It’s been a while since I’ve updated about our preschool at home plans. I’m happy to report that we have finally started to fall into a routine. For the longest, it felt like we would never find a routine, but the older Bryson gets, the more everything begins to fall into place. Bella wants to be involved, so she is usually sitting at the table with us doing her “school work” which means coloring. 🙂 You will find a huge list of resources on my Homeschool Pinterest Boards.
All About Reading Pre-reading
At the beginning of the year, I realized that Bryson knew not only his letters, but also each letter sound. I felt like each time we worked on a letter, we were covering everything he already knew. I decided it was time to look into a reading program. After a lot of research, I settled on the All About Reading Pre-reading curriculum. I contacted the folks at All About Learning Press to ask if they would like to work with me and thankfully, they did!
I wasn’t sure what to expect, because this is our first “real” curriculum, but we LOVE it. It is an open & go curriculum- no planning or fuss. Bryson looks forward to it and he even keeps up with which letter we are working on each day. Ziggy the zebra makes learning fun! I’ll have a full review up next week, so stay tuned.
K4 Curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler
After using and loving the Letter of the Week curriculum ($15) from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler, I knew the K4 curriculum ($15) would be our next step. I love it because it’s takes most of the planning and guesswork out. If I’m running behind, I can just print and follow the included lesson plans. On the other hand, I like that I can print only the pages we plan to do and customize it for Bryson. Erica has included lesson plans, games, arts & crafts ideas, songs, etc. I highly recommend both the Letter of the Week and the K4 curricula. In fact, I wish I had purchased the Prek/K bundle ($27) instead of buying separately.

Learning Resources Pocket Chart
The Learning Resources Calendar & Weather pocket chart sat on my wishlist for about a year, before I finally splurged on it. Yes, $30 seems like a splurge sometimes, but it is worth every penny! First of all, it’s huge. I didn’t expect it to be quite so large. It hangs in our hallway and is a part of every day, even the days we don’t do “school.” Within two weeks of using this pocket chart, Bryson was counting to 20. One month later, he can count to 30 and he enjoys it! I overhear him counting everything now- LEGOs, grapes at snack time, people sitting at the table, etc. He also caught right onto the month and the year and he’s beginning to remember the days of the week. The Learning Resources Calendar & Weather Pocket Chart is, without a doubt, one of my favorite homeschool purchases thus far.
Books, books, books..
Reading daily is so important. Some of our current favorites include Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Jesus Storybook Bible, Cowboy Small, and the My First Steps to Reading A-Z book set. We read as part of our All About Reading time then we read at bedtime. I very rarely say no to a book. If they want read, we do!
Educational Toys & Play Time
Our homemade play dough is still a huge hit! Both Bryson & Bella will play with it for hours at a time. We practice making letters out of play dough and using cookie cutters. Bryson is on a LEGO kick, so he will build letters with those and I help him spell words. You can see most of our favorites at the top of my sidebar to the right. We are huge Melissa & Doug fans as well as LeapFrog DVD fans.
I think that just about wraps it up, but if you have ANY questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Follow me on Instagram to see peeks of our daily routine. I share photos there often.
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Wow! It looks like you have a great thing going!! I love the reading items and calendar you have! We really need to start something like this at home (outside of the things we already do), although we don’t home school I think it would be very beneficial to my 2 1/2 yr old! He attends preschool/daycare, but I think doing things like this at home are even more important! My husband is a teacher in public schools so he is all about educating at home, too! Great info, thanks for sharing!!
It sounds like everything is going well on homeschooling. Although, I don’t homeschool I use many online resources to help Zoe at home so she never forgets and so she is always a step or two ahead!
Awesome list!! Love Confessions of a Homeschooler!
Love this! You are doing a great job! I don’t home school but we do do lessons about 3 times a week at home. Thanks for sharing your resources!
I didn’t realize there were so many resources for home schooling. Thanks for sharing!