Homeschooling a preschooler can be so easy and fun! This is our story of how we planed to start homeschooling easily.
We created our homeschool preschool curriculum for our 3-year-old preschooler and planed 36 weeks of homeschool preschool from August 31st, 2020 – June 8th, 2021.
You download and print this previews or buy an editable version in our shop.
Here is what we did:
First Things First: Begin with the End in Mind
How to start homeschooling? Remember, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Thank you, Steven Covey. So, let’s begin with the end in mind. What are our goals for the coming homeschool preschool year?
Our homeschooled preschooler is 3-years -old, what should I teach him? What should a child know by age 4? And what skills should a preschooler have?
We prepared two simple homeschool preschool checklists, that can tremendously help you with your preschool prep, learning and setting up your lessons plans.
Start Homeschooling – Plan your year
For our first homeschool preschool year, we decided to choose a traditional school year schedule, starting on September 1st, 2020 (One week before Labor Day) to June 8, 2021 (One week after Memorial Day). That’s 36 weeks of homeschool preschool. We planned
- Fall break (1 week)
- Christmas Break (2 weeks)
- Spring break ( 1 week)
We decide to take a long summer break and travel extensively if possible.
There are many options to plan your first homeschool preschool year, and you should choose, what fits your family best.
You can for example start homeschooling for four, five, six, nine weeks and take a short breaks for one-two weeks in between.
Even though, there are no legal requirements for homeschool preschool, I checked out the legal requirements for homeschooling in our state, before I started to plan our homeschool schedule. Our state requires at least four hours per school day for 180 days each academic year, so the 36 weeks cover this.
To keep things simple, I planed 36 homeschool preschool weekly themes in advance according to the season and what’s happening in the world.
Start homeschooling preschool daily schedule
Once you have your homeschool year planned out, you can easily plan your daily homeschool preschool daily schedule.
The best free online homeschool preschool resources
It’s never have been easier to start homeschooling and access quality education than nowadays.
The best free online homeschooling resources 2020 that we use are:
Homeschool Preschool Activities
Our goal for this year as a 3-year-old is to learn reading & writing, story telling, cutting with scissors & little bit of addition & subtraction. So, we choose our activities accordingly and practice, practice, practice.
We use our Circle Time Materials to trace letters, shapes, numbers and learn to cut and read. They include also over 120 Pages Circle Time Materials:
- NUMBER OF THE DAY 1-10
- LETTER OF THE DAY A-Z
- SHAPE OF THE DAY
- COLOUR OF THE DAY
- WHAT’S THE WEATHER LIKE TODAY?
- HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
- DAYS OF THE WEEK
- YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW
Why is homeschooling a good idea?
We learn not in the school, but in life. So, we do not learn for school, but for life. Note, that this is a 2000 year old phrase, that’s still so true today!
Considering what’s going on in the world right now, we decided to homeschool our 3-year-old instead of sending him to a preschool. Huh, you think, why should I homeschool my child? In a first place we think that homeschooling could be the smartest way to teach kids in the 21st century. We parents can have many different reasons for homeschooling our children, among others here are 5 great reasons why:
- Personalized learning, so your child can learn at the speed, and in the style, most appropriate for them. What is greater than that?
- You child can concentrate and learn more about his genuine interests instead of covering a standard material.
- Homeschoolers don’t deal with all the downsides of being around kids in a toxic school environment.
- Homeschoolers spend more time around adults in the real world
- Homeschooled kids are able to learn in a more harmonious environment.
You can have many reasons to choose a homeschool. And one of the greatest is flexibility and freedom. You can choose exactly what your child learns and make sure that, they have fun doing it. Give them the freedom to learn and grow feeling good about themselves.
Homeschool Legal Requirements
Basically, until your child turned 5 you can do homeschooling no matter whether you are based in EU or US, with no homeschool requirements.
After age 5, things get more complicated.
Well, if you are based in the EU, homeschooling is not really popular or even an option besides few exemptions. In Germany, for example you have an obligation to go to school once you turn 5 (Schulpflicht) instead of obligation to educate. And from my personal experience, I cannot recommend the German education nor other EU education systems, I’ve been in at all. Let’s put it that way – Pink Floyd said it best! We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control…All in all you’re just another brick in the wall, that’s how school and university felt to me. Learning for school not for life.
So, good that things are different in the US. More freedom to choose what’s best for your child.
Before starting to plan your homeschool schedule, check out the legal requirements for homeschooling in your state. It’s important to know your options for homeschooling, whether there is a notification required, whether you need a qualification, assessment requirements etc.
Happy Homeschooling!