Homeschooling Preschool

I got an email today from a young mom who went through our parish Pre-Cana program a few years ago when dh and I were teaching. She was having trouble finding a pre-school curriculum. While I have homeschooled for 14 years, I don't know much about pre-school! I'm one of those people who believes that children learn plenty by being actively involved with mom and their siblings. We did send KT to a pricey, exclusive preschool that required snacks to be packed in reusable containers with a cloth napkin (also reusable), but none of the other children went. I don't think we ever gave it another thought after we started homeschooling, except on those occasions when I was overwhelmed by mothering a lot of little ones and wanted a break!

And if you're concerned about socialization, make sure you get together with other moms and their kids during the week. Seriously, the socialization is for the moms, not the kids. Lol.

Personally, I liked Little Saints, though we didn't do a lot of it. It was the first preschool program I ever bought, for the Pipster. Yep, #5. We ended up barely using it. At that point, I had several children in my one-room school house. To make it easier on myself, and give them each focused time with me, I developed a schedule where the older ones each rotated through a half-hour with the pre-schoolers. I had a can full of slips of paper with activities written on them. So no one got bored, they drew a slip of paper when it was their turn to "teach" and did whatever activity was on the paper. All those great, educational toys that I bought from Discovery Toys? Yes, they finally got used. They read; they played games; they did puzzles; they dressed up; they danced; they colored; they read books; they played outside; they practiced the alphabet. I think it was best preschool program I never developed!

Everyone probably already has lots of learning toys and doesn't need to buy much. Add in religion and math and you're all set. It's just a matter of spending focused time doing things with children daily. The oldest, or only, child gets to do a lot of stuff with mom that counts as a great preschool education if he's not just left in front of a TV. If you're concerned about all those topics I mentioned, just make out a little schedule and make sure you cover them every week.

For math, try books from the library (I think there are "living math" books listed on 4reallearning forums. Play math games. We've had a lot of fun with Elizabeth Foss's Gnomes and Gnumbers. Or if you wanted a "real" text, I like Saxon Math for the first few years. You could get their K text and do that with a 4 year old, being mindful of the fact that he's a little young and stopping a lesson when he's tired, or it gets too hard. Do it with the idea that it will take at least 2 years to finish. If he's 3, just numbers and counting throughout your day.

For religion, The Image of God series is good for the pre-K and K years. I would include saint stories and reading through a toddler Bible. There are some fun games on the EWTN kids site if you want to include computer skills! Catholic Heritage Curricula is another great resource that has a preschool curriculum. Their books are all beautifully Catholic. I discovered CHC fairly late in my homeschooling career, but we've thoroughly enjoyed everything that we have used.

I'm sure some of my faithful readers have something more to add that I forgot, or never heard of. Please leave your comments!

Happy Homeschooling!