Our Homeschool Year in Review {Preschool 2014-2015}

We wrapped up our first “official” year of home preschool a few weeks ago. What a fun year we had! I learned so much about who I am as a teacher and who Sam is as a student.

Some things that stand out to me about Sam from this year:

• Loves books, being read to, and reading alone
• Loves independent play, but takes some coaxing to get going
• Loves sensory bins, but not messy ones
• Loves anything that engages his sense of smell or touch
• Adores superheroes and pretend play
• Thrives on using letter sensory bins for letter of the week activities
• Enjoys time with friends and cousins
• Loves the outdoors, riding bikes, playing baseball, swinging golf clubs and running
• Does not enjoy getting dirty
• Loves water but is timid when it comes to going under
• Understands to use his “nature voice” when out of doors observing birds and wildlife
• Begs to go fishing and practices his cast during free play
• Loves reading letters and numbers on signs
• Travels in the car well and loves road trips
• Loves puzzles and can even work 15-20 piece puzzles alone
• Enjoys board games and card games
• Adores his little brother and goes to great lengths to care for Timmy
• Loves displaying creative work and sharing it with others
• Enjoys making presents and cards for others
• Loves Mommy directed crafts and duplicating pictures of others’ works
• Does not enjoy crafting alone or from his imagination
• Enjoys letter crafts for letter of the week enrichment
• Loves worksheets and coloring
• Gets very frustrated with clean up time, especially when the mess is overwhelming
• Loves learning apps and Netflix … too much
• Loves singing songs and family dance parties
• Loves being in the garden watering flowers and harvesting “chimmy-chives”
• Does not enjoy planting seeds or playing in the dirt
• Loves being the leader and dislikes doing things he is not interested in
• Enjoys changing outfits multiple times a day
• Dislikes being told what to wear
• Enjoys memory work and nursery rhymes
• Works independently as long as the activity is short and the directions clear
• Plays well with other children

All in all there isn’t much that he doesn’t enjoy doing when it comes to learning! He loves learning new things and spends a lot of his day asking questions about who, what, when, where and why. Lots and lots of whys! I do my best to answer his questions and we spend a lot of time searching online for answers and videos to help us learn together.

One of Sam’s love languages is quality time, so school time is our time together. It’s time when he knows he will get my undivided attention!

We did most of our table work when Timmy was napping in the afternoons. I was afraid Sam would be too tired or not into “doing school” this late in the afternoon, but the Lord was gracious and this seemed to consistently work for us all year long.

We typically did school from 1-2pm followed by read alouds and rest time.

I had a list of objectives and goals to accomplish this year. I never shared that list, so I want to go ahead and do that now.

I made my list of objectives and goals for Sam based on preschool objectives I found from around the web (check your local preschool websites – they usually have a list of things they will cover each year), talked to my teacher family members (we have a lot of teachers in our family), and then went with it. The following is what I came up with.

Note: This is a list of objectives for my child. Please do not take this as something official for your child.

3-4 year Old Preschool Plan

Bible & Character:

Use:

• Fruit of the Spirit Curriculum for Toddlers
• God’s Little Explorer’s
• Family Devotions
• Westminster Shorter Catechism
• Songs for Saplings

Learning Focus:

• Scripture Memory
• Memorize 1-20 of Westminster Shorter Catechism

Reading & Writing

Use:

• Before Five in a Row Curriculum
• 1,000 Classical Book List
• Starfall
• All About Reading Pre-Reading Program

Learning Focus:

• Reading
  • Read Alouds
  • Chapter Books
  • Poetry reading
  • Storytelling (narration, story stones, make believe play)

• Phonics
  • Upper and lowercase recognition
  • Basic phonemic sounds
  • Understand rhyming words
  • Sequence events from a story

• Writing
  • Fine motor activities
  • Pre-writing worksheets
  • Mazes
  • Coloring

Math & Science

I didn’t use any curriculum or guides for this area of study. I simply put a list of objectives together to guide me through the year.

• Number recognition (color by number worksheets)
• Count to 20 (introduce skip counting)
• Recognize numbers 0-9
• Sequencing and patterns
• Trace shapes
• Sorting (size, shape, color)
• Puzzles
• Games
• Introduce money
• Introduce telling time
• Problems solving (basic story problems)
• Measurements (shorter/longer, heavier/lighter, taller/shorter, bigger/smaller)
• Nature Study (plants & seeds, bugs, forest, pond life, follow his lead)
• Weather
• Encourage observation and curiosity
• Human body (five senses & functions, major body parts, nutritious foods & their importance)

Social Studies

Use:

• Geography Songs
• United States Floor Puzzle
• Maps
• Globes
• Travel as a family

I allowed books and life to teach these lessons at this age and felt confident in how it worked for us!

Arts

• Music
  • Listen to music regularly (variety)
  • Talk about composers
  • Nursery rhymes
  • Fingerplays
• Art
  • Artist study
  • Sensory play
  • Painting
  • Playdough

I am so pleased with how the year went. Having this list of objectives really helped me to use regular life moments to teach! There were weeks we never even sat down at the table with any curriculum. I would opt for lessons outside with rocks and sticks for sorting, measuring, and counting.

We had so much fun and homeschool is such a good fit for us right now. Sam really thrived this year, and I fell in love with home education.

You can read about our curriculum choices for the year here, and mid-way through the year I did an evaluation and revamped what we were doing (you can read that here).

I didn’t share everything we did this year on the blog, but I shared quite a bit. I wanted to round up all of this year’s posts for us to be able to look back on in the future, but also so you can access for ideas and inspiration for your own home preschool education.

General Post About Preschool

• Why We Aren’t Sending Our Son to Preschool {and What We’re Doing Instead!}
• How We Do Family Devotions
• Implementing a Morning Routine for Our Children
• Learning at Home When You Don’t Have a Plan
• How I Teach My Child About Jesus
• Chivalry is Not Dead & My Boys Know It

General Preschool Learning Ideas

• Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bins {100+ Ideas to Get You Started}
• Sort the Mail: Learning Math Through Pretend Play
• 16 Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Write His Name
• How to Make Bible Story Stones
• 15 Busy Bag Ideas
• Family Game Night with a Three Year Old

Home Preschool Week in Review Posts

• Homeschool Preschool Week in Review {God’s Love & Letter X}
• Homeschool Preschool Week in Review {All God Creates is Good & Letter G}
• Homeschool Preschool Week in Review {God’s Faithfulness & Letter Z}
• Homeschool Preschool Week in Review {God is Good & Letter A}
• Homeschool Preschool Week in Review {What is Gentleness & Letter T}
• Homeschool Preschool Week in Review {Be Kind to One Another}
• Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons Activities
• Before Five in a Row: The Big Green Pocketbook

Seasonal Preschool Posts

• Christmas Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
• Easy Christmas Tree Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers
• How to Make a Felt Christmas Tree {and How to Use it for Learning}
• Our Favorite Children’s Christmas Books to Read Aloud
• An Intentional Approach to Thanksgiving: Pilgrims for a Day
• 16 Thanksgiving Books to Read Aloud to Your Children

What a fun year we had! How did your school year go?

Want to start teaching biblical truths to your toddler? Check out the Fruit of the Spirit Curriculum for Toddlers. I wrote it for two to three year olds, but I used it as supplemental material for my four year old this year. Truths learned in this curriculum are still truths tucked inside my little one’s heart as we begin to deal with more and more heart issues. I’m so thankful I walked through this curriculum with my little guy, and I look forward to my second son getting a little bigger so we can start it with him! Learn more about the Fruit of the Spirit Curriculum for Toddlers here.

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