Homeschooling My 4-5 Year Old (The Year Before Kindergarten)

I did a post a while back about homeschooling and how I organize our homeschool space. It seemed like people enjoyed it, so I thought that I would take the time to break down what we are using for Luke's 4/5 pre-Kindergarten curriculum.

Curriculum can be so overwhelming. It's hard to know what is right for your family/child. It can be expensive. I am currently trying to figure out what we are going to use for kindergarten and it always takes me forever. I look at it all, think about what our goals are, think about what method we will use, etc. Even when I get it and start using it for a few weeks, it seems crazy, but once we have settled in, I am usually pretty pleased with what we are doing.

This year for 4/5 pre-K we are using Sonlight's P4/5 Core program which includes tons of great books (lots of reading aloud), learning skills workbooks (that focus on motor skills, listening skills, memory, and other learning skills), a Bible and Scriptures to memorize, and lots of creative ideas for further fun/study. It's broken down into 36 weeks (requirement for schooling) and can be done for 4 days a week or 5. We usually do 3-4 days a week (I just combine).

We also use Horizons K for mathematics. I love it because I am big on him learning math skills. It came with two workbooks and we are going to finish one this year and most likely do the other workbook next year. We do math 2 days a week (we do one worksheet each day).

We also use Handwriting Without Tears K for handwriting. I think it is pretty good, but I think you could achieve the same goal with some lined paper. We do one number or letter each week (that corresponds to the math or CORE). We do handwriting 2 days a week. We do the HWT page one day and he does a row on lined paper one day for review. The math has writing numbers so he writes a lot.

We also use Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! It's broken down perfectly. You start with short vowel sounds, then consonant sounds, then long vowel sounds, then blends, etc. I love it because it is simple, has cutesy ways to remember stuff, and does a ton of review. We do reading lessons 3 days a week. The book is pretty big so we are going to just keep working through it until we are done. I have a plan to do 3 lessons a week but we can cut down if he needs more time to learn some concepts. I highly recommend this book!!!

Basically our schedule is:
Monday - CORE, Reading
Tuesday - CORE, Handwriting, Math
Wednesday - CORE, Reading
Thursday - CORE, Handwriting, Math
Friday - CORE, Reading

When we need to combine, it works well because we do 2 days of CORE, Reading, Handwriting, and Math.

School takes less than an hour. I like that for preschool because he doesn't need to sit at a table for more than one hour doing worksheets and reading. He also spends a lot of time coloring, doing crafts, doing projects, playing with Play-Doh, and playing games (lots of memory games). We also read a lot.

I hope this has been helpful for those of you who might be interested in homeschooling.

I will do another post about our plans for next year (Kindergarten). As of right now, I am planning to keep working through Horizons K mathematics, Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading, and work on handwriting (probably just going to do lots of writing especially as he learns how to read more and spell words). I am not sure what else we will do, but I do plan to do projects for Science and Social Studies. I am also thinking about joining a Co-Op one day a week. I've heard of a great one that sounds really good. We will see.

I would love to hear how you homeschool your 4-5 year old preschool student.