If you’re thinking about homeschooling your preschooler, you may not know where to start. In this complete guide to preschool homeschool curriculum, we will discuss what to do in preschool, when to start, and what your day may look like. I will also show you what we use in our preschool homeschool.
Let’s jump in!
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Preschool age
The age of a preschooler can range from about 3-5 years old. Preschool age is considered the time between baby/toddlerhood and school age.
Here is what the Center for Disease Control says about children of preschool age.
“As children grow into early childhood, their world will begin to open up. They will become more independent and begin to focus more on adults and children outside of the family. They will want to explore and ask about the things around them even more. Their interactions with family and those around them will help to shape their personality and their own ways of thinking and moving. During this stage, children should be able to ride a tricycle, use safety scissors, notice a difference between girls and boys, help to dress and undress themselves, play with other children, recall part of a story, and sing a song.”
https://www.cdc.gov/
When to start preschool
For the specifics, there is no set time period for when to start preschool. Preschool is not a requirement of any law or standard education in the USA at this point. Though some are aiming for it to be.
If you were to follow your local school system, you child would likely be able to enter a preschool program around age 3 or 4. Children attend preschool up until they are ready to start kindergarten, around age 5-6.
However, it is important to note that if you are planning to homeschool your children, many states have no age requirement for when to enroll. And those that do often don’t require enrollment until age 6 or 7. Children are often in kindergarten or even in 1st grade at that point.
When to start homeschooling
You want to know when to start homeschooling? You probably already are homeschooling. Probably since your baby was born!
Surprised? The truth is your child won’t wake up one day all of the sudden wanting to sit and write the alphabet over and over while counting to 100 and singing nursery rhymes.
But many parents naturally begin to read to their kids, count blocks, identify the color of the sky, and watch birds fly around outside. This is all organic homeschooling of your children. It’s homeschooling at it’s most natural!
Can you start homeschooling a 2 year old?
Of course you can! I have to break it to you, you probably are already homeschooling your 2 year old. If you are a parent and you spend time with your child, you are already homeschooling. This isn’t rocket science. No special tools required. Just you.
So at 2 years old, engage with your child. I’m not talking about all day. Short spurts throughout the day are great.
Play with them, talk with them, show them your world. Read them books and talk about the pictures. Provide toys for them to play with to develop motor skills and follow their interests. This is a great preschool homeschool curriculum for a 2 year old!
Should I homeschool my 4 year old?
There is nothing wrong with homeschooling your 4 year old. I would actually speculate you already are homeschooling to some degree. Basic parenting and interaction with a 4 year old requires a good bit of teaching. So if you interact with your child throughout the day, you are likely already doing some homeschooling.
As children get older, more knowledge and information is required of you as a parent-teacher, so at some point homeschooling parents often begin using resources and preschool curriculum for this.
You may decide to start this at 4, and you may want to wait a little longer.
But at the heart, homeschooling is just intentially helping your children learn new things and skills. It doesn’t have to be viewed as a separate part of life with workbooks and sitting still. Especially with a young child.
Small children learn SO MUCH through play.
What age is best to start homeschooling?
Children are learning from the moment they are born. Parents who are in tune with their kids start homeschooling immediately, just by being parents. Homeschooling is being intentional with your time and helping your children to learn, so just continue to do this all of their life!
Now, at some point, you may find it helpful to use some resources or a preschool homeschool curriculum to teach more difficult subjects. You also may choose to use workbooks, but this is only part of what your kids should be learning.
Young children, especially of preschool age will learn mostly through play. Be intentional to provide them with good toys, books, and interaction with you and others. Not all learning happens at a desk or with someone with an education degree.
You can follow whatever fancy method you want, but none of that is required. Centers, sensory bins, that’s just fancy educator words for organized toys. You’ve got this.
How do I prepare my child for homeschooling?
Preparing your children for homeschooling is really mostly about the relationship. Set them up with a home environment where you help each other. Work to learn more, improve your lives, and be kind and loving. In this environment a child will be able to learn and thrive.
How do I homeschool my preschool child?
A preschool child learns so much through play. Have an assortment of toys in your house and access to good books. Give them attention and plenty of time to explore. These are the basics required for homeschooling a preschooler.
What should I teach my preschooler?
A child that is preschool age will still be improving on a lot of foundational motor skills. They are also learning so much about the world, how it works and how they fit into it. And learning how to interact well with others. Your guidance on these things is vital.
In an article from the American College of Education, the writer says these are the main things children should learn in preschool:
- Fine motor skills
- Listening skills
- Basic needs
- Social skills and conflict resolution
- Free, unstructured play
I love this list! In our homeschool, we tend to focus a lot on these sort of things at the preschool age.
I also like to start being more intentional with learning about letters and numbers at some point around 4-5. Which means I begin incorporating some fun workbooks and games into our days.
Some topics I usually incorporate into our preschool homeschool curriculum are:
- Basic counting and numbers
- Recognizing letters and their sounds
- Reading books together
- Animals
- Nature
- Writing and coloring
- Shapes
- Colors
- Lots of reading aloud
- Basic scissor skills
- Listening to music and singing
- Exposure to the piano
- Bible stories
- Lots of play
- Body movement
- Legos (that’s a subject right?)
- Reading more books!
For more intense info on what a child might learn in a traditional preschool program, check out this link from the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
How long should a homeschool day last?
This list is really about how long a child of each age can focus. This is also the intentional time you will be spending together learning, not including all the play time they hopefully are doing.
It is not always book work, especially for a preschooler. Remember every child is different and frequent breaks are often necessary.
In fact, for my preschoolers, I usually allow them to choose whether or not they want to do any bookwork each day. And when they are ready to be done, we stop.
- Preschool/kindergarten: 30 minutes-1 hour
- Elementary: 1-2 hours
- Middle School: 2-3 hours
- High School: 4-5 hours
Keep in mind that these are averages, and should not be a limit to learning. They also should not be something you must try to live up to.
Preschool homeschool schedule
Even though I have a homeschool planning blog, I am not much of a schedule person. At least not in a strict sense.
I like routine, but anything that boxes me in I have to throw out. Flexibility always.
I also allow my preschoolers to choose whether or not they want to do any bookwork each day. And when they are ready to be done with formal learning, we stop. Even if it’s only been 5 minutes.
So take this schedule list with a grain of salt and make it your own. It is just meant to be a general idea of what you could do in your day with a child of preschool age.
- Morning routine (get dressed, brush hair and teeth, make bed, eat breakfast)
- Free play
- Read together
- Do a few activities from your resources
- Free play
- Lunch
- Nap/quiet time
- Errands with mom, play outside, or go to a park
- Free play
- Household chores
- Dinner
- Evening routine (read book, get on PJs, brush teeth)
- Bed time
*Free play doesn’t have to be free-roaming. It can be directed play with certain toys or art supplies. The idea is that you are not telling them how to play.
Follow along with siblings
If you also have older kids, one of the best things to do with young kids is to allow them to follow along with their older siblings. It’s amazing how much these young ones can learn from an older brother or sister.
We especially read books together, listen to history lessons, and do science experiments all together. This not only simplifies some subjects, but it’s also great for kids to learn alongside and even from each other!
Follow Interests
It is important to follow the interests of your child. Especially when they are young. If you continually expose them to a variety of things and watch how they interact with those topics, they will show you where to go next.
Children are incredibly smart and if you allow them to go at their own pace along their own interest, they will learn in leaps and bounds.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have your kids do some things they aren’t fond of. Challenging your child’s brain and skills are important. But allowing plenty of time to pursue interest is also important. Sometimes you can do both with one thing. Like by allowing your child to pick the next science topic!
Which is the best homeschool curriculum for preschool?
I can’t say what the best homeschool curriculum for preschool is. But I can let you know what I have found to work the best for my kids. So keep on reading for what we use in our homeschooling curriculum for preschool.
A couple things to note:
- Every child is different, and even within my own family, I have changed things up with each of my three. But much of this list has stayed the same for them all.
- Please keep in mind that every child learns at different paces. Just because I use these resources in preschool, does not mean that you can’t use them with an older child. These are just what has worked well for us.
- I also have learned to use my homeschool curriculum as a tool and not be boxed in by it. Adjust as needed.
- We don’t use all of these resources every day! We only spend about 30 minutes or so on intentional preschool resources. Otherwise, we have any of the other things available as options.
- For my preschoolers, I usually allow them to choose whether or not they want to do any bookwork each day. And when they are ready to be done, we stop.
Preschool homeschool curriculum Math
Preschool Math at home by Kate Snow
Preschool Math at Home is a fun, very hands-on math curriculum for preschoolers. There is no workbook. It is all done with your fingers, fun games, and a few little toy counters. A great intro to numbers, counting, and basic adding up to 10.
Math u see Primer
Math-U-See is what we use for math. It seems to be either loved or hated in the homeschool world, but my family definitely loves it!
Each level comes with video lessons followed by several workbook pages for each new lesson. It uses a mastery approach to math, rather than spiral. Some homeschoolers don’t like this but it works great for my family.
My favorite part of Math-U-See is how they teach place value with Decimal Street.
The Primer book is a good follow-up to Preschool Math at Home. It is often used in kindergarten, so take it slow and start when your child is ready.
The block manipulative are an important part of the curriculum. Especially for hands-on children. It’s a lot up front, but you only need to buy it once for all levels.
Don’t be afraid to buy used too!
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Letters
For learning letters and their sounds, I end up using multiple resources during preschool.
We don’t use these resources at the same time! I do one after the other, as one picks up where the last left off.
So for my youngest, these are the books we used (detailed below) in order to get her ready for a kindergarten level reading program.
- ABC lapbooks from Homeschool Share
- Explode the Code A, B, C
- The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten Prep
ABC lapbooks from Homeschool Share
Lapbooks can be a fun way to get your artistic littles having some fun! There’s a lot of cutting and gluing practice, opportunity for coloring, and fun ways to learn about letters and their sounds. I ended up cutting out a good bit of this myself. We also would skip some of the activities occasionally depending on my kid’s interest that day.
Each lap book is a separate download. Of course this does require a good bit of paper, ink, and cutting!
Explode the Code A, B, C
Explode the Code is a great basic phonics series. I use the first books A, B, and C during preschool. This has fun basic activities for learning about letters and their sounds. It also gives a little bit of introduction to writing letters.
Good and beautiful Kindergarten prep
This new kindergarten prep book from the Good and the Beautiful is a perfect bridge to solidify some basic concepts in learning before kindergarten. They spend a good amount of time working on vowels, which my kids have all needed extra help with.
I used this with my youngest after Explode the code A,B, and C. She was ready to move straight into All About Reading level one after this.
Of course, I’m sure their preschool course is amazing, and using the Good and Beautiful Kindergarten course would also be a great next step!
All About Reading Pre-Reading
We are big fans of All About Reading around here! I did not end up using the pre-reading curriculum for all of my kids, but it was a nice intro to letters and other introductory reading concepts.
I did feel like my child needed something between this level and level one though.
Starfall.com
Starfall.com is a fun educational website. It can be cheesy at times, but my kids all love it! They do fun activities with letters, numbers and all kinds of other educational topics. There is a subscription, but a lot is available for free on the website or app.
Teach Your Monster to Read
Teach Your Monster to Read is a fun website and app that helps your children learn letter sounds on their way to reading small words. It is a game format with cute little aliens children can design themselves.
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Science
Nature Study
Exploring nature with your children is one of the simplest ways to do homeschool science. And preschoolers love it! It can be as simple as taking a walk through nature and talking about what you see, to using a more in depth curriculum.
One more structured approach could be to pick an animal or plant. Get a picture book from the library about it, then go outside to see what you can find!
Here are a couple more resources you might find helpful as you start a nature study in your preschool homeschool:
1000 Hours Outside
Our Journey Westward
Simple Living Mama
Here’s a beautiful book with lots of outside activities: 1000 Hours Outside Activity Book
Wild Kratts
Wild Kratts is a PBS TV series that has been around several years. Two brothers who are enthusiastic for nature take kids on wild rides exploring animals in nature. It’s a ton of fun!
at PBS website
Magic School Bus
You probably already know about Magic School Bus. If not, this is an animated TV series for kids. A teacher with her class of kids ride their bus to explore science topics.
Many of the episodes have also been made into books!
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Bible
Jesus Storybook Bible
The Jesus Storybook Bible is great for preschoolers! It is a nice collection of Bible stories, all showing how the whole Bible points right back to Jesus!
There’s even a matching coloring book!
Complete Illustrated Children’s Bible
This children’s Bible is just beautiful! It is full of artwork and has a thorough overview of Bible Stories.
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Literature
Favorite picture books
Here are some of my family’s favorite picture books.
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
at Amazon
at Rainbow Resource
at Bookshop.org
Piggies
at Amazon
at Bookshop.org
The Story of Ferdinand
at Amazon
at ChristianBook
at Rainbow Resource
at Bookshop.org
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
at Amazon
at ChristianBook
at Rainbow Resource
at Bookshop.org
Nobody Likes a Goblin
at Amazon
at Bookshop.org
Favorite read-aloud
Here are some of my family’s favorite books to read aloud with young kids.
A Bear Called Paddington
at Amazon
at ChristianBook
at Rainbow Resource
at Bookshop.org
Charlotte’s Web
at Amazon
at ChristianBook
at Rainbow Resource
at Bookshop.org
Peter Rabbit Collection
at Amazon
at ChristianBook
at Rainbow Resource
at Bookshop.org
The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh
at Amazon
at ChristianBook
at Rainbow Resource
at Bookshop.org
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
at Amazon
at Rainbow Resource
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Fun workbooks
My youngest loves activity books and workbooks! So we have been through many of various kinds! I have chosen these for the variety of activities. They aren’t just counting and writing practice like many preschool books are. These kept my daughter interested.
Cutting and Pasting
at Amazon
at Christianbook
at Bookshop.org
Never Bored kid book
for kids age 4-5
at Amazon
at Christianbook
Never Bored Kid Book 2
for kids age 4-5
at Amazon
at Christianbook
Dot to Dot Count to 10
at Amazon
Dot-to-dot Count to 20
at Amazon
at Christianbook
at bookshop.org
Pre-K Jumbo Workbook
at Amazon
at Christianbook
at Bookshop.org
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Art
In addition to the other stores I’ve been showing, for this section, I want to add a great online store run by homeschoolers with art supplies! You may also see them with a booth at a homeschool convention near you!
Miller Pads and Paper has great options for art supplies, including incredibly affordable packs of paper. Graph paper to construction paper to watercolor paper! They even carry some curriculum.
Here are some of our favorite art items for preschoolers.
Good and the Beautiful Art
at GATB site
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Toys
Here are a few of our favorite toys to have around at the preschool age. You can use these for school, or for ideas for gifts! Some other favorites are: play dough, blocks, tricycle, puzzles, play kitchen, and dress up!
Lauri Toddler Tote
at Amazon
Melissa and Doug
Small puzzles 4-in-1
at Amazon
Underwater Floor Puzzle
at Amazon
at Rainbow Resource
Preschool homeschool curriculum: Other resources
Field trips
It’s a great thing to remember to do field trips with your children. It’s such fun way to learn new things! They don’t have to be complicated trips.
Some options that are great for preschool age are:
- Concerts
- Children’s museum
- Science museum
- Other museums
- Planetarium
- Zoo
- Aquarium
- Hike through a park
- Play in a creek
- Library Story time
Games
These are a few of our favorite games for preschoolers. A lot of these practice math and alphabet skills, so use them for school or just for fun! Makes great gifts.
Rat a Tat Cat
at Amazon
at Rainbow Resource
My First Bananagrams
at Amazon
at Rainbow Resource
Sleeping Queens
at Amazon
at Rainbow Resource
Go outside
There really is nothing needed to play outside. Children will come up with their own games if left to their own imaginations. Sticks become swords, the woods become houses, and mud becomes food – but hopefully they don’t eat it.
For some great ideas on outside play, I highly recommend checking out the site 1,000 hours outside.
But sometimes, a few things can be helpful. Here’s a few of our favorites.
Climbing Dome
at Amazon
Curriculum for other grade levels
Kindergarten curriculum for homeschoolers
Wrap it up
There are so many ways to homeschool preschool. And so many resources! I hope this post sets your mind at ease in some ways and also gives you some great ideas for ways to move forward. While you could easily do preschool on your own, hopefully this complete guide to preschool homeschool curriculum helps you!
Do you have another resource you use in your preschool homeschool? I’d love to hear about it! Comment below.
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