It’s hard to believe I’ll be going through my 4th and final year of preschool with my youngest. 🥹 He will turn 4 this September and I’m so excited, it is one of my favorite years!
For preschool we do a lot of learning through play and exploring the world around us. Counting toys, calling out colors when we see them, fine motor skills, and reading lots of books together. For any actual “schoolwork” I try to focus on learning the alphabet letters and their sounds.
Our core curriculum we will be using is the Preschool Course from the Good and the Beautiful. This will be my 4th time using this program and it is my FAVORITE! It is so well done, full of color, hands-on learning, lots of games, and it is thorough. Each of my kids have loved it and I’m excited to use it again. We will be doing one lesson about 2-3 times per week together, which only takes around 15 minutes each day. It comes with the course book, practice sheets, and the folder activities.
We also have the Doodles & Pre-Writing for Littles book from The Good and the Beautiful to practice good pencil grip and fine motor skills for writing. These are free for him to do whenever he wants, usually while I’m working with my older kids he will do a few pages at a time. (I like to buy the PDF version of these so I can print him another set if he goes through it quickly.)
The best way I have always taught the alphabet is to focus on one letter per week.
This past year my niece came over once during the week and we did an alphabet letter together. My son joined us and loved it! We used the Animal ABC’s Curriculum from Teaching My Littles that made it so easy. For every alphabet letter it provides you with picture book recommendations, snack ideas, sensory bin ideas, instructions & worksheets for 2 alphabet crafts, plus 5 worksheets like coloring pages, do-a-dots, q-tip painting, and a mini book.
Each week we kept it really simple and I would introduce the new letter with my favorite book, the Big Book of ABC’s. Then we would complete the letter craft, do-a-dot page, and would read one picture book together. The guide has great book suggestions I just grabbed from my library, but I also love having these Alpha Tales stories. These are so easy to grab and read for each letter with fun stories using words that start with each alphabet letter. (Great to have for those tricky letters like I and X.)
They completed all their letters A-Z and my son has them all hanging on his wall in room. He loves to show everyone who comes over!
Since he already completed all these projects, we won’t be doing them again next year and will only be using the preschool course from TGATB. However, I may print more of the worksheets for each letter again that he can stamp and color whenever I’m working with my older kids.
If you are using both these letter crafts and the preschool course together, don’t stress about matching the letters up to what they are learning in the curriculum. Sometimes they learn a few letters at a time and it does a lot of review. I would just focus on one letter per week and go through the curriculum as is. You can even pick a theme for your alphabet letter for more activities, projects, or field trips. For example, when you learn the letter A, have the week be all about apples. Taste test different apple types, go to an apple orchard and pick apples, make different apple recipes, etc.
Some fun extras we love:
Poke-A-Dot Alphabet Eye Spy is another fun book we love to read anytime for letter recognition practice and review. You can read each section or I call out an object, or letter, for them to find and pop!
Big Thoughts for Little People: ABC’s to Help You Grow by Kenneth N. Taylor. (*Pictured is the old edition and cover.) This is a great book we love to read with each alphabet letter as well. Each page has a letter of the alphabet and a Christian value or moral lesson beginning with the same letter. Kids are able to search and find the lesson being modeled (or not) in the illustrations and use the discussion questions on how they can apply the lesson to their lives.
We love these alphabet play dough mats! I print them double sided and laminate them so they can be used over and over. You can also print them and put them in a dry erase sheet protector.
My son also has a Learning Toolbox Busy Binder from The Five Girl Schoolhouse that he uses while I work with my big kids. We have the Farm Set and it is full of great puzzles and matching to work on many different preschool concepts (shapes, colors, letters, etc.) There are many other Learning Toolbox’s available! *This is a PDF download, so there is a little prep work in printing, laminating, and using velcro dots so it is useable over and over.
If your children love magnatiles, be sure to print these FREE magnatiles alphabet and number cards from the Magnatiles website! My kids love them and they are great practice, or to keep them busy while working with older kids.
For holidays and other fun themes, check out totschooling.net! They have tons of FREE resources with worksheets or hands-on games for young kids. We have loved these for many years.
This Melissa and Doug large train floor puzzle has been a favorite of ALL my kids! It has really big pieces and makes a super long train with the alphabet letters. They love to put it together and it is great for learning alphabetical order!
If you enjoy the Big Book of ABC’s, you might enjoy these also for preschool.
If I have learned anything in my 3 other years doing preschool, SIMPLE is best! They only have an attention span of about 15 minutes at a time and that is perfectly ok. Don’t try to do too much, for too long, and give them lots of opportunity to learn through PLAY! If they aren’t interested, don’t force it. Maybe wait another month or so and try again. If they don’t learn all their letters or letter sounds before they are to start Kindergarten, that is ok too! Every child learns at their own pace, in their own time. Just keep playing, keep practicing, and they will eventually get it!
I hope this post was encouraging to you for a few simple things to do with your preschooler. If you ever have any questions, feel free to send me an email or put them in the comments below. I would love to help you start your homeschool journey.
– Lindsay
*Also be sure to check out this older post with lots of fun ideas and recommendations, as well as a list on what they should know before Kindergarten: Preschool Crash Course for Learning at Home.
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