Hi friends!
If you are interested in or following our homeschool journey, I thought this would be a good place to start. Come September, Willow will be 4 and starting pre-k. The way her birthday falls, she won’t start kindergarten until she is 5 going on 6, but she is very eager to get started. I want to keep things relaxed, but she is pretty insistent on reading. She is constantly asking me what the words in our books say and memorizes them so she can read… so I think it is time for us to dive in. We do read A LOT in this house so I am not surprised in the slightest that she is ready.
We will be focused on mostly language/reading, but I did grab a few other things to start relaxed introductions… but honestly, most of her pre-k experience will be what we have been doing all along – playing, building, crafting, coloring, painting, exploring outside, cooking/baking together, reading stories, etc.
One thing I am going to implement is one or two themes per month so we can base our crafts/library books around the subject. I picked themes based on seasons and what I think she will be interested in. If you want to see the themes, I’ll include after I share the resources I grabbed.
Here are some of the things I have invested in for her first year.
Please know that you do NOT need any of this to homeschool preschoolers. Honestly, you really just need a library card and some art supplies. There are also so many free printouts and resources out there (a simple Google search will prove that). But these are the things that I think will work for our family at this time (along with lots of library books!)
NOTE: This post contains affiliate links, which means that I’ll receive a commission if you purchase from this link. This will not change or increase the cost of your purchase. This extra income provides for my family and keeps The Friendly Fig running strong.
The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level K Primer. This is the only curriculum I bought. I was actually on the fence about it and wasn’t going to start with any curriculum but her determination to read and insistence is strong so here we are. I think this is going to be a game changer (and I hope I am right!)
Stars Wars Phonics & ABCs / Math. I thought this workbook would be fun for my Star Wars-loving girl (#proud). I also have the math in case she is interested. (I grabbed them from Book Outlet for a steal… honestly, always check Book Outlet for workbooks and such! Sometimes you can get up to 50-60% off the Amazon price.)
My First Learn to Write Book. To practice letters/handwriting.
My First BOB Books. This box set was inexpensive for all the good things I have heard. We’ve been working on letter sounds and I think these stories are short, sweet, and just enough.
Magnetic letters. A fun letters manipulative to have for years and years.
Nature Anatomy book. We spend a lot of time outside and both of my girls are in love with all things nature. I grabbed this book as a great resource for us to have in our growing library for years and years to come. I think it’ll be a nice guide for when they want to draw, too.
Puzzles. I grabbed a few educational puzzles to throw in here and there because she is a puzzle queen. The ones I grabbed are: states, continents/oceans, spelling words, and space. I am not teaching geography, history, or science yet, but I think they will just be fun to have for a simple introduction and we will use in the future.
Boggle Jr. Games for learning… yup! Boggle Jr. is a fun way to introduce spelling/reading.
Art supplies. You can never have too many. I stocked up on the following: markers, thin markers, colored pencils, watercolors, paint, brushes, crayons, multicultural crayons, safety scissors, glue, etc.
So yeah, you really need none of the above but again, just some things that I personally wanted to have in our home as we start this journey as a homeschool family. I also went to the Dollar Tree and grabbed so much because… inexpensive and awesome!! If you would like to see that haul, let me know. I can pull a post together!
We are not exclusively working on math this year. She already knows how to count past 30 and we may work on more counting here and there, but I am holding off on this until maybe next year or Kindergarten. If anything, we will just trace numbers and shapes. But we aren’t in a rush for equations just yet.
Now… onto the themes for this year. When I say themes, I really mean we will just be talking about these things on the surface throughout the month, reading stories around the theme, and possibly doing some fun crafts, sensory play, baking or whatever else. No curriculum or workbooks… just conversations and fun.
Themes for our pre-k year:
- September: autumn, apples, & leaves
- October: pumpkins & halloween
- November: outerspace, thanksgiving, & gratitude
- December: giving & christmas
- January: winter, snow, & arctic animals
- February: black history, love, & kindness
- March: dinosaurs, volcanoes, seeds, flowers & dirt
- April: easter, earth day, trees
- May: lifecycles: birds and caterpillars/butterflies
- June: summer, sun safety, & beach
As we go through these themes, I will try to share on Instagram what we are doing in terms of crafts or fun or which books we check out from the library. Or would you prefer a blog post? Let me know if you would be interested in a blog post with this kind of content… leave a comment!
So what will our rhythm be like? I guess we will find out! I am letting her lead since she is still young. I am *thinking* it will be probably 20 minutes or so of the Good and the Beautiful language lessons 2, maybe 3 days a week with everything else sprinkled in as she becomes interested. Reading everyday (business as usual). Again, we do so much learning through living. The other day we watched a bee drinking nectar from a flower in our backyard for 15 minutes… literally. Then she painted a picture of the bee and the flower. We talked about how it uses the nectar to make honey… etc. Then we read The Honeybee (one of our favorite books). This happened naturally and honestly… that in itself is education. Another example: I brought home a book from the thrift store about geology for kids. She picked it up and browsed it for nearly 20 minutes and we talked about birthstones for our family members and now she has been telling everyone their birthstone. Simple stuff from a thrifted book! It is very cool to watch her navigate her interests and ask questions. Little moments like this solidify why we are homeschooling.
Anyways! This is getting so lengthy! If you have stuck around for this long, congratulations. LOL And thank you! I hope that it was insightful and gave you some inspiration. I’ll pull together homeschool posts as I can. If you are interested in more like this, let me know in the comment or on Instagram. I will supply if there is demand! Love you guys. x
