Homeschooling Preschool (Age 3)

I thought I would share what I am planning to do with my 3 year old daughter this fall once we start back to school. Now I do have an ebook that I sell called Learning for the Littles - A Preschool Notebook, that you can use if you don't want to make something up yourself. I am using some things from my Learning for the Littles ebook, as well as some things from the internet.

Now I should clarify that I don't think this age needs a lot of formal schooling. Much is learned in everyday living. However, as the Lord has worked in my heart I have realized that I really have to be intentional (hence the necessity for my Intentional Planner!) in planning things with my kids. The days seem to pass by so quickly and I want to redeem the time God has given me with each one of them! Most of this learning time will take place cuddled on the couch or on the floor on a huge floor pillow!

Also, please don't think you have to copy me. I always enjoy hearing what others are doing with their kids. I get ideas from others and adapt to our family all the time. So take what you want and leave the rest! With that said, here is what homeschooling a 3 year old will look like for us next year....

Homeschooling Preschool (Age 3)

First, I made a Preschool Notebook for my daughter by taking a 3-ring binder and putting her learning pages in sheet protectors. I will explain below how I handle each area of learning.

ABCs: I printed out a page with the ABC song typed out on it. That is the first page in a sheet protector in her notebook. We will start out learning time with that song. This is to teach the order of the ABCs.

Math: I made up a chart and printed it out for the next page in her notebook. The chart has a list of check boxes that we can check off or put a sticker on as she learns to count. The first box says "Rachel can count to 5". We will check that box off when she can do that. The next one says, "Rachel can count to 10" I then did 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100. I don't know how far we will get during the year, but she will have fun seeing her progress on the chart. I plan on using a 100-bead abacus and counting bears to teach the counting.

Colors & Shapes: These are the next pages in her notebook and I used ones from my Learning for the Littles ebook. I made pages with different colored circles for the color pages, then different shapes for the shapes pages. We will just work through these until she can say them all herself.

Pre-Reading Skills: The next pages are the alphabet pages that I printed from this website. We sang these songs almost every day for the past 2 years! I have used these with my son who will start kindergarten this fall and my almost-3-year-old daughter knows most of them! But we will continue to sing the songs that tie into Bible stories as well so she can learn the sounds of all the letters.

I am working on making some letter tile pages as well to go in her notebook. These will just be pages with a graphic and the letters to the word in 1-inch boxes. My daughter can then use plastic letter tiles to put on top of the page. We won't do a lot of these, but I thought she might find them fun. I really plan on using these for my kindergartener next year! I hope to get them together in some sort of ebook that will be available for sale on my website. I'll let you know when I get that project done ;)!

Pre-Writing Skills: The next section will be added to as we do each letter. I am going to print out the worksheets from this website, slip them in sheet protectors in her notebook, and have her trace the letters with her finger. This will help her to begin to understand how the letters are formed. Once we have gone through all the letters by tracing with her finger, then I will start her doing these printing readiness worksheets, then these large letters and numbers worksheets. I printed out all these worksheets and placed them in a couple sheet protectors in her notebook to pull out as we need them.

Bible Story & Story Time: For our Bible story and story time, I will include my three youngest children together. I plan on reading a Bible story or two out of one of our favorite Bible story books: 100 Favorite Stories from the Bible, as well as reading out of Everything a Child Should Know About God. I will have each child that is able narrate back to me the story in their own words. After our Bible story, then we will read out of some other books. We have quite a few of the Little Jewel books that the kids like to read, and I plan on incorporating some science related reading as well. We will then end our story time with a song like "Jesus Loves Me" or another kids song.

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That's it! Sound like fun? I will try to post what my plans are for my kindergartener and my soon-to-be 2-year-old as well sometime soon!