Preschoolers are a rare breed of unicorn, and my sweet Esther is no exception. We are going on our second year of homeschool preschool, and we are continuing to take a very play-based, relaxed approach to preschool. She spends most of her days in dress-up clothes, making up stories, living in another pretend place.
She participates in the family chores and family school as mentioned in my previous post on our daily schedule, but beyond that, I only ask her to do her preschool letter work activity/craft for the day. Often times she wants to be included in our math, given her own tracing practice or “reading” work, but just as many times she just runs off to tend to her imagination. Thus, the list of resources I have included are not things we follow “to a T” at current due to the combinations of ages in our household and my desire to let Esther learn through her own play as well. This list also does not include many screen-based activities, most things are hands-on ideas that involve tools from around the house, arts supplies, books, or printables as we are still trying to minimize screen time somewhat for our kiddos who struggle with “breaking away” from the screens even for learning purposes.
Preschool Curriculums
God’s Little Explorers
I have been using and modifying this curriculum to meet my needs year-by-year since I started some at-home school time with Lydia when she was 2.5 years old. Since then, both CJ and Esther have also enjoyed doing preschool activities with God’s Little Explorers (GLE). What I have always enjoyed about this curriculum is that it starts with the Bible story each week to set the “theme” and then bases the letter and number/shape/color for the week around the Bible story. The repetition of these Bible stories each day allows us to talk about so many different parts of the Bible narrative while also making meaningful connections to their letter work and other learning.
I also love that GLE has SO many different ideas for how to explore each theme. With Esther, I simply pick and choose which activities I have supplies/time for that week while focusing on the letter work and math activities. However, there are a TON of different ideas included each week to extend into art lessons, music study, extra books to read, and daily habit/character building. It’s so helpful to have all these resources grouped per lesson/theme. We often extend to make each week cover 1.5-2 weeks to continue to re-teach letters Esther needs more work on or to spend more time memorizing that week’s Bible verse.
We use GLE right now on a day-to-day basis even with the big kids to determine our Bible story and Bible verse for the week.
You can find God Little Explorers Week-by-Week lessons and blog posts for free here . You can also purchase a digital download of the full curriculum with addition printables and resources here.
Busy Toddler
I have not specifically used the Playing Preschool curriculum created by Susie, the author of Busy Toddler, but I LOVE all of the resources available on her blog and Instagram page. If you don’t already follow her, do it now! She has so many great ideas for easy, fun education activities from sensory bins to sorting to post-it note hunts. I have used so many of her ideas and modified them for Esther’s letter work, name practice, even Lydia’s reading lessons to put a new spin on them.
Homeschool Printables
If you are looking to focus on a letter each week and need more ideas or your kiddo just wants more fun letter worksheets, Homeschool Printables has lots of free preschool level printables for each letter as well as book recommendations for each letter.
Other Resources
Read-Aloud Revival
We all know one of the best things we can do for our kiddos is simply to read together. This is one reason I love Read-Aloud Revival. They have so many great book lists and insightful posts about the best books out there. We are currently reading the My Father’s Dragon series together per their post on “Best First Novels.” Unfortunately, with many public libraries closed getting ahold of these books gets a bit harder, but Amazon has many in paperback at decent prices. And I will always lend out books! So hopefully we can all band together and find a teacher or friend to do drop-offs or swaps of needed books for schooling.
Two Pine Adventure
This resource hits close to home as my amazing sister-in-law, a former elementary education teacher turned homeschool mama, also has her own blog ALL about homeschooling your preschoolers! She has so many awesome ideas for fine motor practice, teaching pre-reading skills, and so much MORE! You can find all her great ideas for free at Two Pine Adventure.
5 Easy Ways to Practice Letters
If all else fails, I often just choose from one of these 5 fun ways to practice letters that are play-based, strengthen pre-writing skills, and Esther always enjoys.
- Water-painting. Write the letter on a chalkboard multiple times in upper and lower case. Have your preschooler use a paint brush and water to trace/remove the letter.
- Play-doh letter making. Give your preschooler a large drawing of the letter on computer paper and have them use play-doh to form the letter. For an addition challenge for kiddos who know their letters well, have them do it without the paper.
- Write in sand. Poor a small amount of sand or rice in a cardboard box lid or other in of choice. Guide your preschooler to forming the letter several times and then allow them to practice on their own.
- Letter puzzles. We love our Melissa and Doug letter puzzle, and we have used it for many activities! Have preschoolers trace the puzzle pieces, find them in a sensory bin, or simply do the puzzle 🙂
- Craft-stick letter building. With letters that are formed with straight lines, use craft sticks to show your preschooler how to build the letter and then let them do it on their own.
There are so many other AMAZING resources out there! But these are our tried and true favorites narrowed down for you! I pray these help you keep little hands busy and little minds working as you spend your time at home these next few weeks!
The Grayt Adventure 