More About (Home)Preschool ...

A few people have asked what curriculum I'm using for preschool with my 3-year old.  As with my older two kids, I don't subscribe to any one method, any single textbook publisher, or any particular boxed set of curriculum.  In other words, I can't say we do Sonlight.  Or, I use A Beka (although I do use A Beka for grammar, I do not use it for anything else)  I sort of pick and choose a bit here and bit there from all over the place.  

With preschool ... I, for the most part, am just making it up as we go along.  I went to my local teacher's supply store and thought, hey this looks interesting, or oh that will be fun.  I went to Target (I'm there on a weekly basis anyhow) and found some cute puzzles, cards and games.  Then I went through the plethora of toys we have at home and pulled out the items with potential educational value and put them in a special "school" box that can only be taken out, you guessed it, during school time.  Then I created another box especially for "school art" supplies.  The super fun stuff that really needs mom's supervision ... like paint, markers and glitter glue.  (side note, be careful not to drop any art supplies on the floor ... our bulldog ate an entire glue stick the other day, plastic container and all ... yummy!)

So every day we pick some sort of hands-on toy activity to do.  Things like blocks, puzzles, lacing cards, beads, letter magnets, etc.  Things that need sorting or stacking, or use problem solving skills.  

So here's my 3-year old using some pattern blocks and pattern cards today ...

Those pattern blocks were used in grade school math too by my oldest 2 kids, so we're definitely getting our money's worth out of them.  

The only real preschool books I purchased were these:

They are from Rod and Staff Publishers.  These are really the greatest little workbooks I've ever used.  They are from a Mennonite publisher who's schoolbook items are very plain and very simple.  No frilly pages, no over abundance of colors or designs.  When I first saw these I loved them, but I thought, oh my little one won't.  She's an over-the-top girl who loves things like sparkly, sequined pajamas and wearing frilly dresses to bake bread with mommy ... she will be bored with these books.  Guess what?  I was wrong.  She was immediately drawn to these books.  

Here is the first book in the series ...

And here's my girl working very hard and doing her very best ...

All she really wanted was a chance to "do school" just like her bigger brother and sister.  They have special books for school, she wanted some too.  These books fit the bill!

Do you need a bunch of special stuff to do preschool with your little one?  No.  Do you even need to do preschool with your little one?  No.  I've found some of our greatest learning opportunities happen when my little one is just hanging out with me and following me around and helping me during my day.  

I probably wouldn't be starting school with my 3-year old at all if I didn't have the older 2 at home.  But since school is so much a part of our lives it just makes sense to let her get started too.

And just look at the sense of accomplishment on this little face ... gotta love it!