Building my preschool curriculum

Its been a sponge week, soaking in so much learning from a few awesome home school blogs. I’ve been meaning to get some type of routine going for Ethan’s learning. Lately, I’ve been buying plastic dressers from Wal-Mart, labeling them for all sorts of paper/craft junk for school. I just feel the need to get my house in order, before we really get into this educational journey. I love putting things into clear, plastic boxes. Its getting to be an addiction:)

I’ve been learning a lot about Tot School, and have been getting some great insight from that link. Just reading through that FAQ page had been wonderful. 1+1+1=1 is another gold mine of a HS blog that I discovered. I definitely have to balance the time when I’m on that blog.  So much to learn from there.

First, I needed some kind of schedule chart. Something to keep my head in order. It helps me to write things down, and I use post its and my white board daily to remember the goods. On the Homeschool Creations blog, Jolanthe has a free schedule chart that you can print out here. I printed that off, laminated it so I could write and erase on it with a dry erase marker each week. I like the idea of school Monday through Thursday, Friday is field trip, play date, or whatever day, and the weekend is relaxing. That’s my rough sketch of a schedule for now:) Everything is a rough sketch, as I am so very, very new to this.

On the confesssions of a homeschooler blog, there is a great thing called “Letter of the Week”. You can buy the set, or just click on ABCs and 123s tab at the top left, under the home tab. There, you can choose what letter to look at, and pick some activities. We’re starting with A next week. I began choosing some printouts, one for each day. I downloaded them from the blog, and saved them into a folder. I then print them out using white cardstock, and laminate them on my handy laminator I got from walmart. Its been so fun to find these activities. I love that its free! Now, not everything is free. There are some super education toys that are much needed. Amazon is a great place to get them. I just saw that Michael's has the sweet Melissa and Doug toys. (Lots of cool, wooden, educational stuff.) If I save my 50% coupons for those toys, they will be much more affordable. More secrets to my madness!

Here’s the rough sketch of my curriculum/schedule for the next week. This is just my vague attempt at getting started. In the beginning of my research, I was a little overwhelmed by putting together lesson plans, curriculum, etc. I’m not so scared now. Just keep it simple, and keep it fun:)

Monday-Letter A Coloring Page

Tuesday-Letter A Magnet Page

Wednesday-Letter A Puzzle

Thursday-Letter A Pre-Writing Practice

Pictures of these printouts are found here, and there’s more to choose from!

We try to read for a little bit everyday, and do some kind of fun craft/game. Ethan has fallen in love with playdough. Its been so fun, and I will do better at taking pics of it this week:) Ethan also played Candyland for the first time with me, like actually playing it. It was so exciting to teach him to take one card, name the color, and play!

So, today is Monday, and here we go:) Hope this is helpful to anyone!

PS: I read a review HERE about All About Spelling. Its sounds like a great spelling curriculum.

Also, HERE is a review for a great science curriculum!