Depending upon the age of your preschooler and their personal attention span, actual “school” time will vary for you. At age five, my oldest could sit for a few hours doing her school work, while one of my younger daughters (at five) could barely sit still for five minutes!
Regardless of age, we start each day reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, singing a song, and having family prayer. Even the little ones pick up on the pledge and songs if you include them. After I get the older kids setup with their first lessons of the day, I turn my attention to the younger ones. This is a good age to introduce basic reading and math concepts through games.
Some of our favorites include:
- ABC BINGO
- Color/Shape BINGO
- Sum Swamp
Games are a fun and easy way to teach your little ones. If you allow your little ones on the computer, take advantage of websites like PBSKids.org, where they have dozens of games to help kids learn their numbers, the alphabet, colors and even more advanced topics like geography!
As your children get older, usually around ages 4-5, you can start introducing phonics programs, handwriting workbooks and even math workbooks if you like. Websites like ABC Home Preschool offer easy to use curriculum for more structured preschool learning.
After “official” learning time, our preschoolers enjoyed doing puzzles, coloring and painting, being read aloud to and of course, just playing!
These are the books and products we have used with our own preschoolers.
Life Skills
- 21 Rules of This House
- A Child’s Book Of Manners
Phonics/Beginning Readers
- Lauri Perception Puzzles
- ABC BINGO
- Happy Phonics
- Explode the Code Primer Books
- Easy Learning Workbooks
Handwriting
- Easy Learning Workbooks
- A Reason for Handwriting Kindergarten (for some of my kids – others were not interested in serious handwriting at this age)
Math
- Pattern Blocks
- Color/Shape BINGO
- Sum Swamp
- Easy Learning Workbooks
- Stacking Pegs
History
- I Love America, Volume 1 (for those who enjoyed sitting in with the older kids – this program includes coloring pages for little ones)
- USA placemats and puzzles
- Inflatable globe
At this age, our kids LOVE the globe! Even our youngest (at age 3) was able to memorize where China, Egypt and a few other countries were on the globe – after just a few times of being shown.
Science
At this age, we use worksheets found online to teach about the weather, bugs, dinosaurs and other animals they are interested in.
Art
LOTS of paper, crayons, paint, markers to encourage creativity! We sometimes purchase craft kits from Oriental Trading Co. for extra fun.
Foreign Language
We don’t usually officially start foreign language this young but I do like to introduce basic signs and will also teach the younger ones easy words like Please, Thank You, and Hello in a variety of languages.
PE/Physical Education
Park days, swimming, organized sports, dance, bike riding, walks, and lots of outdoor play keep our kids in shape!
