Homeschool Preschool Curriculum on a Budget

Do you have a preschooler to teach this year? What do you do with your 3 to 4 years old? They are ready to learn. This may mean different things to different people. Learning does not mean that you need to get a stack of books to have your child work through. At this age, hands on learning works the best and is the most fun.

Do you want to list down the best curriculums? Check our Best Homeschool Curriculum blog post for the list of curriculums we recommend.

If you have older children, I find that preschoolers are more eager to learn just like their older siblings. They take pride in working on their own school books, even if it a coloring book. You can take advantage of this, make things fun and keep them engaged. You can instill a life long love of learning. If you take the joy away from discovery, you will get resistance.

Homeschool Preschool Curriculum on a Budget

Anyone who has a preschooler will know that you cannot force them to do anything they don’t want to, nor do you want them to learn that way.

What do you need to teach your preschooler?

I like to focus on the 3Rs (reading, writing, and math) in preschool and then have them follow along with  their an older sibling for other subjects like science. That way they can choose to participate or not, it’s up to them. My preschooler always joins in on our activities or projects.

  1. Decide whether you would like a Christian or secular preschool curriculum.
  2. What do you want to teach your preschooler
  3. How many activities does the curriculum have?
  4. Do you need to gather the materials yourself or does it come with the program
  5. Gather your books and supplies

Look at the curriculum, some curricula cover things that you may have already taught your preschooler such as counting to 20, colors, and the alphabet. If your child already knows a lot of the material they will get bored.

Depending on your student they may not be ready for workbooks, but if they are you can try Rod and Staff ABC series of books (Christian), they’re made with a thicker paper that I like for cutting activities. Another Christian Preschool Curriculum that I reviewed from Blue Manor is really neat and easy to use.

If you child is really into worksheets, you can try Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for a variety of activities for

What Your Preschooler Needs to Know by Hirsch can be a nice guide for you to check off if you’ve taught these skills to your child. It covers everything from songs, poems, shapes, colors to math and science. It’s a great starting off point but you’d have to put together your own curriculum.

You may also want to consider Five in a Row, a curriculum that looks at examining a picture book for 5 days tying math, science, history and language arts all together. I was able to find most of the books at my library, if it wasn’t I was able to get them through their interlibrary loan program.

If you’re interested in the Montessori Method, Teaching Montessori in the Home – The Preschool Years, could be a great resource as I prefer to have a lot of hands on activities in the early years and don’t follow a traditional curriculum.

For some fun science experiments, take a look at Mud Pies to Magnets, for experiment ideas to try with your preschooler.

A good curriculum will use good books and have hands on activities. You can see the posts from my bookspiration club, where I’ve teamed up with other bloggers to share our book based activities.

Don’t feel like you can’t preschool from home, just remember to keep things light and fun and go at your child’s pace.

At this age I think preschoolers would benefit from a morning circle time, take the time to talk about the date, month, season, weather, and sing a few songs, and read. You could easily design your own curriculum as well. Make sure you have crafty supplies so that your child can create whenever they choose to.

Read >>> Must-have Preschool Supplies and Great Preschool Activities.

My favorite preschool blogs where you can find activities and printables

A homeschool preschool curriculum will give your child the chance to experience what homeschool is like, make it fun and make memories.

See the other posts in my Ultimate List of Homeschooling Questions series.

Thinking about homeschooling? Get your questions answered

2 Comments

  1. I think it’s a mistake to wait until a child is 3 or 4 to start learning. You never know what a younger child is capable of that way. We’ve never pushed our 4yo, but she knew her alphabet (upper and lower case, and sounds), shapes, colors, numbers, starting before she was 2. We talked about those things a lot, and she absorbs everything. If I’d waited until she was three, she wouldn’t be learning to read and add now. We still don’t push, she begs to “do school”.

    1. I didn’t mean that they’re not learning beforehand, it’s usually at this time that parents need a formal curriculum that goes beyond the usual counting, alphabet and colors.

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