Homeschool Basics

Homeschooling during the preschool years can be done in a lot of different ways. Parents can create their own preschool curriculum, or take a more laid back approach.

You don’t need to be planning to homeschool, nor specifically to homeschool preschool. Stay at home parents can easily incorporate some learning during their time at home with preschool aged kids.

Regardless of which approach you choose, homeschooling your preschooler should involve covering some core concepts. You might not need (or want) to send your child off to kindergarten being able to read, but they should at least be meeting basic learning milestones by the time they hit kindergarten age. These homeschool preschool activities will help engage, stimulate, and teach kids aged 3-5.

123s or Numeracy Base Preschool Homeschool Resources

It’s as easy 1-2-3, right? Not always. Teaching young children their numbers and counting can be a little bit more challenging than just repeating some numbers. These lessons go beyond rote learning and help young kids develop a more concrete understanding of numbers and number sense.

A Free Dinosaur Math Printable In A Busy Bag to help children practice both addition and subtraction in an easy and fun way.

Working on numeracy skills is important when creating your preschool level homeschool curriculum. It might start off with the basics, but as you progress you’ll be giving your child vital pre math skills. By providing a solid foundation now you’ll have an easier time moving into more difficult concepts later.

Activities

Printables

Unicorn Number Cards to help kids with counting and writing numbers 1-20.

ABC or Alphabet Preschool Homeschool Resources

Learning the alphabet is step one in the journey towards reading. Even if your homeschool preschool curriculum doesn’t include actually learning how to read, it should have some basic pre reading skills covered.

Once your child learns to recognize the alphabet they can move onto letter sounds and eventually sight words. Focusing on these pre reading skills during the preschool years will make the transition to formal learning easier once your child reaches kindergarten.

Activities

Printables

Reading / Book Recommendations

Besides learning their letters, the single best way to help children learn to read is by reading to them. Studies have even shown that the more words children hear by age 5, the better they do in school. Preschool aged books also include a variety of age-appropriate concepts that help young children learn about the world and their life.

Our reading and book recommendations are carefully chosen for their early literacy or educational value. Children love to be read to, so be sure to include story time in your homeschool preschool routine.

Printable Reading Challenge to help motivate kids to read in a fun and interesting way. This challenge adds variety and excitement to reading for kids who need a little push. Plus free printable bookmarks!

Quiet Time / Busy Bags

By the time they reach preschool age most children can (thankfully) occupy themselves for short periods of time. To help encourage this independent play, put together some fun busy bags for your preschooler to enjoy. They’re also great if you need to buy yourself a few minutes of quiet time to complete chores or care for younger siblings.

Quiet time or busy bags are also great once your preschooler reaches an age where they’re no longer napping. Having a bit of quiet time during your homeschool preschool day will help your preschooler recharge and take a ‘break’ partway through the day.

Art & Crafts

Creativity is an important part of your preschooler’s homeschool day! Try and include a variety of art activities and fun crafts for your child to enjoy. These help build fine motor skills and foster their budding imagination.

You can also include some learning activity into your art and crafts projects. Especially if you’re planning themed or seasonal activities.

Seasonal Activities

Preschool learning, really, is just repeating things over and over. This can become pretty boring if you’re always doing the same activities day to day. By taking advantage of seasonal activities, you can not only give your preschooler more awareness of what’s going on in the world but also help keep them engaged in your homeschool preschool lessons.

You can plan around seasonal holidays that your family celebrate such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, or Valentine’s Day, or just focus on general seasons like Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

Preschool Toys

With play being such an important facet for learning it’s important to be selective about which toys your preschooler can choose from. All of the preschool toys we suggest were chosen as age-appropriate options to help young children work on skills through play.

Important things to consider about your child’s toys are: Do they have an educational value? If so, what is it? All they multi-purpose toys? Do your preschooler’s toys encourage imaginative play? Are there any learning gaps in your toy library that need to be filled?

Preschool themes for the year

Preschoolers can be easily overwhelmed when you try and introduce too much at once. Generally speaking, preschool aged lessons plan and early learning should mostly be play focused and child led. Of course, a little encouragement to learn doesn’t hurt either!

By choosing themed units to study with your preschooler you can better encourage learning on that topic. You’ll be able to focus all your attention and plans on that one theme which means more exposure for your preschooler.

You can create your own themes or purchase a premade bundle of preschool themes for the year so that everything is age-appropriate and easy for you to implement.