The Best Homeschool Preschool Curriculum
Thinking about homeschooling your preschooler? Look no further, I found the best homeschool preschool curriculum for you!
I remember the day the email came:
“After careful decision, the school board has decided we can not safely open our Preschool for the 2020-21 school year.”
I was crushed. I loved my son’s preschool and teachers so much. Their care for the children was amazing; the curriculum was even better.
Like so many parents, I found myself needing to do preschool at home this year and I searched for the best homeschool preschool curriculum.
Whether you’ve always wanted to homeschool preschool or found yourself a homeschool teacher by surprise, I have great news.
I found a thorough, affordable, and developmentally appropriate option to share with you – and I believe it’s the best homeschool preschool curriculum you can find.
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The Best Curriculum for Home School Preschool
I checked out a variety of preschool programs for my four-year-old when it became obvious his preschool would stay closed during the pandemic.
I didn’t want to shell out hundreds of dollars a month for an online preschool – my children already watch enough TV!
I knew I could piece together a curriculum with Pinterest and my own printables, but I also knew I wanted my son to have a really-thorough curriculum.
I needed something that would save me time – where the planning was already done for me and I just needed to do a few minutes of daily prep.
Once I found Teaching Mama’s Home Preschool Made Easy, it was clearly the right choice.
How to Homeschool a Preschooler
There are certain things that any homeschool preschool must have to be effective and developmentally appropriate:
Predictable Routine
Children learn best when there is a context for the new information. A predictable routine provides that support.
With Home Preschool Made Easy, the daily routine is predictable. We start with a story and question of the day, practice a letter, and move into hands-on learning.
Hands-on Learning
Preschoolers need to learn with their whole bodies. They aren’t built to sit and pay attention for hours or trace tiny lines in a commercial workbook.
In Home Preschool Made Easy, children learn academics with hands-on activities.
Play-based Academics
While there is a time and place for worksheets, preschoolers should not be sitting all day doing them. They can learn tons of academic skills through hands-on play.
- Looking for quailty and thematic worksheets? Check out Preschool Worksheet Packets.
Curriculum-relevant Books
Most parents know how important it is to read to a preschooler. What many people don’t know is that it’s more meaningful to connect the books to the curriculum.
While students learn about the content – whether it’s the alphabet or emotions – they get the benefits of literacy, too.
Finding a preschool program that includes books available at the library saves TONS of money.
Simple Everyday Supplies
A good homeschool preschool program isn’t going to require you to spend hundreds of dollars on new supplies. It’s going to incorporate things you already have around the house like muffin tins, ice cube trays, tongs, and blocks.
For supplies you might need to purchase like alphabet magnets or counting bears, the best homeschool preschool curriculums will use them across various types of activities throughout the school year.
Home Preschool Made Easy checks all the boxes for how to homeschool a preschooler.
What should a Preschool Curriculum Include?
When you are evaluating a preschool program, these are the content areas you’ll find in the best homeschool preschool curriculum:
Social-Emotional Learning
Preschoolers need to be taught explicitly about their emotions and how they impact their decision-making. Learning the characteristics of friendship is an important skill as well.
Self-Management Skills
A preschool program needs to include activities around turn-taking (like playing games) and opportunities to follow directions (also helpful when in a game format).
These are part of executive functioning which lays the groundwork for paying attention and succeeding in school.
Fine Motor Skills
Before you put a pencil in your child’s hands, you want a preschool curriculum to include a lot of fine motor work.
Look for activities incorporating play-dough, lacing beads, stacking blocks, and using clothespins.
Problem Solving
In a preschool curriculum, there need to be opportunities for problem-solving and critical thinking.
Look for science activities where children can draw conclusions.
Patterning, finding the opposite, classifying, and same and different activities are also really important to develop problem-solving skills.
Oral Language
Oral language precedes written language. It’s also really important for learning to read as children connect letters to speech sounds.
Solid preschool programs include oral discussion around ideas to develop these language skills.
Math
Preschool curriculums should include math activities – counting and sorting are foundational math skills for preschoolers.
Learning these concepts lays the groundwork for all math, so look for a program that covers a wide variety of basic math skills for your preschooler.
Alphabet
The alphabet is the foundational skill for learning.
It is the basis for the code that unlocks the ability to read and write and preschool curriculums must cover it.
Home Preschool Made Easy covers all these curriculum areas and more.
What does a four-year-old need to learn in preschool?
While the general content areas listed above are important, there are several specific academic standards children need to learn. The best homeschool preschool curriculum will thoroughly cover these standards!
These are found in state standards and some are also included in the CDC’s developmental milestones for what children need to know by 4 and 5 years old.
These are the top academic skills four-year-olds need to learn in preschool:
- Identify emotions and feelings
- Identify capital and lowercase letters
- Identify numbers 1 – 20
- Count a group of objects to 10
- Trace on a line or within lines
- Draw a vertical line, horizontal line, diagonal line, and curves
- Begin to print a few letters, especially the letters in your child’s name
- Speak in a complete sentence to answer a question
- Recognize a variety of shapes
- Identify most colors
Home Preschool Made Easy
Home Preschool Made Easy was definitely the best homeschool preschool curriculum I’ve found.
Weekly Preschool Lesson Overview
Each week has an overview that allows for easy planning. It is simple to look at it on a Sunday and see what needs to be prepared for the week.
Daily Lesson Plan
The daily plans use simple and clear language that even non-teachers will find accessible.
Predictable Routine
Each day follows a routine so your preschooler knows what to expect and develops independence.
In general, the routine is:
- Question of the day. This is fantastic for developing oral language.
- Read aloud with the recommended book. Practice more oral language with the follow-up discussion questions.
- Alphabet activity. Instead of doing a letter of the week, this curriculum includes an introduction to the capital and lowercase letters and a thorough spiral review.
- Hands-on activities. There are 1-3 activities for math, literacy, science, social studies, or social-emotional learning.
Affordable
All the comparable preschool homeschool curriculums I evaluated were at least 3 times as expensive. Purchasing this was seriously a no-brainer.
Sibling-friendly
Mid-year, we pulled our second-grade daughter out of distance learning to homeschool. As a former 2nd grade teacher, I knew this curriculum would also support her!
Now we have a mini-circle time. She loves listening to the story and benefits from the oral language practice, too.
All the hands-on learning like the science and sensory activities are engaging for her as well.
With a baby turned toddler in our family this year, it’s also manageable with him. He joins in on the story and discussion as well and benefits from all the exposure to language and social interactions.
Home Preschool Made Easy ticks all the boxes on my checklist for a quality homeschool preschool curriculum kit.
Drawbacks of Home Preschool Made Easy
Usually, in review posts, it is helpful to list the drawbacks of a program. It demonstrates a lack of bias and helps consumers make good choices.
I cannot think of any drawbacks. I’d be lying if I tried to make some up.
If you’re concerned about the number of pages (over 900!), you only need to print the specific printables for each lesson. It works out to only a handful of pages a week.
You can access the eBook curriculum on your digital device instead of printing the lesson plans.
Home Preschool Made Easy is the best home preschool curriculum I found, and it’s exactly the type of program I’d design if I made one myself!
Conclusion
The sadness I initially felt about preschool being closed has been replaced with so much joy. Homeschooling preschool with my son turned out to be an experience I cherish.
Watching his little face light up as he asks with curiosity, “What’s our activity today?” is absolutely the best feeling.
And the next best feeling is knowing I don’t have to come up with it myself. I consult the Home Preschool Made Easy curriculum, do the quick set-up, and we have a wonderful homeschool preschool day!
