Homeschool Curriculum for Preschoolers (1-4 years)

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Homeschool Curriculum for Preschoolers: Toddler learning/playing — *pc:Tanaphong Toochinda*

When you think about a 1 or 2 year old and homeschool curriculum you might think “Uuuuhhh lady, you are crazy!” and I partly agree.

BUT the word curriculum here should read very, veeeery loosely. Normally, homeschool curriculum is associated with schedules and organizational skillz that killz, but in this case we’re talking about a low-key investment of some type of daily learning with your little one. Honestly, chances are that you probably do some of these already.

So here’s my list of a few favorite homeschool curriculum ideas for preschoolers, and most can be applied starting at just a year. The amount of supervision and independence will change as they grow!

Flash cards

Flash cards can be so great for even the littlest guys! When my babies were one, I used the simplest ones: cat, dog, ball, cup, etc. I would make animal sounds or grab physical examples, and this takes all of about 5 minutes (less or more depending on their engagement level)! Here are some cute ones to start with!

Play-doh

How simple and cheap is this one? OK, ok…this one always did best for us closer to the 2 year mark, but I definitely let my one year old have some fun with this occasionally (and supervised because they will straight eat this stuff like its chocolate). It’s so great for fine motor development, texture immersion, color word building, and shape and letter creating. Creative innovation is essentially limitless! If you can think it, you can squish some play-doh into a *mostly* recognizable piece of art!

Homeschooler preschooler girl reading — *pc: Annie Spratt*

Reading Books

So simple, and I bet you’ve got about a hundred of these. A book a day is a good rule of thumb, and you will be doing more than you know! You’re encouraging a future reader, getting in some super sweet and priceless one-on-one time, and helping your babe to learn word recognition! Here’s a few of my favorites – clicking takes you to amazon for an easy purchase! I ❤️ amazon, don’t you?

Apps

Ok I LOVE my apps, BUT I don’t use them as my primary source. Spending 10 minutes a day is plenty of app time for a 1-2 year old, and from 2-4 they can handle a little more. Trust me – I use those bad boys and my babes have had excellent recognition of letters/letter sounds, colors, animals, and more from taking advantage of the age we live in, but I’ve chosen to be reasonably limiting because I worry about strain on their eyes. It’s also important to take into consideration the long term effects of too much screen time .

Nonetheless, there are some awesome apps out there that you’ve got to check out! Here some of the ones I use almost everyday!

Writing tablets

Y’all, these do NOT have to be expensive! I bought this one from amazon for 14$ (it may have changed since then), but still cheap! I’m not a fan of plastic necessarily, especially when it comes to daily handling, but I’m also aware that to keep my sanity I have to bend a little. These tablets were awesome buys, and I use them DAILY!

Preschooler/Pre-K school books (All-in-One or Separate Subject)

My final curriculum suggestion is school books and they’re placed last because I think these are more for 3/4 year olds. Really, for me, it’s just once they’ve developed some decent fine motor skills with a pencil OR have the patience for you to help. Either way below 3 years will probably require lots of assistance (and that’s ok!).

You might ask, “What is an all-in-one book?’. It’s simply a *usually* thicker book that has multiple subjects in it. An older child will probably need separate and more specific books that dive deeper into the material of the subjects than an all-in-one really can. Below is an assortment of both styles and they are a few of my personal favorites (school books/ publishers). They have click links to help get you started!

These are some of my most loved ideas when it comes to homeschool curriculum for preschool and pre-k. I’ve used ALL of them and each has brought it’s own level of success.

I think it’s important to note that I don’t have unreasonable expectations for these ages, and I may spend 10 minutes or an hour and half depending on the day (and the kid). And I’m perfectly fine with that!

I’m going to include one more bonus favorite that you MUST include! In my opinion, it ranks higher than any other at this age….

Are you ready?

Homeschool Curriculum for Preschoolers: Young girl smiling/painting — *pc: Senjuti Kundu*

Surprise! Of course, it’s…..PLAYTIME!!!

This is by far the most important “preschooler/pre-k curriculum”, and most of the day should be dedicated to this. And it should include YOU when you can! Your babes will learn so much about how to be by simply playing! Plus? PLAYING IS FUN!!!

Adios!