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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