So you want to homeschool preschool, but you have no idea where to start?
Children this age are eager to learn and their understanding of the world around them is growing quickly. Being the one to guide your child through this part of their development is extremely rewarding.
Let’s discuss how to make sure your four to five year old is prepared for kindergarten, what things a child this age should be learning, and what your biggest focus should be.
How To Homeschool Preschool
Great news! If you live in the United States, there are currently no compulsory school laws for preschool. That means all you need to do is jump right in and start. What you should research, though, is when compulsory school laws begin in your state. Most states start around age five or six. To learn more about the homeschool legal requirements in your state visit HSLDA at https://hslda.org/legal .
It is never too early to research the formal homeschool requirements for your state or to find out if there are certain expectations for a child entering kindergarten in public school in your state. For example some common expectations might be that the child be fully potty trained, know the letters of the alphabet, know colors, and count to a certain number. If you intend to place your child in public school for kindergarten, this information will help you prepare them for success. If you have a child with special needs and are concerned that they may not be able to meet common expectations of students entering kindergarten, you can always go to your local school board and discuss what support they have for children with special needs.
Of course, if you are planning to homeschool, it will be up to you where you want your child to be in their education journey entering kindergarten.
Keeping records at this age is not really necessary, but it doesn’t hurt to make a list of skills that you want your child to learn by the time they start formal education.
Making A Homeschool Preschool Schedule
The majority of what a preschool aged child learns at this age can be taught through play. Your child likely is learning a lot about the world around them by mimicking the behavior they see in you and others in their life.
My youngest daughter loves to try to wash dishes or get a small piece of yeast dough and roll it out on the counter. Both of these things teach life skills, problem solving, and fine motor skills. But to her it is just fun.
A lot of a child’s learning is done by playing out the things they see. Play builds their imagination, their creativity, their independence, their motor skills, and their understanding of the world. Play will naturally help to prepare a child for their elementary years.
When you are building a homeschool preschool schedule, be sure to allow for a lot of free play time. Children at this age need plenty of time to move their body. Sitting at a table for long periods of time will lead to frustration for both you and your child, so keep your structured lessons short. The average attention span for age four is 5-20 minutes and the average for age five is 10-25 minutes. Boys often have shorter attention spans than girls.
If you find it hard to accomplish all you need to in one session while still holding your child’s attention, try breaking the sessions up. For example: if you plan to work on letters, numbers, cutting out shapes, colors, and want to read three books you could break it up this way.
- Read a book while child eats breakfast
- Go for a walk and ask child to collect a certain number of leaves
- Give your child an hour of free play
- Sit down and work on letters for 5-10 minutes
- More free play time
- Read second book while eating lunch
- After lunch make a craft that includes cutting construction paper/discuss colors being used and add in more counting of items used in the craft
- Nap if needed
- More free play
- Read third book before bed
It is that simple. A preschool schedule does not have to be difficult and by working on several skills at once we have greatly reduced the structured teaching time needed. This type of schedule will work well for most children.
There are, of course, some children who love structured learning. If your child expresses interest in more or longer teaching sessions that is fine too. Just remember that even children who love this type of learning have their limits.
What Should I Teach My Preschooler?
One of your main goals when you homeschool preschool should be to prepare your child for kindergarten. Whether you intend to carry homeschooling into elementary school or not, there are certain skills that will better prepare your child for there first day of elementary school.
There isn’t a lot that a child needs to know going into kindergarten, but the following is a list of skills that it is helpful for them to have mastered.
- Know all of the letters of the alphabet
- Know the difference in the upper case and lower case letters and be able to match them
- Know the vowels: a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y
- Know the main letter sound for each letter (you don’t need to teach the long vowel sounds or secondary letter sounds yet)
- Be able to count to 20
- Recognize and be able to name common colors such as red, yellow, green, blue, and purple
- Recognize and be able to name common shapes such as circle, square, triangle, and rectangle
- Color in the lines reasonably well (it doesn’t have to be great, just help your child learn to recognize the lines as a boundary to stay in – this will help with learning penmanship later on)
- Cut paper following simple lines with their scissors
- Write their name (I do not teach this in preschool because I prefer to not start a lot of letter formation until kindergarten. However, if you do intend to send your child to school rather than homeschool, you should know it is often expected that the child be able to do this coming into kindergarten.)
If you have a child who has mastered all the above and you think they are ready for more of a challenge, this is a list of some other things you can work on.
- Start blending two letter sounds (vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel), then progress to three letter words such as: cat, rat, sat.
- While I am not a huge proponent of teaching reading mainly by sight words, it is helpful to teach a few of the common ones right now such as: the, as, in, so, there, ect.
- You can also teach a child this age simple math problems such as: 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 2+3=5. (Be sure to teach these with objects called math manipulatives; math manipulatives can be anything you can count such as popsicle sticks, dry beans, toy cars, gummy bears – whatever you can find. Using math manipulatives will help your child visualize what they are learning and how math actually works.)
How To Teach Fine Motor Skills To My Preschooler
Fine motor skills are necessary for a child to have good penmanship and not something you want to forget when you homeschool preschool.
If you look up an x-ray of a three year-old’s hand verses a six year-old’s hand you will see a huge difference in the maturity of the bones. A three year-old’s bones in there hands are not fully fused together. For this reason hand writing should not be started too early or a child will likely develop bad habits due to the lack of ability to properly hold a pencil.
There are a lot of activities that will help strengthen a child’s hand muscles and prepare them for writing. This is a list of a few good fine motor activities for preschool children.
- playing with playdoh and modeling clay (even if they just squeeze it)
- playing in sand or dirt (you can even make a busy bin with kinetic sand and little construction vehicles)
- stringing large beads on a shoe string
- putting together puzzles
- cutting or tearing paper
- gluing paper
- squeezing stress balls or squishies
- playing with small toys like cars and trucks
- dressing a doll
- buttoning clothes
- using zippers
- art such as coloring, painting, finger painting, and drawing
- building with blocks that stick together
What Types Of Books Should I Be Reading To My Preschooler?
Reading is extremely important to the development of pre-k children and should be a main part of your homeschool preschool curriculum. It helps them develop language skills, vocabulary, and learn about the world around them. Studies show that a child is two to three times more likely to read at grade level if their parents read to them at least three times a week.
So what books should you be reading? Most children this age will not be able to follow a chapter book. However, the more you read to your child the better they will get at listening and following stories.
Story books with rhyming verse are great for preschoolers. They help to keep a child’s attention, are fun, and introduce them to rhyming which is a skill they will learn in kindergarten.
If your child has a particular interest, try to find books on that topic.
Story books that teach children life skills, social skills, obedience, and self control are also great options.
To learn more about the importance of reading and get great book suggestions, visit Sarah Mackenzie at https://readaloudrevival.com/ .
How To Deal With Frustration When Homeschooling Preschool
School at this age should be fun. The attitude you have towards it, and the attitude you encourage your child to have towards, it will make a big difference in how your child approaches learning. When you or your child experience frustration with something, it is good to take a break instead of trying to push through.
Eventually, as your child gets older, there will be times you will have to encourage your child to push through frustration. Doing so at this age, however, will often only cause tears and a negative viewpoint of learning.
If you are getting frustrated it is also better to take a break or come back to it another day. Your child will pick up on your frustration and will become discouraged. Every child learns at their own pace. This is preschool. The most important thing is consistency – not how many pages you did or how many sounds they learned in a day.
Have Fun!
Preschool age children are so fun to teach! They are excited for learning and at this age you only have a few skills to work on and the rest can be doing crafts, reading books, playing games, exploring nature, and learning about whatever your child is interested in. Developing your child’s love of learning during this age will help to set them up with a positive attitude towards it through the rest of their life.
You can homeschool preschool and have an amazing time with your child doing it!
If you would like information on homeschooling preschoolers age two to three check out this blogpost https://livingholisticmotherhood.com/quick-guide-to-homeschooling-preschool-ages-two-to-three/ .
