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Homeschool Preschool Ideas (Box Curriculum Alternatives)
Jun 19, 2024
Need homeschool preschool ideas? I'm a big fan of box curriculums, but the first year I homeschooled preschool, I mixed and matched our resources. Watch to learn how it worked for me, plus grab the coupon code you can use in my shop for printable preschool resources. Have any questions? Leave a comment below! RESOURCES FROM THIS VIDEO ➕ Math Workbooks – https://amzn.to/45Xmyrk 🔤 Letter Tracing Workbooks – https://amzn.to/3CrZ00m 📅 Daily Learning Binder Printables – https://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2023/06/2023-2024-prek-daily-learning-notebook.html 📅 Calendar – https://amzn.to/3CqMw99 🔤 Explode the Code – https://www.christianbook.com/page/homeschool/language-arts/explode-the-code?event=AFF&p=1219148 📖 All About Reading – https://www.allaboutlearningpress.net/go.php?id=1699 ✏️ Preschool Printables – https://www.blessedhomeschool.com/shop BLOG POSTS: https://blessedhomeschool.com/my-fathers-world-preschool-curriculum/ *********************************************
View Video Transcript
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I've shared a lot about the preschool curriculum that we're using next year
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and I've had a few questions asking what I think about a more eclectic style for homeschooling
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preschool. So not using a box curriculum, just kind of mixing and matching different resources
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In this video, I'll share my thoughts on this and the different curriculums and resources
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that I used when we homeschool preschool with my twin girls a few years ago. Plus stick around
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until the end and I'll share a discount code with you so you can pick up some resources from my blog
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to use with your preschoolers. Welcome to my channel, Blessed Homeschool. I'm Sarah and I'm
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so happy you're here. Please consider subscribing and sticking around. I love sharing resources
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tips, and encouragement with other homeschool moms. So homeschooling preschool. This year
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I am going to be using a curriculum with my preschooler for a few different reasons. We just
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wrapped up my father's world all aboard the animal train and are moving right along with voyage of
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discovery next year, which I'm really excited about. If you're interested, go check out my
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videos where I share about these two preschool options. But when my twin girls were preschoolers
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I did not use a special preschool curriculum with them. The first year we homeschooled was when my
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oldest son was beginning kindergarten. I had chosen to use my father's world kindergarten
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curriculum with him along with a few other things mixed in. And I honestly felt a little in over my
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head with two preschoolers tagging along. So backing up a bit, I used to teach full time and
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my kids used to attend a daycare slash preschool. Homeschooling was never in the cards for us
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but God had other plans. And to be honest, guys, when we decided to homeschool my son for
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kindergarten, I truly considered keeping my daughters in preschool because I wasn't sure
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that I could handle it. I mean, I could handle teaching high school math, but preschool, what
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a thought, right? Ultimately, praise the Lord, I decided to bring them home with me too. God just
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kept working on my heart, putting the right people in my path and encouraging me. And although I was
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scared that I wouldn't know what to do with these kids all day, I realized that I just missed them
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And I was missing so much time. I was getting a mere couple of hours of time with my kids each
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day, which became more and more crazy to me. Every day I would drop them off to go to work
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and just have this, this tug of war guilt because I missed them. But I never thought
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that I could be a stay at home mom, let alone a homeschooling mom
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So we are now going into our seventh year though, and I can do it and you can do it too. So I had
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decided I would take my son's kindergarten year a bit more seriously and I'd get a curriculum for
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him. And then I would simply pick a few things here and there for my girls to work on, let them
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tag along with us when they could let them play a lot. And I figured how badly could I screw it up
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Spoiler alert. I didn't, they're doing just fine now, even though I didn't use a box curriculum
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for preschool. So what did we do for preschool back then? Okay. Here's an idea of what our
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schedule was like. We didn't follow a strict schedule, but I did have a rhythm to our days
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It was honestly so nice when my kids were little and we didn't have as much going on as we do
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now. After breakfast and getting ready for the day, we would all do a little circle time in the
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living room of my kindergartner and my preschoolers. We would actually use the kindergarten curriculum
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Bible recommendation for this. So this typically was a devotional or a Bible lesson or something
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like that. If you weren't using a curriculum, you could create your own morning basket or choose a
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devotional to use just to get your day started together. So also during that morning time
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we would work on a letter for the week. This was actually part of the kindergarten curriculum too
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And we would learn a new letter, it's sound and a biblical concept that we would work on that week
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After our morning time, we'd move on to our calendar journals. I will leave the link in
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the description for the blog. I got these sheets from my kids really liked working on them each
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day. I downloaded a different one for my preschoolers and one for my kindergartner
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and I put them in page protectors. They could use dry erase markers on some of the pages
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And we worked on tracing letters, identifying numbers, writing their name, things like that
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I also bought a calendar from Amazon that we would use that I hung up in the kitchen, and the kids
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really liked changing the numbers and the weather on it each day. And it helped them learning about
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the days of the week as well. I'll drop a link in the description for this also in case you could
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use something like this. After our calendar time, I would work on anything else in my son's
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kindergarten curriculum with him or work on his reading and spelling. Sometimes the girls would
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follow along with the activities, but if not, I would just let them play for a little bit
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Then my son would take a break and I would work with my girls on these handy little books from
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Explode the Code. These books are great. There are actually three in this Go for the Code series
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A, B, and C, before the kids would move on to Explode the Code. And they're geared for pre-K
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through first grade. They help kids with letter formation and early literacy skills as they trace
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match, copy, and work on fine motor skills and following directions. There is a teacher guide
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to go along with this, but I definitely recommend checking it out to use as one of the resources with
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your preschooler. All right, after all of that, we would usually take a lunch break and then we were
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ready to tackle math. I didn't actually start any math workbooks with my preschoolers until about
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halfway through the year. We were doing that calendar work each day and it wasn't until about
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February or so of our school year that I thought they were ready for something more formal. I tried
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to find the workbooks that I used for this that I bought for them, but for the life of me, I can't
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find them. So I'm going to leave a link for you so you can check those out as well and see what I
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used. Then about a month after that, so maybe around March, so we're well into our school year
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I started my girls on all about reading. They were just ready. So we began level one probably
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around, like I said, around March. So at that point, we were still doing our letter of the week
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our devotional time, calendar work, all about reading, and then our simple addition and
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subtraction math books, and that's it. Now, although I did use a few different resources
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I really liked having that spine of the kindergarten curriculum to follow that we
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were using with my son, even if it wasn't really for my preschoolers. It had a lot of activities
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that we did together that I just probably couldn't have come up with on my own. That's why I personally
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do really like some of the box curriculums because everything is thought out and planned out for you
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and I'm not that great these days, um, planning things like that out. Plus I don't have a lot
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of time to spend on planning and preps. That's one of the reasons that I like them. That's not
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saying that you have to do a bunch of crazy different activities when you homeschool preschool
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If you want to, I think you should keep it informal, keep it fun. Don't spend too much time
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a day on school and play a lot. Your children will learn so much as they play and explore things that
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are new and different to them. They will learn through their interactions with you, other adults
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and other kids as you find fun things to do around your town. So as you're planning out your
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preschool curriculum, and if you absolutely don't want to go the box curriculum route
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here are five things that I would suggest. Number one, read a lot to your preschooler
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picture books, fiction, nonfiction, the Bible. This will help them with pre-reading skills a lot
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Make frequent visits to the library, grab some letter flashcards, work on learning a letter and
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a sound each week, come up with a weekly theme and grab some books to go along with that theme
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Do you want your child to start learning to read and they're ready? Get some letter blocks
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teach them the alphabet song, maybe get a curriculum like all about reading. If you want
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to give it a try. I didn't start all about reading with my son until he was almost six
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My girls were ready a little bit earlier when they were almost five. That's when we began that
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curriculum. Okay. Tip number two, start a daily calendar routine with your preschooler talking
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about the number of the day, learning the months and the days of the week, teach them to identify
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numbers and shapes, count things with them, sort objects into piles, add and take away toys
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sing number songs. You don't need a fancy curriculum to teach math to your preschooler
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If you want to pick up some fun math books and they're ready, go for it. I wanted to, and my girls were ready and willing to learn after seeing what my son got to do in kindergarten. So
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we did it, but I know they would have been fine if we had waited too. You get so much freedom
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to decide how you want to do this in your homeschool. Number three, take your preschooler
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to gardens, to a zoo, to children's museums, take them outside, teaching them all about God's
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beautiful creation. Teach them new things while you visit those places. Homeschooling preschool
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doesn't have to be formal. The fact that your kids are learning and building a relationship
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with you are the important things. Talk to them about the things that you do throughout the day
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Let them help in the kitchen, match socks while folding laundry, teach them how to choose their
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own clothes based on the weather. Let them learn by observing you and being with you. Number four
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begin to work on fine motor skills like cutting and pasting, coloring, create or purchase sensory
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bins, make and play with Play-Doh. There are a lot of free resources you can find online for these
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or you can make your own or get them pretty cheaply. I have some great shapes, Play-Doh mats
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on my blog that I'll link to in the description below that you can grab. And I also have a lot
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of alphabet activities that you can use with your preschooler that you might want to check out
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And number five, finally, get outside with your kids and work on those large motor skills with
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them. Let them run, jump, climb, kick, play, take them to parks, swim lessons, create an obstacle
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course in your yard, whatever. These are great skills for your kids to work on. In addition to
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all the other things that you are teaching them during their preschool years, you can homeschool
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with a curriculum without a curriculum or with a prepackaged box curriculum. If you're here
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watching this video, I know that it means that you care a lot about making sure you're doing
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the right things for your preschooler. So I know that you will by engaging your children
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playing with them, answering questions and exposing them to new things. You're teaching
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them and preparing them for the next state of their education. Thank you so much for watching
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I hope this video is helpful to you. And I do want to share a discount code with you to use on
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any printable in my shop that you might like to use with your preschooler. Use preschool five to
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take $5 off any item at blessedhomeschool.com. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button
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and leave any questions in the comments. We'll see you next time
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