How to Preschool at Home

It’s time to start preschool?

Generally, preschool is the year before children start school. That can be anywhere between age 3 and 5, depending on your culture and jurisdiction. For the purposes of this guide, preschool will be defined as age 3-4. Preschool is a preparation year, and marks the end of “infancy” before moving into “childhood”. You do not ever need to do any kind of formal “school” time with a preschooler, but there are things you can build into your typical day that will help build good habits and prepare them for more formal schooling later, whether you choose to homeschool or not.

Focus Areas for Preschool

The goal for preschool is simple: get ready. Preschool focuses on preliteracy and prenumeracy skills — reading readiness and getting ready for numbers. Preschool also helps build up children’s attention span, fine motor skills, and behaviour habits that will lead to good study skills and learning success later on. And all of this happens through play, adult interaction and guided learning – no formal curriculum required!

Reading Readiness

Preschool children are generally not developmentally ready to read. While some children will eagerly learn their letters and sounds, other children will have no interest in books, and both are perfectly normal developmentally. However, if you have a precocious child who catches on to reading early, before the age of 5, you may want to check out our article on gifted kids.

Promoting literacy in preschoolers is about making reading fun, exciting and easy. Like anything when it comes to parenting, more is caught then taught, so it’s always a good idea to model good reading habits. Surround your child with reading material. Scatter child-friendly magazines and board books around, making them easily accessible. Turn on captions on their cartoons or videos. Label their toy bins and clothes shelves. And let them catch you reading books, newspapers, and on your phone.

You can also work on patterns and sound recognition. Point out various letters as they come up in your daily routines, and say their sounds. Play with Find the Difference or Hidden Picture games. Make patterns with stickers, colors, sounds and toys. Pattern recognition is a huge and often-overlooked skill that is essential to reading, writing and problem solving.

Read to your child

One of the best things to encourage reading readiness is to read with your child. Sitting down and reading stories, or watching read-alouds using games and videos will help build reading skills in your child. The habit of reading a story will increase their attention span and shape their imagination. Asking predictive questions while reading begins the skills of analysis and comprehension. Reading the same story over and over again grows their vocabulary and familiarity with story structure, as well as creating the foundation for study and review skills. And all it takes is regular reading with your child.

Sing or say nursery rhymes, songs, repetitive poems and rhythm games too. All the old hand-clapping and skipping games? Turns out they all helped us learn to read! Play finger games, learn the kids’ songs, and sing and play with rhymes. A child who learns 25+ nursery rhymes and simple songs before age 5 will have a much easier time learning to read.

Developing Number Sense

Preschool children usually aren’t quite ready to understand and use math operations or place value. There are always some who get fascinated by counting and adding up, and others who will only count to their age with coaching, and both are developmentally predicted. If your child figures out how to skip count or multiply before the age of 5, it may be a sign of advanced development.

Promoting numeracy in preschoolers is about making math skills accessible and helping them stretch their natural exploration. Most children instinctively explore math concepts but many adults don’t even recognize them! Math is more than just adding and subtracting. Math encompasses measurement, shape, size, direction, pattern, and comparison skills. And that means there is so much you can do to develop your child’s math skills, without special equipment or curriculum.

Measurement skills

Introduce and encourage your child to use and understand comparison words like big/large and small, short and tall/long, full and empty, half and whole. Give them different sizes of containers for in the sandbox or at the beach or in the pool or bathtub. Encourage them to fill and empty. How many small cupfuls does it take to fill the bigger pail?

Line things up in order of size. Which is the shortest, and which is the longest? Play with measuring tapes and rulers. Measure them regularly on a growth chart. Show your child the sizes on their clothing (small, medium, large) and compare.

Talk about distances using your measuring units. It’s 10 kilometers or 5 miles to the store. Or it’s 100 feet or 20 metres to the corner or the end of the driveway. Play connect-the-dots and make-a-square games. Measuring is everywhere.

Shapes and Patterning Skills

Shapes and patterns are not only essential to reading, but math as well. By the end of their preschool year, children should recognize up to 10 shapes: square, circle, rectangle, triangle, star, heart, crescent (moon), pentagon, oval, and diamond. They should also know all 10 basic colors: red, blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, black, white, pink and grey. And using a combination of shape, color and size, they should be able to make basic patterns: ABAB, ABCABC, ABBA, AABB, etc.

Most children pick up the names and concepts of shapes and colors by osmosis, without direct teaching, through play and context in their daily world. Preschool can encourage children to fully grasp these concepts through arts and crafts activities, drawing, and interaction with their primary adult caregivers. If you just name and point out shapes, colors and patterns as you go throughout your day with your child, they will learn so much.

Shapes and pattern skills can be built easily with the investment in a few simple tools: toys. Colorful wooden blocks and simple puzzles lend themselves beautifully to developing shape recognition, geometric manipulation, and spatial awareness.

Try a simple game of Shape or Color Finders, where you give shapes and colors to your child to find. Our favorite place to do this was in the grocery store. Playing simple games like this not only kept my children engaged and learning, but also occupied and out of mischief, meaning I got my shopping done faster and easier.

Counting Skills

Obviously, counting is an integral part of numeracy. Understanding the relationship of numerals to the words and the concepts of “how many” is a concept that takes time and learning to grow. By the time your child is done with their preschool year, they should be able to count consistently to 20 both in order and by counting items in a group. They should also be able to recognize the numerals up to 5, and even be able to begin to write them.

While counting things with your child is the obvious way to practice, there are plenty of games and activities that can make it more fun and memorable. Try color- or paint-by-number activities to help with numeral recognition. Hopscotch and Four Square to practice counting and recognizing numbers. Hide and Seek can be a great way to practice counting in order. And games like Snakes and Ladders or Sorry! are also fantastic and fun counting practice opportunities.

Growing Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills, or hand strength and dexterity, is key physical skills required for future learning. Preschool hands are not finishing growing yet, but encouraging dexterity and strength can set up your children for success. And like all preschool skills, the best way to do this is with a few games, toys and adult guidance.

Fine motor skills include the ability to grasp things between thumb and finger, the ability to hold a writing utensil like pencils and markers, the ability to cut things smoothly and safely, and the ability to use these skills without getting quickly fatigued. And while most children will naturally develop these skills over time, preschool can help prevent injury and gaps in skill levels.

One of the best tools to develop dexterity and hand strength in preschool children is play dough or clay. Squishing and rolling the dough helps with hand and finger stretch. And using shape cutters and play dough knives can help with strengthening their hands too. Plus, children can work safely on their scissor skills with play dough scissors, and their manipulation skills with play dough knives.

Other, less messy tools and toys include beading, lacing cards, and playing with dolls and action figures — especially if they dress up are fun ways to practice fine motor skills. Sorting toys and activities, busy boards or busy books, and musical instruments can also help with skill development. And of course classic Lego blocks are ideal for working those finger and hand muscles.

Implementing Preschool at Home

Preschool does not have to be a long-drawn-out, all-day-long school day. In fact, that really isn’t developmentally appropriate! However, formal seatwork does have a place in preschool, whether that’s a tracing worksheet, a coloring game, a story, or a preschool onling game. Asking a preschooler for 20 minutes of focused learning time, in 5-10 minute increments, will help build those work habits of focused attention, physical control, and mental effort.

Pick a time or times that are the most optimal for your child’s attention and focus. Right after a meal is one of the best times to implement a formal learning time, especially in the morning. They won’t be tired or hungry or as easily distracted, but eager and willing to cooperate while they develop new habits and engage their brains and bodies in new ways.

Never force a child into formal learning times. Some children aren’t developmentally ready, and shouldn’t be punished for that. Encourage and make it fun and rewarding. If 10 minutes is too long, start with 5. If that’s too long, start with just 2 minutes, and build up to longer as they grow. And use tools and toys that suit your child’s temperament and preferred learning styles. Some kids love stories and coloring. Others will happily sit and play with toys. And others need full-body movement to learn. There are options for everyone.

Preschool Curriculum Options

Here are my favorite tools, websites, and printables for homeschooling preschool.

1. Literacy

• Brightly Beaming Resources — This homeschool mom has written and designed her own curriculum for the early elementary years, and has published it on her site for free! From book lists to science activities, everything you need for a full tot school, preschool, kindergarten and first grade is there. She’s even been working on geography, science and fine arts appreciation curriculum, so check back for updates!
• Confessions of a Homeschooler — As a busy mom of many, this homeschooler also created her own preschool and kindergarten curriculums. You can go through the posts and download each printable set separately for free, or purchase a complete kit for about $10 or so. I printed out almost everything and laminated it for use for multiple children, as the alphabet activities are amazing.
• Raising Rockstars — My other favorite place for free/cheap printables for this age level is 1+1+1=1. They offer downloadable packs covering various topics, and even themed printables for reading and math activities. Your child loves dinosaurs? Check out pre-printing tracing on dinosaur-themed worksheets.
• LeapFrog videos – I know screen time is a controversial topic, especially with preschoolers, but I love a multimedia approach. We used the Leapfrog video series to cement the phonics concepts of the letter sounds, blends and digraphs, vowel rules and storybook structure. The 4 videos in order are: Letter Factory, Talking Word Factory, Word Caper and Storybook Factory.

2. Fine Motor Skills

• About.com — I found this series of alphabet-based coloring books and printable tracing pages several years ago. I printed out a set, and I’ve copied them every year for my new preschooler that year. These are excellent for working on fine motor and phonics skills at the same time.
• HWT — Handwriting without Tears has a great series of workbooks for the early elementary years. I start with “My First School Book” in preschool. While you can purchase a kit that includes a chalkboard, large wooden pieces and teacher’s manual with extra activities, they aren’t necessary to use the workbooks. (You could get your own chalkboard at a dollar store, and use paper pieces instead of wood, if you like).
• Rod & Staff — we are a religious family, so I like this publisher for simple, clear concepts and theologically sound stories (without denomination bias). I use their ABC series of books to help teach fine motor skills and familiarity with the stories. There are literacy and math concepts too, which is a nice bonus. What’s really fun about these books is the frequent opportunity to practice cut and paste, without extra equipment or coming up with crafts and activities myself.

3. Math & Numeracy

• Toys — I’ve invested, over the years, in a number of educational-but-fun toys. Things like lacing cards, board and cardboard puzzles, large wooden beads, cars and trucks and playmats, solid wood colorful building blocks and wooden train tracks. These are great for teaching patterns, sizes, sorting skills, geometry, counting and other math reasoning skills. heck your toy cupboards or playrooms for things you can use in your homeschool! My favorite toy manufacturer is Melissa and Doug, but you can even create some of these things yourself.
• Mazes/Dot-to-dots — Math, for me, begins with an understanding of yourself in space. We do printable mazes and dot-to-dots of course, but we also do life-size versions. Corn mazes, obstacle courses, and even just chalk on a sidewalk or masking tape on a floor are all great ways to encourage problem solving, gross motor, and mathematical reasoning skills.
• Starfall.com — While providing amazing interactive simple readers for kids, I actually like Starfall for their math activities, more. The concepts of place value, basic addition and subtraction, skip counting and telling time are all introduced and practiced repeatedly with these simple graphic games and activities. You can purchase a subscription to access all the activities, but we’ve done just fine with just the free ones. They even have a mobile app, meaning I can use it as a educational distraction when we need to wait for something while we’re out.
• Chalk Preschool — For a multimedia approach, I really enjoy this site. They offer circle-time videos, with the encouragement to practice social skills and math and science concepts. The short but fun videos talk about season changes, calendaring, weather and space. There are several levels to choose from. My girls really liked the host/teacher and the songs are still remembered several years later.

Preschool is Fun

Preschool doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. It’s not a complicated thing, nor does it require a fancy complex curriculum. With a few free printables and some planning, you can introduce, practice and master key skills and concepts. You can have fun doing it too. Use what’s around you, answer their questions and encourage your child to explore. Preschool can be an amazing introduction to the whole homeschool experience.