In the span of 10 days we had upper respiratory infections, stomach bugs, an ear infection, a stolen truck, and delayed flights.
My husband was out of town for work when this little man went down.
Then we found out the truck was stolen and towed
This curriculum is about our grade level for sure but I am using it as an introduction to geography and other cultures. Basically we just find the country on the map, watch a few YouTube videos, read a few books from the country and make a recipe from there and try and do a simple paper craft.
We do one country every few weeks. No rush for us to get through it.
This is another curriculum I use with both kids
This curriculum has
A seasonal song that we don’t do- the kids just weren’t feeling it
An emotional intelligence section that I really like. You never think about needing to teach kids to identify their feelings and the feelings of others.
Weekly inquiry – this is a short section on something in nature that they say you can feel free to explore further at the library. I try and find a few simple picture books each week on this at the library that we can read through
Literature, Literacy & Poetry- there is a weekly book to read with a question or two to ask in response to the book, an excerpt out of a seasonal poetry book ( i did the poetry at first but the kids weren’t into it so I stopped) and a letter to study from a book called doodling dragons but we already have a pre-reading curriculum we use so I didn’t get that book.
Art- some of the projects from the art book are really cool but they are a little advanced for my kids. I have the art book but don’t really use it. I do like a lot of the projects though so I think in a year or two we will start working our way through it as an extra fun thing to add into our weeks.
There is a math curriculum they suggest but we use a different one I’ll tell you about in another post
Science – they use the ‘look I’m a scientist’ and ‘look I’m a ln engineer’ books which I have but I only sort of like them. Some of the experiments are a bit older for my kids and some just seem like a waste of time.
Connections project – each week there is a little something to do to connect to the week’s theme and reading.
They also suggest some videos you might like and some supplemental reading on the main subject
I am constantly adding, subtracting and adjusting our schooling to work best for our family. I also pull from a lot of different sources and curriculums so each week I will tell you a little about what we are currently doing/using for our 2024 pre-k/super early preschool with my 3 yrs old and my 21 month old. Almost everything I do is with both kids because my youngest wants to be included in everything so I just bring her along.
This is a 36 week curriculum. Each week there is a section for Nature study, math and science (which is anything from counting blocks to talking about sunscreen safety and use.), art, music, community/kindness, literature/read together and kitchen classroom.
We usually at least touch on the nature ( we have other nature curriculums), the math and science are hit or miss for us sometimes we do it and sometimes we don’t (we have other math and science curriculums).
I love the art and music sections. This is broken down into 4 week chunks and in each chunk you learn about a different artist and musician.
Community/kindness is hit and miss for me. Most of them we don’t do. I enjoy the literature selections and we cook together anyways, I wish the kitchen classroom gave you suggestions.
Our first year of homeschooling is coming to an end. I loved almost every minute of it lol. Overall, my toddler did amazing with the curriculum. With a year under my belt now I kind of know how he learns and how he does things. So I will review the curriculum that we used for preschool and in a couple weeks I’ll post what we’re going to do for Pre-K.
Language Arts
These were fantastic much more like playing games and doing fun little projects then worksheets
We started this about 2/3rds of the way through the year and will be continuing it through pre-K. These are much more lesson like so we tend to break them up into smaller sections but I have become a big fan of the Good and the Beautiful.
Math
I didn’t like this at all and neither did my toddler. We found it to be very dry and boring. I wasn’t going to make either of us suffer through it after I decided we didn’t like it. We got about halfway through it then I chucked it in the recycling bin.
My son loved this in the beginning and even asked for it regularly to play it. However once his new little sister was big enough to start taking pieces it started turning into a battle so we set this aside as well. But, it did lay a great foundation for us.
This was fantastic. Timberdoodle actually added this in their 2023-2024 preschool curriculum kit so I only ordered it about 2 months ago but we are almost done with it. If you do it weekly it is not a full year’s worth of curriculum but it has added a little bit of math back into our study.
Thinking skills
My toddler loved this!!!!!
These were fantastic just like the alphabet books by the same company. They were fun and engaging and quick.
Another one that my toddler and I thought was really boring and dry. Just like the math we got about halfway through the book and I chucked it.
History and social studies
Nature and science
Art
Skills
Overall, it was a great year. I loved watching my son grow in leaps and bounds. Which is exactly how it came. He would not get something and suddenly it would click. He was really did go in leaps and bounds and stops and starts.
The great thing about homeschooling his preschool is I was really able to follow his rhythm and our rhythm as a family. There were weeks where we didn’t do anything. We kind of fell out of our rhythm and then we’d pick it back up and have a couple of great weeks, couple great months and then kind of fall off again which worked out great for us. We’re still finishing on time and I just love the entire experience.
We started a little before he returned 2 years old. So it was by no means always easy sunshine but it was rewarding and wonderful. Occasionally I did resort to a little bit of bribery or coercion sort of to get him to come over and start. Once he started. He usually loved everything. But it would occasionally be oh. Can you help Mommy do this? Or do you want to come eat a chip with me while we look at this picture and talk about it? Lol.
Trailing the blonde 