Our Curriculum Choice for Toddlers, Preschool, and Kindergarten - Part 2

Earlier this month I began delving into our family's particular choices when it came to homeschooling.  If you missed that post you can see Part 1 here.

So a typical day for our 3 year old would be: one lesson in each of the Kumon books that we were working in (since they have so many titles and now they even have smaller ones that can be used as early as age 2, I will not give you an exact book to be working on.)  We would usually be working on two Kumon books and sometimes three.

We would then go on to do our lesson in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.  Even if your 2, 3, or 4 year old knows the alphabet, I would still strongly suggest you start at the beginning of the book.  Most of us adults do not pronounce words or letters properly.  This book helped me to say words that I said improperly based on their phonetics (for example: the we pronounce as thu and it should be pronounced as thee.)

I also believe that for 2 and 3 year olds and even for some 4 year olds you should stick to a letter-themed week. That gives you plenty of time to do worksheets and activities with your child on one particular letter.


Side note:  Based on your own child's abilities and/or learning style you may have to adjust what you do or do not do.  I had to.  My eldest was influenced by the older children who had been coming to our house for full-curriculum tutoring and enjoyed learning and being a bookworm.  When it came time to begin with Audrie, schooling was not that simple for her.  At first I thought I was just not teaching correctly for her.  But then as I spoke to God and my husband about my issues the answer to my problem became clear - Audrie was not Arianna.  I know that might come as a surprise to some, but your children can not all be taught the same way, at the same pace, with the exact same material.  If they are, then we as homeschooling parents are no different then traditional schools.  We brought them home (or never let them leave) because we believed we could do better for them and provide them individualized opportunities.  Now we just need to make sure that we stick to our reasons and not put our children into the safe box.

The next part of our K3 curriculum would be Bible.  I believe that every child should be learning Bible verses so that they can "hide them in their heart." (Psalm)  You can accomplish this in many ways.First if your church's Sunday School teaches memory verses you could concentrate only on that one.  (for a two year old that is all I would do.)  If your church program does not provide verses you could find a verse that corresponds with the letter that you are working with for the week. (Or if your church does have a memory verse for the week you could do both per week for your four year olds and maybe for some three year olds.)  Here are some links that I found for ABC memory verses:

1. Memorize Scriptures from A to Z
2. Alphabet Memory Verse from Heart of the Matter
3. ABC Memory Verses

You can use these or do your own web search for ones you like.  Or you could just come up with your own verses.

One of the last things I think is very important for this age is exploration: whether it be with puzzles, coloring, gluing, crafts, etc.  Provide them with lots of opportunities to explore their world and find out what they do and do not like by trial and error.

The only other thing that I can say is READ! Read! read! Children (of all ages) love to be read to.  Have a family reading time.  Have your older children read to the younger children.  Try to spend some time each day reading with each individual child.  This one-on-one time will exponentially improve your child's reading skills, reading comprehension, and love for reading as well as grow a strong bond between you as you explore books together.

Next week, I will focus more on curriculum choices for K4.  Stay tuned ...