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Top 10 Preschool Homeschool Curriculum Stellar Choices
A preschool homeschool curriculum is designed for children from the ages of 2 to 5 years old. All such curriculum options need to have learning goals that suit the child’s developmental age and specific activities that will help the child accomplish the goals. If you plan to homeschool your child, you will be glad to know that you are in great company! In 2016, around 1.7 million children were homeschooled, which is nearly double from 2009.
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Most preschool homeschool curriculums have timelines for activity and learning competition. This can create a structure around the learning process and help the parent keep track of the progress. Since the age of preschool includes really young children of 2 to 5 years old, the curriculum needs to cater to a large range of skill and age levels.
As you will see below, the best curriculum will provide a strategy for you where you can modify activities and ideas based on the child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Being the curious cat that I am, I decided to do some research on the best preschool homeschool curriculum. I have rounded up my top 10 choices for the best preschool homeschool curriculum for your consideration.
Before I get into the top choices that you can pick out, you should understand how preschoolers learn and what you need to look for in a curriculum.
Preschoolers and Learning
The primary tool that young children use to learn is through play. Playing as a learning mechanism has been well-researched and documented as an instinct of humans that enables kids to perform in real scenarios. Play-centered learning can help children polish their social and problem-solving skills, become physically agile, and increase vocabulary.
Another tactic is through practical exploration, which can be done through sensory play. It is when you use different materials and tools to engage with the physical environment around you. It can help improve gross and fine motor skills as well as help to build critical thinking.
To complete developmental learning goals to their full potential, all children must have time to devote to sensory exploration and play. These learning experiences allow them to be active and are crucial for the development of early childhood.
What a Preschool Homeschool Curriculum Should Include
When you are looking for a great preschool homeschool curriculum, you should make sure that the programs include some vital skills that all kids need.
Language and Literacy
Literacy and language skills should not be overlooked. Reading out loud to the child can help them develop their own literacy and language skills. When kids are watching you read, they learn how letters can turn into words, how words have a meaning, and which direction the text moves in.
You need to look for any curriculum that encourages storytelling and literature. While preschoolers don’t require any formal program for phonics, a program that instructs them on letter recognition and sound through stories, rhyming, songs, and poems can be a good idea.
Math
Before children begin breaking down arithmetic and algebra, they need to learn basic math concepts like comparison and quantity. A curriculum that helps children explore concepts through practical activities can help. Such activities should include categorizing, sorting, comparing, number recognition, patterns, shapes, understanding one-on-one correspondence (the realization that “two” represent two items).
Learning basic colors doesn’t sound like a mathematical skill, but it can be important when you need to categorize and sort. Learning about concepts like tomorrow/today/yesterday and night/morning and the months and days in the week is vital.
Fine Motor
Fine motor skills are still in the process of being honed by children. A curriculum that can help them develop these skills by cutting, coloring, stringing beads, pasting, tracing shapes, or building blocks can be quite great.
Top Preschool Homeschool Curriculum
I have researched various preschool homeschool curriculums and summarised the top 10 choices for preschool homeschool curriculum for you. You can choose any of the ones below according to your preferences and needs. Here is a full review of each curriculum in detail. I hope this helps you make an informed choice in choosing the best homeschool option for your preschoolers.
1. Oak Meadow Preschool Homeschool Curriculum
Oak Meadow has been providing support and curriculum programs since 1975. They are known for their exemplary distance learning and independent use programs starting from preschool and K-12. Families will receive full support, record keeping, and evaluation methods to ensure that they are at the top of their game.
The Pre-K pack includes the following materials:
- The Heart of Learning
- Learning Processes
- Toddlers Sing CD
- Beeswax Crayons
- Watercolor Paint Kit
The preschool homeschool curriculum is quite imaginative and creative, ensuring that the child’s attention can be kept focused on the activities. It takes the family through the fundamentals that you need to touch upon for learning to take place. The curriculum uses holistic techniques such as nature walks, finger play, singing, morning circles, sand play, bedtime rituals, and storytelling to appropriately teach your child. You can also create rhythms that facilitate learning for the child.
When you establish a daily routine for the child through the curriculum, you will help them learn faster. This is why Oak Meadow has broken down the curriculum into a routine for the child. While kids usually need the freedom to explore and learn, parents need to make sure that they reign in their kids from time to time too. Letting them expand as they please can make them tired and irritable, which is why contracting them by having a planned activity can be crucial.
Here is how the schedule is divided:
- Breakfast
- Circle time
- Shared experiences
- Creative play
- Lunch
- Shared experiences
- Creative play
- Evening meal
- Creative play
- Bedtime ritual
The schedule alternates between expansion activities such as creative play and contraction activities such as meal times and bedtime rituals. This creates a rhyme for the child that they can follow and not get too tired by.
During creative play is where a lot of learning takes place. You can incorporate activities like playing with water and sand, building blocks, drawing or painting, and even clay modeling. This allows the child to get in touch with their inner impulses and can strengthen how they express their innate abilities in the physical environment. On the other hand, contraction activities can also serve to teach crucial motor skills and help to develop their personality.
Overall, the curriculum is very intuitive, addresses the child’s needs, and covers a lot of different learning goals.
2. Sonlight Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
Sonlight has an Exploring God’s Word program for children ages four to five. It includes relaxed learning activities, interactive discussions, and picture books.
The preschool homeschool curriculum includes the following resources:
- Preschool Parent’s Companion
- Family-Time Bible in Pictures
- 2 Electives
- 20 read-aloud books
- Crayons
- Child-safe scissors
- Construction paper
The program comes with a guide that can help you design weekly schedules to use the required materials and activities in the right way. You can improve the reading skills of your kids through the books in the program. The books incorporate different activity pages and styles: comprehensive, motor, auditory, and visual. The books also have explanatory pages with instructions, answer keys, and auditory scripts that can help parents get the most out of the program.
The activity pages are quite helpful in allowing the child to learn between different sounds between words like from and form as well as number and letter recognition, event sequencing, meanings of prepositions, and grouping items like completing mazes and continuous lines.
The read-aloud books can help build a great foundation of learning and reading for the child. It also has CDs that can give you a break from reading. There are books for language arts, science, world cultures, and Bible instruction.
The program offers at least six activities for the week that tie into the books provided. For example, there is a nursery rhyme called the Old King Cole, where kids can also dress up like a king. The activity involves making a costume and dressing up. In Things People Do, there is a section on doctors where children can learn about body parts and personal care too.
The instructor’s guide includes activities that can develop your mathematical skills too, such as comparison, counting, recognizing numbers, and one-on-one correspondence. Using basic art supplies and other items, you can make sure that the children have a fun and creative way to learn.
Homeschooling does mean that the parent has to offer plenty of time towards reading aloud and activities, but you can use activities that don’t need too much time too. The program uses real books rather than heavy and academic materials to teach the kids.
It is quite a fun and family-friendly program, but it focuses a lot on the reading materials instead of other creative play activities. It is a Christian learning program, so if you want to incorporate biblical learning into your kid’s development, this is the best choice for you.
3. Mother Goose Time Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
The Mother Goose Time program is a holistic curriculum that incorporates many different themes that can help your child develop in many ways. This includes resources and tools for literacy, math, movement, music, science, art, and social tools. Mother Goose Time is a thematic monthly subscription that offers early learning at home through cognitive, language, physical, social-emotional, and play development.
Phonic and letter materials allow you to use new and sight words. With this syllabus, the preschoolers will be able to understand the entire alphabet as well as have an introduction to sight words. The reading comprehension and print materials mean that you receive new storytelling and books with character pieces that the children can play with. The vocabulary and communication come with vivid, bright-colored photos along with games.
Children will also get to make use of emergent writing materials that can help them develop fine motor control and eye-hand coordination. Monthly games, painting projects, postcards, and journals can help them excel at their writing skills. For math skills, it can help the child to self-check through number cards, number sets, plastic counters, and math story cards. This helps to develop problem-solving skills, sort, and count.
Logic and reasoning materials can help the kids learn through constructing and building with shapes. The Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) resources are added throughout the curriculum, which can be super great for kids.
The best part about this preschool homeschool curriculum is that it uses many different techniques and methods that can help your children to learn. The art expression and creative thinking aspects of the curriculum can be great for the kids. Dance, movement, rhythm, and music, for example, can give them an opportunity to explore different innate abilities.
Since you get new resources every month, trying out new themes can be quite fun for you and the children. Changing it up can make the children interested in learning too.
4. Time4Learning Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
Time4Learning is designed for parents who want to homeschool their children and incorporates science, math, language arts, and social studies. It uses the CompassLearning Odyssey® system, which is an interactive, online education system that can make learning easier. It is used in many traditional schools, but Time4Learning has developed it for homeschoolers too.
Parents pay a monthly subscription fee to receive the curriculum. You will have an online account where you can set up assignments and lesson plans as well as record the progress of the student. All of this can be printed out so that you don’t have to login every time. You also have the option of using default courses that can make your job easier as well as go for specific courses and customize the assignments and lessons.
The courses incorporate animation, responses, activities, images, and text to help you teach the child. Some courses are slow and repetitive so that the student can practice them carefully, while others are fast-moving to keep them entertained. The teaching and graphics are adapted to the age of the kids as well as the content.
The main work of a preschooler is to play, and you can use this curriculum to incorporate learning into their play time. The students will have an opportunity to experiment with different forms of learning by turning your home into an educational playground. Parents can set up a center of learning in many ways. For example, costumes for social studies and sand and water play for science.
To build their pre-math and pre-reading skills, you can do multiple activities like finding patterns, learning counting, rhyming words, measuring and mixing ingredients for recipes.
The language art section is divided into many fun themes like constellations, travel, cultural holidays, and more to help your child experience the world in a fun way. Each theme includes activities that can help them develop their communication and vocabulary.
The math program involves some great learning goals that can get your child interested in math in a fun way. By the end of the curriculum, the student should know how to make comparisons, one-on-one correspondence, recognize numbers, create event sequences, and distinguish between 3-D and 2-D shapes.
The science section is broken down into physical science, life science, and earth/space science. It helps them understand the physical world around them as well as beyond them. The activities and learning tools in the preschool homeschool curriculum make it easier for you to explain the world to them too.
5. My Father’s World Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
My Father’s World is a Christian-based curriculum designed to offer learning adventures based on themes that can help guide your child in a holistic way. The parent and child can explore the world of God through read-alouds, science projects, hands-on activities, music, art, math, and Christian messaging. The curriculum pack contains all the necessary materials that you can use for a whole year of learning.
There are two main parts of the My Father’s World curriculum: bible integration and hands-on activities. The children will be able to learn more about the amazing world they reside in as well as experience love for the Creator of the world. The Bible stories and activities help the children develop practical and useful life skills that they will hone every day. You can be rest assured that they will develop a complete Christian character that can help them navigate through life easily.
The program offers a complete range of skills such as academic reading skills where they can enjoy learning about numbers and alphabets. They will also learn about the community they live in and how systems work. The best activities are designed around making scientific discoveries that can help them fine-tune their motor skills and improve their cognitive skills.
The biblical concepts aren’t too heavy and are designed for their age. This can help them learn about God’s truth and creation in a dynamic way that can encourage them to be more open to the world.
The program includes a teacher’s manual that can be quite helpful for parents when it comes to making assignments and schedules. The gentle approach of the program is the perfect way to get kids interested in learning. The addition of themes like classical music and fun activities that go along with book time can help develop some crucial skills in the child.
Parents don’t have to waste a lot of time prepping the materials since the course does it all for you. The course materials often overlap history, Bible studies, science, and other skills into one go. For example, one week, you will be learning about Robert Fulton, who developed the steamboat and then the Wright Brothers, who invented the airplane. The parallels in the read-aloud books can help you teach your child different things in one go.
Some parents do suggest that there isn’t enough math learning. The curriculum adds math skills around halfway through, and it may not be enough for some parents. The same can be said about the handwriting practice part. When you are using My Father’s World curriculum, you may want to add more math and handwriting skills to the schedule.
6. WinterPromise Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
The WinterPromise curriculum is surprisingly broad and can be quite fun. WinterPromise uses the Charlotte Manson approach. This approach puts a heavy focus on using “living books” or high-quality literature to teach students. Manson also believed that education should focus on the entire being instead of just the mind which is why you need to incorporate outdoor exploring, music, art, nature, journaling, dictation, and more. The curriculum is based on the same approach but divides the curriculum into themes instead of unit studies. There is a mixture of books from WinterPromise itself and others as well as different math programs, workbooks, and texts. With interactive digital programs through CDs and DVDs, hands-on projects, and fun activities, the multi-level study program can be quite rewarding.
The preschool homeschool curriculum includes the Journey of Imagination for literature and I’m Ready to Learn for science, language, math, etc. Every curriculum also comes with the guidebook, which includes details on how to use all the materials provided. It has supply lists, daily lesson outlines, and other schedules. You can also use it for record-keeping.
There are some workbooks and activity books too where children can learn through reading, writing, drawing, and other arts and crafts. All the books are based on themes such as the Children Around the World, where students can label and
Bible study from the Protestant world view has also been included in the themes. Some of the books are secular, but all of the themed ones have the Protestant view incorporated naturally. The language program is also quite comprehensive, covering readings, phonics, vocabulary, spelling, writing, communication, composition, and grammar. It starts with instruction that you can do one-on-one since a preschool student needs instruction but then moves on to slightly more difficult levels where not much instruction is needed. This helps students transition towards a higher level of learning.
The World Around Me book introduces the students to concepts like light,
The WinterPromise curriculum is made for 36 weeks of study with a schedule of four days a week. The last working day can be used for reading, extended activities, field trips, and catching up on the preschool homeschool curriculum for the following week. Don’t worry, though; the prep work doesn’t take much time at all since everything is outlined for you and coded based on difficulty.
7. Horizons Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
The Horizons Preschool curriculum set includes 2 student workbooks with worksheets, music CDs, 2 manuals for teachers, and a resource packet. The curriculum covers an era of subjects, including social studies, Bible, science, math, language arts, reading, writing, colors, shapes, music, and more. The student books have colorful and simple activities that children can do to learn. The design of the book is to infuse learning through art and crafts so that the child has a fun time learning about the world.
The teacher manual for each student book comes with 180 ready lesson plans. This means that there isn’t much preparation that you have to take care of as a parent. This makes your life easier and gives the child a guided plan for learning. In the manual, you also learn key elements that can make you a better teacher for the child, including:
- Understanding young children
- Environment of schools
- Classroom environment
- Determining the type of program you want to give
- Different components of the program
- Lesson structure of the program
- Things you have to do before class starts
- Suggestions for scheduling
All of this keen insight can help you and your child in the long run. The program is designed for 5 days a week, from Monday to Friday. If you want to reduce the study time to three days a week, it is possible to also follow the first, third, and fifth outlined lesson for the week and still cover everything.
The music CD doesn’t have to be confined to just the home. You can listen to it in the car with your kids when you are going about your day. Most young children enjoy music, and learning at the same time can just be a bonus point. The CD has 17 songs as well as sing-along instrumental versions that help the child hone their rhythm, tone, and new vocabulary.
The resource packet includes an ABC puzzle, memory verses, and flashcards. All of these are designed to increase vocabulary, alphabet recognition, and develop their language skills. The lessons also have fun activities that center on creative cooking, field trips, outdoor activity, safety, health and a whole lot more. The holistic learning that your child will receive will ensure that they are never bored with schoolwork and are happy to dig into the lesson plan for the day.
The Horizons preschool homeschool curriculum is Bible-based, meaning that every lesson will begin with reading Scripture and Bible stories. The science and social studies lessons are part of the Bible time; the curriculum doesn’t include separate lessons for them. The child gets to learn phonics, language arts, math, and other subjects through games and fun activities. It can be a bonding time for the parent and child as well as an educational experience.
8. BookShark Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
BookShark‘s curriculum includes grid-charts and lesson plans for everyday learning. It is modeled after the Sonlight curriculum but is a non-religious version of it. The stories of the Protestant faith and missionaries are replaced with stories of Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela.
The core package of the Sonlight preschool homeschool curriculum consists of reading, language arts, Bible, and history but BookShark offers Reading with History for preschool. There are many improvements to the language arts program since it has scripts for daily lesson plans, rubrics, and weekly overviews. This allows the parents to be better able to guide and evaluate the work of the students. The BookShark program is a four-day program, unlike the five days of Sonlight.
The instructor guide has a daily plan that can make the best use of the 25 books that come with the package. The Kid’s Beginner World Atlas, which can be quite fun, introduces the students to the large world with colorful pictures, stories, cities, streets, and history.
The read-aloud books are the building blocks of the entire curriculum and includes many fun stories like Babe the Gallant Pig and Winnie the Pooh. This can help spark their creative side and make their communication skills stronger. Dr. Seuss’s ABC can even help your child recognize and learn the different unique sounds of each alphabet.
The science section has been changed from the Christian worldview. It now holds different sections about the ocean, animals, plants, weather, seasons, and much more. The math section starts from Week 11 and includes hands-on activities that can help build a solid foundation for the child. It includes classes on shapes, numbers, and patterns. It takes the child through recognition, then counting, and then introduces them to addition and subtraction.
The early learner series by BookShark aims to develop four main abilities in the child:
- Motor skills such as eye movements, mazes, right-left tracking, and hand-eye coordination
- Visual skills such as spatial orientation, ground-figure distinction, memory, and similarities
- Auditory skills include rhyming, memory, and similarities
- Comprehension skills include awareness, language, sequence, and categories.
There is also an optional art book that you can get called the Child’s Book of Art for parents that want to include more arts and craft into the schooling. Doing art can also help hone motor and visual skills as well as help them learn about shapes and colors. Art is a very important teaching tool.
Overall, the BookShark is based on Sonlight but has many improvements on the course material. If you want the Protestant faith introduction for your child, sticking to the original Sonlight can be a good idea for you.
9. The Homegrown Preschooler Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
The Homegrown Preschooler have launched their preschool homeschool curriculum called the A Year of Playing Skillfully, which focuses on child development and learning through play. The curriculum helps you develop learning centers in your home by taking real kitchens, gardens, bookshelves, and other places in the home as the basis of learning. The Homeschool Preschool is a practical and truly delightful book with illustrations and photos that can make it a truly joyful experience to learn.
Studies show that preschoolers learn the best way through experimental and hands-on learning since they learn through play instead of heavy academic learning. This is what the A Year of Playing Skillfully is designed to do. It turns preschool education into an individualized curriculum for every individual child and family.
You will first go through the first few chapters to learn about age-appropriate learning and child development that can be adapted for each child. The book takes into account the child’s personality and learning capabilities, which is why it is quite successful among parents with autistic children as well.
The book outlines helpful tips for organization, housekeeping, tantrums, potty training, and other realities in life that can be turned into a teaching moment. It even has recipes for meals, sample schedules, and fun activity suggestions like art dough.
The first nine chapters outline different learning activities that you can begin to incorporate into the child’s life. The second half of the book focuses on specific learning such as fine and gross motor skills, science, home life, math, literacy, art, sensory learning, social-emotional learning, and language. It does have different ideas in a list that you can choose from. This gives you more control and choice over the schedule, and you can decide what is best for your child and situation.
Don’t worry. If you want everything planned out for you, you shouldn’t worry. The A Year of Playing Skillfully includes a one-year program with lesson plans. It has monthly charts and printables that you can use as guidelines and record keeping. Every month has a character trait and theme that can create structure around the learning. For example, March has a character trait of patience, and the theme is Rhythm and Rainbows.
There is a huge variety of activities, so you don’t have to worry about running out. All of them are set in different scenarios, such as in groups or alone, outdoors or indoors, and supervised or independent. There is an Activity Checklist that you can use to track and plan activities. Resource lists can help you keep track of educational supplies and help you get books, apps, blogs, and books that can enrich the program.
10. Before Five in a Row Preschool Homeschoool Curriculum
Before Five in a Row is a preschool homeschool curriculum by Five in a Row. The curriculum is designed for children from the ages 2 through 5 years. It includes a rich selection of creative ideas and picture books that can help you prepare the child for the coming years of learning.
It is divided into two parts, where Part One includes hundreds of activities and ideas based on 24 books. The books include classics such as Caps for Sale, The Snowy Day, The Runaway Bunny and Katy No-Pocket. Part Two has specific ideas that can help parents develop a learning program every day, simple activities. It incorporates ideas for grocery stores, kitchen, bedtime, and bath time. Hence, the curriculum combines academic learning with hands-on activities to facilitate learning for your child.
The preschool homeschool curriculum comes with plenty of other resources that can make it quite fun for your child to learn. The Animal Classification Cards can make classification simple and enjoyable. The Story Disks are based on the picture books that you can use as an aid for geography lessons in the Storybook Map. For example, you are learning about Madeline, who lived in Paris. You and your child can go to the world map and find France and put the Madeline disk in place.
The literature package offers plenty of titles included in the Before Five in a Row curriculum. It can be quite convenient since everything is online on the Rainbow Resource Center, but you can also shop for the physical books on Amazon.
The Fold and LearnTM method helps you combine hands-on activities with learning opportunities. There are many artworks, games, and a whole lot more included in this section. The child can hone their motor, visuals, and practical skills by sharing, talking, handling, reading, stacking, sorting, pasting, gluing, cutting, and folding. Each unit is unique, and your child can get creative with how they put it together. There is no wrong answer when it comes to art!
Conclusion
The preschool years can be quite crucial for any child since they do most of their basic learning during these years. The foundation they form right now will impact their learning in the years to follow. Each of the preschool homeschool curriculums above is designed to make sure that your child has the basic tools they need to develop. They equip parents with the necessary resources to create a structure around learning at home. Any of the above curriculums can be good for your child; it all depends on your preferences and needs on which one you think is best for you.
All The Best With Choosing Your Preschool Homeschool Curriculum!
Ashley Yeo
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