There are no laws in regard to homeschooling preschool children in the United States or Canada today. This means that your family is free to explore the idea of homeschooling their preschooler without any constraints that tell them they must follow a specific curriculum or any other laws for that matter.
Considering that children of pre-kindergarten age are filled with wonder and curiosity, you should set them up to have a love of life-long learning. Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways in which this can be done. This is because there are as many different ways in which to homeschool as there are to parents, leaving you to come up with your own preschool homeschool curriculum.
It is up to each individual family to discover a method that works best for their whole family. Parents need to decide what their goals are for the preschooler. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they have to buy a lot of different materials and supplies, especially since a lot of things are already available in the home to use.
Enthusiasm For Preschool Homeschooling
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Preschoolers need to spend time with their families. Their parents need to be enthusiastic about their interests even if they don’t share the same interest. For instance, if your child is interested in trains, you can use this as an opportunity to learn about a preschool version of history, geography, mechanical engineering, art, and music.
This can be done through the use of library books (both fiction and non-fiction), finding songs about trains, going on a field trip to watch trains, helping the child map local train routes, providing them with art supplies so that they can draw or paint trains and creating a simple train out of blocks. Your child will probably shift before long but your “job” is to be an enthusiastic guide here.
Preschool Homeschool Learning Themes
Whenever deciding to use a preschool curriculum you will discover that there are different themes throughout the year. This is meant to help with planning while also providing focus, interest, and variety. For instance, while you may have number play every day, some days you will be counting dinosaurs while other days you may be counting strawberries.
Making A Preschool Homeschool Curriculum
If you choose to make your own preschool homeschool curriculum, it should be based upon your child’s interests. Therefore, you should start by listing the things that your child likes (i.e. dinosaurs, robots, aliens, cooking, ballerinas) on one side of a sheet of paper then listing your child’s favorite playtime activities on the other side.
For each theme, you will want to include literature (picture books or a chapter book that you read out loud), mathematical play (counting, classifying, ordering numbers), art, community involvement (field trips), observation and exploration, verbal, musical and whole-body activities.
Split your school year into 2 to 4 week time periods. Plan to focus on one theme at a time while using your child’s interests and favorite activities to do so. It is also important to make sure that each area of learning is being addressed. You don’t have to have a set schedule whereby your child is forced to stop doing something that he’s enjoying for being homeschooled for preschool.
You will also want to make use of free preschool activities that take place in your community (i.e. library activities, bookstore storytimes). After all, the world is your classroom so don’t keep your child confined to your dining room table. Also, remember to look for free worksheets and printable activities online. All it takes to create your own curriculum at this age is a little resourcefulness.
Ideas For Homeschool Preschool Activities
There are an endless number of learning activities available to preschoolers, including:
- Baking
- Making homemade playdough
- Taking nature walks
- Creating a scrapbook
- Reading books
- Making up stories
- Making simple instruments to play
- Singing songs
- Playing with sand and water
- Creating simple puppets
- Planting a garden
- Making a neighborhood map
- Listening to different types of music
- Dancing
- Creating a calendar
Gathering Homeschool Preschool Supplies
The best time to purchase homeschool supplies for your preschooler is during back to school sales. You can also check out the thrift store throughout the year for books, games and costumes. Some of the items that you should be on the lookout for include:
- Regular white paper
- Colored construction paper
- Watercolor paper
- Thin cardboard
- Crayons
- Washable markers
- Tempera paint
- Finger paint
- Watercolor paint
- Scissors
- String
- Yarn
- Blocks
- Playdough
- Cookie cutters
- A small rolling pin
- Modeling clay
- Cardboard boxes
- Simple musical instruments
- A step stool
- Costumes and somewhere to store them
- Bolts of colored cloth
Preschool Activities And Networks
Most communities have a lot of things to offer preschoolers. Activities will include things like library storytimes, kids sports, kids clubs and homeschool networks. Parents can benefit from these activities while their children enjoy playtime and make friends. This will also be a great time for parents to see what they can expect from homeschooling kindergarten.
