How To Homeschool Your Preschooler

Homeschooling households with multiple ages, especially young ages, inevitably arrive at one point in their journey and ask, "How in the world do I school my young ones informally without them disturbing the older formally schooled child?"

In this post, I hope to give you some insight as to how you can tackle that question and set yourself up for success!

Firstly, let me say that a younger student can actually enhance your classroom.  The secret is to plan and have subjects ready to go when the younger classmate wants to join in.

​We currently have a 6yr old (Yr 1), 4yr old (PreK 4), and a 23 month old. This post will be targeting the middle little who in a public school setting would be considered going into a Pre-Kinder 4 classroom.  However in a Charlotte Mason approach he would be informally educated, predominantly child-led in his activities with lots of outdoor time and a heavy dose of habit training.

Our middle little, Mateo, was schooled previously in a Montessori School and is eager to join his sister in his schooling. So I've mirrored Chiara's Yr1 Ambleside Online / Mater Amabilis schedule and then opened it up quite a bit so that he can elect to sit some of the subjects out.  Let me break it down for you:

Year 0 - PreK 4 Schedule

Morning Menu & Basket
Prayers, Hymn, Folk Song, Counting Practice, Music Note Drill, Spanish Flash Cards, Positive Affirmation

Religion
Bible stories w/ older sister AO yr 1

​Language Arts
Phonics 
Handwriting

Literature
Classic Fairy Tales, Fables, Book of Virtues

Math
The Good and The Beautiful

​Spanish
Conversational Games & Flash Cards

Nature Study
Field trips & Adventures on Fridays

​Subjects I invite my preschooler to join in with, but don't require him to:

1. History
2. Geography
3. Natural History
4. Poetry
5. Artist and Composer Study

What should I require my Preschooler or Yr 0 Student to do?

Traditionally the Charlotte Mason philosophy of home education doesn’t recommend that children under 6-7yrs old begin formal schoolwork. In our home, I have found that things run much more smoothly if I'm prepared to offer my preschooler "work" should he be inspired to do school that day. Here are some items you'll want to be sure to require of him or her during their "school" day:

• as much outdoor time as you can manage (climbing trees, rolling down small hills, riding bike, observing plants, insects, rocks, birds, etc, observing weather changes day to day,  outdoor "kitchen" time making mud pies) 
• lots of free play indoors (drawing or painting their outdoor observations, puzzles, categorizing their toys by color, size, type, etc._
• Recognizing upper and lowercase letters in the alphabet
• Pre-reading informally (pointing out words they know and playing first letter of the word sound games)
• Handwriting by tracing lines and shapes
• Read-alouds with the family
• Light Narration of stories over lunch (I prompt him with questions such as, "What do you remember about this story?"
• Sing Hymns together
• Learn Nursery Rhymes
• Count from 1 to 10, to 20, 30, 50, 100, then by 10
• Playing math games to improve their number sense within those digits (Using dominoes are a great way to recognize numbers and matching them together)
• Introduce the clock face if they show interest
• Indoor Pillow and Sheet forts and lots of imaginary play!

There really are so many things preschoolers can do during the day that lay out a feast of good ideas for them to wrestle with during the day without having to rely on anything formal. 

However, I personally get overwhelmed if he wants to jump in and do "school" and I'm not ready for him.  That's why I created his own My Homeschool Checklist. I found that if I go through each of the subjects that I'm doing with my YR 1 student and translate what my Preschooler or YR 0 can do, then I won't be an overwhelmed mess trying to scrape something together for him last minute. 

Preparing the Checklist

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Here's a play by play of what we're planning for our Yr0 (Pre-K 4 to be specific) this year. Again, please keep in mind, that I use this very loosely and only invite him to do everything we're doing for school, but don't require him to do anything formally. (Each highlighted book will take you to the exact book we use in our homeschool.)

Religion: (Done with his YR1 Sister) New Catholic Picture Bible, Loyola Kids Book of Saints

History: (Done with his YR1 Sister) An Island Story

Natural History: (Done with his YR1 Sister) Paddle to the Sea

Literature: Classic Fairy Tales, Storybook Fables, Children's Book of Virtues

Poetry: Favorite Nursery Rhymes by Mother Goose

Math: The Good and The Beautiful Math K, Life of Fred Apples

Copywork: Explode the Code, The Good and The Beautiful Pre-Writing Workbook: Doodles
​
Reading: The Good and The Beautiful Pre-K Language Arts, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Montessori: Letter Work, Sand Paper Tactile Letters

Spanish: Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason & Francois, Spanish Flashcards

Physical Education: Calisthenics in the morning before breakfast, Martial Arts on some afternoons 

Art: Creative Bug by Joanne Fabrics, Youtube Channels like Kids Art Hub, Crafts for Kids

Handcrafts: Wild & Free Handcrafts, The Useful Knots Book

Hymns / Folksongs Study: We're following the schedule for Hymns and Folksongs from the Ambleside Online Website

Artist / Composer Study: We're following the rotation schedule for Artist Study and Composer Study from the Ambleside Online Website.

​Nature Study: Exploring  Nature with Children, Handbook of Nature Study, Nature Anatomy

Here's a video that shows you how we organize all of the above.  Hope it inspires and helps you as you prepare to homeschool your preschooler!

As promised here's a free printable of our My Homeschool Checklist.  Within, you'll find two versions, one that has been filled out a bit with suggestions and another that is ready for you to fill out and add to your planner binder.

I hope this helps you and your family feel empowered to get your preschoolers learning and you, dear mama, feeling good that you have a plan to back you up during the day.  Please leave me any comments below if you have any questions.  I'd love to see a screenshot of how you're putting this into practice in your own homeschool. 

Remember to look us up on Instagram and/or Facebook to see what else we're doing around here!

See ya soon!

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