice, letter review, the color yellow, number ten, sequencing, sorting by color.
Week 24: Identity animals game, matching uppercase and lowercase letters, salt tray writing.
Week 25: Letter “Ll”, shape diamond, practice counting 1-10, cutting shapes, sorting by size.
Week 26: Review/catch up week. Determine where we still need to work on and catch up on anything we are behind on. Allow him to choose whatever game he’d like to play on ABC Mouse and assess his progress.
Week 27: Letters “Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg” – practice putting in order and matching lower and upper case letters. Vinegar and baking soda volcanoes, writing and reading practice.
Week 28: Make dough and watch rise with a lesson in dealing with emotions (anger), puzzles, writing, and letter-sound practice, hopscotch, and number matching.
Week 29: Play run to the shape, make string pasta necklaces, letter crafts, introduce math (1+1=2, 2+2=4), practice color mixing (green+blue=yellow, etc.).
Week 30: Letter “Xx”, a memory game with numbers, practice weighing, color brown.
Week 31: Letter “Yy”, exploring living & nonliving things, make books and telling stories (use Jesus telling parables as reference).
Week 32: Letter “Zz”, rhyming, online learning, a memory game with letters.
Week 33: Review and determine areas that will need to be continually worked on.
***Updated to add that many of my readers have suggested this “Preschool Readiness Kit” as a great guide for parents that are looking for something that is already packaged for them. Please note that I have not used this kit, I’m only passing along information that was shared with me in case it proves helpful to you.
Here are some other Free or Almost Free Resources to try:
This is an awesome list of outdoor activities to do with your kiddos based on ages: https://www.tinkergarten.com/activities
This blog has so many great ideas for homeschooling at different levels: http://cloisteredaway.com/homeschool/lower_school/
Another list of awesome resources for free or almost free: https://thepioneerwoman.com/…/free-online-educational-reso…/
Do you homeschool? How do you manage it all?
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As a former preschool teacher (turned SAHM), well done! Preschool is about learning through exploring and play. Spending time playing – and reading – are the best things you can do to prepare your child! Add in the bit of structured letter activities like you have done, and your son will be well prepared!
Thank you so much Kristen! 🙂
Where did you find the actives to go along with each weeks lessons?
Through a LOT of online research, some guidance from teacher friends, and some are made up. 🙂
Thank! I also use coreknowkedge.com prek-8 has unit studies and whole lesson plan for free
We used the dollar tree for educational books when my son was little, too. I love all the things you can get there for only $1. I worked with him at home and we did a co-op. Pre-schools are often so expensive and we found a great co-op for only $45 a month.
You know, I didn’t even think of a co-op! I’ll have to try to find one. I finally found a library in our area that has regular story time (our local library is very “hit or miss” with story time so it’s hard to plan around) so I’m excited about incorporating their activities with ours! 🙂
How did you find a co-op? For pre-k?
I have a 2 yr old and an almost 4 yr old that need to spend time with other kids learning through play.
I haven’t spent much time searching to be honest, but I did find that several of my friends already have their kids in one (I seriously had no idea and I don’t know why I didn’t ask sooner). And I found that several churches in our area allow co-ops to meet up in one of their empty rooms during the week. 🙂
Hi there
We recently moves to the states and cannot believe how expensive pre school is! A week costs the same as a whole month in my country! So decided to keep her home for a bit. Please can you explain co-op to me? What is it a s where will i find it in my area? Much appreciated
A co-op is usually a school that offers 2 or 3 days a week and then you homeschool the other days. There are some co-ops that are basically groups of other homeschool moms that get together once or twice a week and “section off”. So like I would teach the kids math, and you’d teach them science and then another mom would teach literature type of thing. Google homeschool co-ops in your area and you should be able to find some.
As a daycare provider this information was very helpful as I have a 3 year old toddler that’s ready to learn thank you .
We do PreK at home and we LOVE it. We use a book called “where is Thumbkin?”
I’ll have to add that one to my list! Thank you Lydia!
I think it looks great; but please don’t beat yourself up too much if you just don’t fit everything in. I had some pretty basic goals with my kids in the lead-up to preps (our equivalent of kindergarten) – I wanted them to recognise shapes and colours, identify upper- and lower-case letters and know what sounds they made,be able to count up to 30. (BTW, a tip from our kids’ preps teacher – make sure to include 0, most kids are fine with 1-10 but they don’t know where the 0 goes!), and be able to do very simple addition and subtraction, I wanted them to be able to write their name but didn’t worry too much about tracing letters etc. because the handwriting that is taught here is very different from the handwriting practice sheets you find on-line so I didn’t want to confuse them! It was pretty basic but I found that having that very basic foundation was enough to set them up well for learning.
It is definitely worth doing some prep work at home though – I had a friend who didn’t do any for her son and was very surprised when he was struggling. But, anything is better than nothing, so if you get sidetracked (especially with a new baby coming!) be nice to yourself.
Wow. What a plan! Nice work. 😉
I don’t homeschool, so I don’t have any tips for you. My sister-in-law homeschools her 4 boys and I know that she found a homeschool group in her town that they all love. I believe that it meets weekly and I don’t think there is any trouble with her bringing the youngest who isn’t quite old enough. Do you have anything like that in your city?
We do have a school right by us that is a homeschool co-op but it costs money and doesn’t have a pre-k program. 🙁 I am going to use our library system as a sort of co-op by taking my boys there once a week for story time and interaction. That usually provides me with something to work off of. 🙂
Thanks for this. I am easily overwhelmed by the idea of homeschool and this is very helpful.
Great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing this! I am on the same boat. No room for private preschool in our budget.
What do you put in your crate besides the folders? I see the play dough and two puzzles.
Anything and everything that we use – the play dough, puzzles, we even have flashcards now, markers, crayons, dry erase boards (the Dollar Store has awesome dry erase school boards!), and random arts & crafts stuff. 🙂
Hello,
We are staring to preschool our daughter. What are the dot resources you used. “Alligator for activity”
Hi Patrick! It’s found here: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/Store.html#anchor_684
What type of reading activities did you do in week two?
We just had story time, where I’d read a story and then ask him different parts of the story and the identify different things (animals, colors, etc.). By the end of the year we started working on him actually picking out certain words.
How long per day and how many days a week did you guys do?
This is wonderful and very helpful! My son will be 2 soon, and I have another baby on the way. I’ve been considering testing out a simple home school curriculum, before he is old enough to enroll in school, just to see how consistent and committed I’ll be. I’ll be sure to try this out!
Hello,
I’m starting a homeschool preschool also and love the info!! This is what I’ve been looking for!
Did the book (Preschool in a Box )have all of this info in it, or was it just a guide? I’m also interested in how you set up the biblical learning along with the curriculum. I love it! Was that included in the book or did you pick and choose which bible lessons to go with the week?
Thanks so much!
God Bless
Hi Gretchen! The Preschool in a Box is just a resource guide. It’s helpful for non-creative folks like me. 🙂 For Biblical stuff, we just used The Gospel for Little Ones, The Bible for Little Ones, and then I ended up finding some Bible-based workbook pages at the Dollar Store. We stuck with sticking to the “big” stories – Easter, Christmas, Lent, Noah’s Ark, and The Ten Commandments – as our key learning points. I hope this helps darlin’!
Jessi, I am praising God right now for Pinterest and for you! I have been a working mother for 13 years. I’m turning 33 next week and I’ve decided to stay at home with our last little one. She’s 3y/o and has been in PreSchool for over a year. She has learned so much and I’m so afraid she will lose that. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I want you to know that you’re making a tremendous difference in people’s lives. Thank you for sharing your life with the world. Your tips have given me the added confidence that I’ll be able to do this for my Penelope! The only question I have for you is if you’ve added Spanish to any of your lessons? If so, do you have a resource for that? My LO is learning Spanish in PreSchool, and I think it’s amazing! I’d be disappointed if she lost that.
Thank you again!
Hi ! I am starting to home school my daughter. I have a few questions.
How long do you have her work on school material and how many days a week?
Hi Ivonne! We had Conner work on school work 3 days a week just for a few hours – usually from 9 until noon with a snack break in between and a “recess” spot for about 20-30 minutes to allow him to “get his sillys out” or else he’d get too hyper and not want to finish his schoolwork.
Thank you so much for the response!
Thank you so much for this, I have been at hone with my son since he was 16 months old. I have made a few items for him to learn shapes, colours and numbers etc. but I am worried I was not doing enough. I have also downloaded a few apps for him on my tablet which he absolutely loves. I was so happy to come across all your wonderful information and the breakdown week by week which will help out so much.
Great ideas! As a PK teacher though, I would say limit the use of homework style sheets. There are much better ideas then having little ones fill out work books. Some ideas are creating the letters with shaving cream, playdough, finger paints, letter making collages.
You have spent a of time and effort in your son’s schooling and it will pay off. What a lucky child!
I have to say stumbling upon this has been a blessing!! We live an hour from the closest pre k and our small town doesn’t have many children. With my older son we lived somewhere else that had a pre k right in our local church but now that our next child is three going on four I was looking for pre k’s and to my horror couldn’t find a one that wasn’t more of a glorified daycare. We started your curriculum this past week with me just tweaking it a little and switching some of the order of the weeks and my son LOVES it and knows so much more than I thought he would! Thank you SOOOOOOOO much for taking the time to put this together online for moms like me it really is a dream come true! I probably will use it again next year for our twins while their brother is in school! God bless, a very thankful Momma
I’m so glad that this has helped you Christina! I know that it has been a blessing to our family and I’m happy to share it with others. 🙂
I don’t know if you will really have an answer for this or not but why did you decide to do the alphabet out of order? Is that something they normally do in school? Or was it just the order in which you found the activities for each letter and color? Or did it just work out that way? Just wondering 😉
According to our friends that are/were preschool teachers they don’t teach the letters in order of the alphabet but by either motor-skill level or speech level (sometimes both). So I based this off of one of my friends old preschool curriculums from a few years ago. They still teach the order of the alphabet just not the learning of the individual letters in order, if that makes sense.
Wow what a plan! Great job putting it together. Thank you for sharing on Merry Monday! Have a great week!
Kim
Hi, I just found this page on google and I really like your set up and was wondering if you could share what the activities are in detail. what you have per week gives me some structure since I haven’t had to do this before. I have a 3 year old and 1 year old and I am 28 weeks pregnant. I also stay at home. I want to keep my kids learning as much as possible while also trying to cook and clean and laundry etc, your layout seems very convenient and Id like to follow the plan. I just do not know what work sheets you used or what a play dough activity is.
Thanks in advance,
Jessica G.
Hi Jessica! the play dough activities are motor-skill related so rolling the play dough, using cookie cutters, etc. The worksheets are all from various workbooks that I got either at the Dollar Store or on Amazon so they’re nothing too crazy. 🙂
Hi, today we had another trial day. I’m getting ready for homeschool. I had trouble filling time (shooting for a 3-hr school day). Let me know what you think:
30 min Stories and Songs
30 min. making bread dough, kneading, and forming buns, set aside to rise for tomorrow
30 min painting / while others were doing water play
30 min. outdoor structured game
1 hr: chaos and yelling and SOO MUCH ENERGY! (4 boys, 5 and under)
What should I add to cut down on the yelling?
Hi Caroline! I would suggest lower the time block to 15 mins per activity. I know that when it comes to my boys, they are so full of energy that if I don’t keep the activities short they lose interest fast. I hope this helps darlin’!
I’m going to have to use your plans for homeschooling. I am so excited to teach my little one. Any tips on teaching concentration? My three year old get distracted easily.
Hahahhahhaa! I wish I had tips on teaching concentration. 🙂 For us, I just work around them – meaning that I keep activities short – usually about 15 minutes but no more than 30 mins because they will lose interest if it’s too long. And I only bring out one activity at a time to help keep them focused on whatever the activity we’re doing at that time is. I hope this helps Taylor!
I noticed that you didn’t have the whole alphabet in the plans… Do you still teach the whole alphabet or just wait on some of the letters for next 33 weeks?
I still teach the whole alphabet just not all in one year. For my kids it seems to work better to avoid teaching them the whole alphabet in one year and focus on a few of the letters intensely to strengthen their confidence.
Hi Jessi
My sister adopted a couple of children ages 2 and 3. She tried putting the 3 year old in a preschool. Welp preschool is not turning out real well. Our 3 y/o is suffering with separation anxiety from both my sister his mom and his little sister. They were foster children. My daughter and I are stepping in to assist her with the little ones yay! WOW, and THANK YOU so much for sharing with all of us your findings, you are truly a God send in our lives. And the Co op priceless. We have purchased materials from the Dollar Tree and Target. STARTED homeschooling with the little ones on Wednesday and they don’t want to stop learning. We are all happy now. God Bless you and your family
Pinning this excellent plan. I have two education degrees, and homeschooling is a challenge I am nervous to tackle! Visiting from Wow Me Wednesday and pinning. Also following on FB and Pinterest!
HI, I was thinking about homeschooling my 2 soon to 3 yr old. I am a stay at home mommy and it USA but overwhelming sometimes because I don’t know what to do. I had ABC mouse for my daughter (she’s now 10 and in the gifted and talented class) so I put my son on it and as well as other learning apps. But I didn’t want to keep putting him on the iPad all the time, and I came across your site and wow!! I can’t wait to start the lesson plans with him. Thank you. I also came across this site called tinkergarderten.com and it also helps with getting the kids outside, interacting with other children and learn about nature as well. Plus you are able to get paid if you want to be the leader in the group to teach the other children. But thank you for this. I love it.
This was extremely helpful! Thank you so much! Blessings!
Perfect preschool ideas for playing and learning! Your son will love it & he will be more then ready for Kindergarten. Thanks for sharing at #HomeMattersParty
I am a stay at home mom of 3. This is really helpful! thank you so much! I am getting everything prepared to begin with my 3 year old. I have been looking for programs for her but it is really pricey and my 18 month old has alot of medical complications and has begun early intervetion therapies at home. So, this is very very helpful, so glad i found your page.