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We’re almost finished with our preschool year and I wanted to take a chance to share what has been working for us. As, I would venture to guess a lot of homeschool moms do, I maybe overcommitted at the beginning of the school year. But, I mean, I’ve been dreaming and waiting to homeschool for literal years, so can you really blame me? Pretty early on, with a newborn in hand, I realized I had bit off more than we could chew and paired down the curriculum. And honestly, we were all better for it!
Ultimately, after culling through my original curriculum plans, this is what was left and what we have stayed consistent with this year.
01. A beefed up morning time
My sons and I have enjoyed a simple morning time basket together for a couple years now, and I thought as my oldest entered preschool it was an opportunity to be a little bit more intentional about what I included in it. Our non-negotiables for morning time will always be Bible, hymn, Scripture memorization, and poetry. I just can’t convey the value all four of those elements bring to a child’s life! In addition to these I continued looping through other living books including folk tales, fairy tales, and picture books, but I tried to be much more intentional about the ones I was choosing. Several of the books we’ve been reading through together came from Ambleside Online’s Year 0 booklist (which I can’t recommend enough!). I also switched out the Jesus Storybook Bible that we were using to the Gospel Story Bible, which is maybe a level up in comprehension. Lastly, we just recently started our first chapter book together (Charlotte’s Web), and have been making our way through that.
02. Letter sounds and early reading
I’m not sure how to explain this without really getting into…but I’ll just say this: I don’t feel, or want to put, any pressure on my son to be an early reader. My personal opinion is that in these early years, time spent outdoors, forming good habits, building relationships is just exponentially more important, so that’s where we are focusing our attention right now. That being said, I’ve begun a simple curriculum to begin learning letter sounds and some very early/foundational reading skills such as phonemic awareness. We are using Gentle Lessons in Letters and Sounds by A Gentle Feast (a Charlotte Mason based curriculum). This take absolutely no longer than 7-10 minutes a day, and honestly we really only do it about 3 times a week. Maybe sometime soon I can write up my review on it, but it has been a wonderful resource for us!
03. Foundational math games
We have been making our way through Kate Snow’s Preschool Math at Home, and it has been amazing! The lessons are game-based, no longer than 10 minutes long, and built upon each other. Again, we’ve really only been doing these about 3 times a week but my son always looks forward to our “counting game!”
04. Nature study
Aside from reading our Bible, I don’t think anything is as important as spending time out of doors for young children, and I’ve really tried to put my money where my mouth is with that in my priorities this year. We’ve been able to establish a morning routine that works for our whole family in which the boys go outside to play right after breakfast, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for 2, until my baby takes his morning nap and that’s when I call them in for our homeschool work. Then usually we’re outside again after lunch, and then sometimes again before dinner. Its not fancy, just digging, bike riding, sword fighting, picking/planting flowers, bubbles, balls, trucks, going on a walk…whatever it takes for them to be outside. This year we also started a Nature Study Co-op with a couple other families that meets every other week at a different park or nature preserve. I’d love to share more about this soon!
05. Habit forming
Okay, this is where I would say I’ve kind of dropped the ball (oops!). I had big intentions and the newborn phase/moving into our house kind of chewed us up and spit us out. But, the school year isn’t over yet and I haven’t given up! We’re just beginning to focus more on building intentional habits – our first being the habit of obedience. Our family decided that after about 6-8 weeks of working hard on building a habit we’re going to have a little family celebration before moving on to the next, cake and all! This weekend we had our first celebration (yay!) and next week we’ll focus on establishing a new habit. At this age, it’s absolutely not mastery that I’m looking for, and honestly its not mastery that I’m getting, haha. But some days there are more “Yes, Mama”s instead of “No!”s, and that has been wonderful to see.
06. Life skills and special experiences
Lastly, this isn’t a formal curriculum or anything, but I’ve truly been intentional in this preschool year to give my son(s) experiences that make everyday life special and beautiful and start teaching them age-appropriate life skills. I came across this blog post when I was researching options for our preschool year. When I first read it, it actually made me tear up thinking about the honor and privilege we have as mothers to participate in and witness our children experience the wonders of this beautiful life God has given us. Here are a few of the things we’ve made a point of doing together so far this year, in no particular order.
-Made homemade hot chocolate on a cold night
-Biked around our new neighborhood
-Watched ants carry a crumb together
-Played in a creek bed, barefoot
-Learned how to use a saw
-Baked cookies together (dozens of times!)
-Learned how to set the table
-Learned how to fold towels and blankets
-Pressed fall leaves
-Learned to take care of a plant
-Made a meal for a family in need
-Climbed a tree
-Ate dinner by candlelight (almost every night now!)
-Went to the library and pick out a big stack of books (very often)
-Tickle fights
-Mailed a letter to a loved one
-Went birdwatching
-Started a new family tradition
-Drank a cup of tea and read poetry
-Learned a board game together
-Started watercoloring
-Made new friends
-Stayed up late and decorate for Christmas
-Read outside
-Read by a lake
-Read poetry so much that we have a favorite poem
-Watched a thunderstorm
These are just a few of the special things we’ve done or learned together this year. I’ve found that if I have a list of these things, I’m much more likely to make time for it, so that’s what I’d encourage you to do. My list for Kindergarten is already so full and I am SO excited for it!
I hope this was somewhat helpful in seeing what we’ve be doing for our Charlotte Mason preschool year so far. It’s been very doable for us, and when it hasn’t been, we just take a break for a few days and come back to it when we can. We’re all just doing our best, right?
Fondly,
Sadie
"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." - Psalm 42:1
