Tips for How to Homeschool Preschool

I never planned on homeschooling my children for any grade level. I happily signed my oldest up for preschool and she attended three days in March of 2020 before you know what occurred and everything shut down. It was at this time when I was forced into homeschooling my daughter for what I thought would be a temporary situation. Fast forward to August of 2021 and I have an entire year of homeschool preschool under my belt as I prepare to homeschool preschool our second daughter. Read below to find out why I am still homeschooling, the curriculum I recommend, and a list of easy homeschool supplies.

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Curriculum

When I first decided to homeschool preschool I would spend hours on Pinterest creating units of study for my daughter to learn. I had no direction, instead, I picked random topics (like shapes). The activities were too hard for her and it stressed me out.

Then in September, I was pregnant and we didn’t want to send her back during a full-blown pandemic when I was able to stay at home and teach her myself. I researched a number of different curriculums and found that many were very expensive, religious-based, and/or focused mostly on workbooks.

Thankfully, I made the smart decision to buy Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool Curriculum. I love, love, love it! It’s easy, inexpensive, and fun. Both you and your child will enjoy homeschool preschool time each day. Plus, the vast amount of knowledge she gained in one year was huge.

At first, I followed the lesson plans to a tee. After a couple of months, I realized that some activities were not advanced enough for her and wouldn’t hold her attention. There were also activities frankly I didn’t want to do (a few crafts). So I started dissecting each unit and rearranging activities to make the lessons best suited to my daughter’s skill levels.

Also, I found that my daughter LOVES completing worksheets. Playing Preschool is not about worksheets at all and I totally get that. But since my daughter really wanted to do them I bought this workbook (the best!!) and this workbook to supplement what she was already learning.

Daily Schedule

You don’t need a fancy homeschool room in your house to be successful. In fact, you don’t need a room at all! We made one wall of my daughter’s bedroom into a preschool space that has worked well for us but you truly don’t even need that.

Read More: Our Affordable Homeschool Preschool Space

Each day we would start after breakfast and begin with the morning songs (provided in the curriculum). Once again I changed a few things to best suit my needs. I did the song about months, then the days of the week song followed by the weather song. At the same time, we completed our calendar for the day.

Next, we would read the book of the day. The book list for each unit is provided in the curriculum but you can always use different books that fit the theme.

Tip: Don’t buy the books, get them from your library! About two weeks before a unit I would place a hold for every book listed for that particular unit and then I almost always received all the books in time.

After reading the book I would have a small dry erase board next to me with the unit’s letter written on it (capitalized and lower case). The student(s) search for the letter in the book you just read.

Then we would complete the activities for the day’s lesson. Some activities do require a small amount of prep work in advance. At night, I like to review the next day’s lesson to see what supplies I should get out and if there is anything I should prepare ahead of time to ensure homeschool time runs smoothly.

Remember, we didn’t complete every single activity. I deleted, modified, and added activities to best suit my daughters’ skills.

Next, I would get out the workbooks and the girls would each do a worksheet or two. This is NOT part of the curriculum! My kids loved the worksheets and for us, the workbooks provided great supplemental learning and review.

We ended the daily lesson with the unit poem and song. I really enjoyed starting and ending each lesson with songs. This is a slight change I personally made which worked great for us.

For the first few months, we also completed a behavior chart at the end of each lesson. My one daughter really struggled, in the beginning, sitting still and listening, and having a reward chart helped immensely. After a few months this tapered off and behavior wasn’t an issue at all. I understand reward charts are very controversial. For us, the chart was a great tool that we only needed to use for a few months.

I would say most days we spent 30-40 minutes in homeschool preschool.

The great thing about choosing to homeschool preschool is you can customize the curriculum to your child and your schedule. This year I am going to try to plan a unit-related field trip each Friday.

Supplies

You don’t need any fancy supplies to succeed at homeschooling your preschooler. The Playing Preschool curriculum gives a great list of what supplies are used in many of the units. Also, each unit specifically lists supplies you will want to have on hand for the various activities. Furthermore, you can adapt activities with different supplies if you don’t have a particular item on hand.

Tip: Before buying any supplies check your home first, you most likely already have many of these items. For supplies you do need to buy, go to your local dollar store first. I also found great school items in the dollar spot at Target.

Here are the supplies I like to have on hand at the beginning of the year;

1″ Binder (for the alphabet letters your child will make)

3″ Binder (for morning songs and printed units)

Sheet Protectors (one for each alphabet letter, one for the morning songs, and I store each unit in a sheet protector)

Construction Paper

Child-Size Scissors

Dot Markers

Dice

Dot Stickers (Busy Toddler is all about the dot stickers)

Paints

Paint Brushes & Paint Cups

Dry Erase Pocket Sleeve

Dry Erase Markers

Paper Plates

Cotton Balls

Q-tips

Googly Eyes

Glue

Glue Stick

Roll of White Craft Paper

Playing Cards

Yarn

Tape

Masking Tape

Post-its

Sand Timer

Stickers (for a job well done)

Squirt Bottle

Tip: Hand sanitizer works great at erasing stuck on dry erase marker.

I’m very excited to homeschool preschool again this year. But I hope it’s the only grade level I will ever teach from home. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!