Top Choices for Preschool Homeschool Curriculum

A preschool curriculum is a course of study  designed for 2- to 5-year-old children. Preschool curriculums include two key features: a set of developmentally-appropriate learning goals and specific  activities through which the child will achieve those goals. Many preschool homeschool curriculums also include approximate timelines for the completion of the activities, which creates structure and helps parents track their childs progress. Because preschool age includes children as young as 2 and as old as 5,  preschool curriculums are designed to serve a wide range  of ages and skill levels. However, the best curriculums  will provide strategies for modifying activities based on your childs childs cognitive, social, and emotional development. How Preschoolers Learn A young child’s primary tool for learning is play.  Play is a well-documented human instinct that enables  children to practice real-life scenarios. Through play-based learning, children hone their problem-solving and social skills,  increase their vocabularies, and become more physically agile.   Preschoolers also learn through hands-on exploration.  Sensory play—using a variety of tools and materials to engage physically with their environment—builds critical thinking abilities and improves  fine  and gross motor skills.   In order to reach their full developmental potential, preschoolers must have time devoted to play and sensory exploration every day. These  active learning experiences are crucial to early childhood development. What to Look for in a Preschool Homeschool Curriculum When researching preschool curriculums, look for programs that teach the following skills through hands-on  learning opportunities:   Language and literacy skills. Reading aloud to your child is essential for the development of language and literacy skills. When  children watch you read, they learn that letters form words, words have meaning, and printed text moves from left to right. Look for a program that includes the quality of children’s literature and encourages reading and story-telling. Although preschoolers don’t need a formal phonics program, you should look for a curriculum that teaches letter sounds and recognition and demonstrates rhyming through stories, poems, and songs. Math skills. Before children can learn arithmetic, they must understand basic mathematical concepts like quantity and comparison.  Look for a preschool curriculum that encourages children to explore  mathematical concepts through hands-on activities. These activities may include  sorting and categorizing, comparing (bigger/smaller, taller/shorter), shapes, patterns,  number recognition, and one-to-one correspondence (understanding that â€Å"two† isn’t just a word but that it represents two objects).   Children should learn the basic colors, which may not seem to be a math skill but is important in sorting and categorizing. They should also begin learning simple time concepts such as morning/night and yesterday/today/tomorrow, along with the days of the week and months of the year. Fine motor skills.  Preschool-aged children  are still honing their fine motor skills. Look for a curriculum that gives them opportunities to work on these skills through activities such as coloring, cutting and pasting, stringing beads, building with blocks or tracing shapes. Top Choices in Preschool Homeschool Curriculum These preschool homeschool curriculums encourage active learning through play and sensory exploration. Each program includes specific hands-on activities that support the development of literacy, math, and fine motor skills. Before Five in a Row: Designed for  children ages 2-4,  Before Five in a Row  is a guide  for learning with your child through quality childrens books. The  first part of the guide is a list of 24 high-quality childrens books accompanied by related activities. Because the guide was originally published in 1997, some of the suggested titles are out of print, but most will be available through your local library or the Five in a Row website. The second section of the curriculum  focuses on making the most of learning moments in everyday life.  There are ideas for turning bath time, bedtime, and trips to the store into engaging educational experiences for your preschooler. WinterPromise: WinterPromise is a Christian, Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum with two distinct options for preschoolers. The  first,  Journeys of Imagination,  is a 36-week read-aloud program featuring classic picture books like  Mike Mulligan,  Corduroy, and various  Little Golden Book titles. The teacher’s guide includes questions to ask your child about each story in order to build their  critical thinking, narration, and listening skills. Parents can use Journeys of Imagination alone or couple it with  I’m Ready to Learn, a 36-week program designed for kids aged 3-5 that teaches specific language and math skills through hands-on activities and themed units. Sonlight: Sonlight’s preschool homeschool curriculum  is a book lover’s dream come true. The literature-based  Christian preschool curriculum  features over a dozen quality children’s books and more than 100 fairy tales and nursery rhymes. The program emphasizes quality family time, so there  is no daily schedule. Instead, families are encouraged to enjoy the books at their own pace and track their progress using trimester-based checklists. The curriculum set also includes pattern blocks, mix-and-match memory games, scissors, crayons, and construction paper so that children can  develop spatial reasoning and fine motor skills through hands-on play. A Year of Playing Skillfully: A Year of Playing Skillfully is a play-based curriculum for children ages 3-7. Based on the book  The Homegrown Preschooler, A Year of Playing Skillfully is a year-long program that parents can use to guide their children through  exploration-based learning. The curriculum offers a list of recommended children’s books to read and field trips to take, as well as plenty of hands-on  activities to promote language and literacy, math skills, science and sensory exploration, arts and music, and motor skill development. BookShark:  BookShark is a literature-based, faith-neutral curriculum. Aimed at children ages 3-5, BookShark features 25 books designed to teach preschoolers about the world around them. The curriculum includes classics such as Winnie the Pooh and The Berenstain Bears  as well as  beloved authors like  Eric Carle and Richard Scarry. The all-subject package  includes hands-on math manipulatives to help your preschooler explore numbers, shapes, and patterns. Children will also learn about plants, animals, the weather, and seasons.