Homeschool Preschool With My Father’s World

As I said in my last post, we recently began our seventh year of homeschooling. Our journey first started when my now 5th grader was four years old. And now my youngest is right around the corner from turning four years old. Time is funny, isn’t it?

While my littlest has been learning all along, I decided to officially start him on his school journey this year. The preschool years are full of wonder and excitement, and it’s a privilege having another son to see through these early learning stages. My background is in ECE, so I’m especially fond of these years.

Today, I want to share how we are doing homeschool preschool with a curriculum that has been delightful.

When planning our school year, I knew I wanted a Christ-centered and play-based curriculum that would be both meaningful for him and manageable for me. While you don’t necessarily need a curriculum for a three or four year old, I was searching for something that would provide tools so I didn’t have to create the wheel myself, especially since some of the curriculum for my oldest is parent-intensive.

We used My Father’s World for my oldest son’s Kindergarten year, so I was somewhat familiar with the style of My Father’s World. It blends together methods of Charlotte Mason, Classical, and Unit Studies.

I glanced over their preschool curriculum as well as a few others. After lots of pondering, praying, and going back and forth—I decided on:

My Father’s World, All Aboard the Animal Train

It’s an all-in-one, year-long, preschool curriculum that points little ones to God, marketed for 3’s or older 2’s who are ready for more structure.

It comes with almost everything you need including a teacher’s manual, student pages, lots of good books, and other hands-on materials such as discovery blocks. I love that it is gentle and allows room for adding your own activities if desired.

My son is three, turning four within weeks and it’s been perfect for him! I was concerned parts of it would be too gentle for him because he is already identifying letters, counting to 20 and beyond with one-to-one correspondence, and he recently started showing interest in spelling words. My Father’s World has a pre-K level for 4’s that I looked over too…but the animal theme, play-based structure, and literature included with the preschool level just seemed like the right core curriculum for my little guy. I am meeting him at his level by supplementing with a few extra activities, but at his age especially, it’s most important that learning is fun and play-based.

He will get one more year of preschool after this and we will likely continue on with the pre-K level of My Father’s World next school year, so it should work out nicely.

The foundation of MFW preschool curriculum is so sweet for little ones and I have zero regrets about choosing it.

There are 12 units, each three weeks long. Every unit pairs together an animal, color, and virtue. Right now we are on: Duck, Yellow, Patience. The Teacher’s Manual is very easy to follow and has a page of plans for each week of the unit.

I also like that there is five days worth of material, because we do school five days a week since I have an older child too. It could easily be combined into fewer days, but it works well for us as is. I keep Fridays lighter for both my boys and Fridays are designed to be light in this curriculum as well.

The curriculum also comes with quality student pages that I have organized in a binder for him. There is a predictable pattern in each unit—repeated activities, just with a different animal and focus for each unit. Predictability and repetition are so good for little ones.

There are four main parts to each day (I’ve slightly modified the curriculum to meets our unique needs):

• Together Time (for us this is our morning basket time done together with both boys)
• Story Time (I read stories with my son while my oldest completes independent work. This is also when we do the activities suggested in the curriculum for “together time” which are often pages from his student binder or a game)
• Outside Time (my boys enjoy an outside break together in the backyard mid-morning)
• Surprise Time (we have five bins filled with different activities and he chooses one per day – he loves this! The bins are labeled 1-5 and he chooses a number from a container each day so we cycle through all the bins)

Sensory Bins

A sensory activity (like play dough or rice) is supposed to be one of the five surprise time activities, but I’ve found sensory activities to be SO beneficial that sensory bins have their own spot in our daily schedule.

For this unit’s sensory activities, I set up our sensory table for water play with ducks and also made yellow play dough.

Set-Up

Last year, we added a shelf to our school room with my youngest in mind. Every unit, I change out the display area and sometimes toys on the shelves to match what we’re learning about. It’s been so helpful having this spot.

Right now it’s set-up for our duck unit.

Letter & Number of the Week

This curriculum focuses on numbers 1-5 and has an optional alphabet art activity to gently learn about the alphabet. In addition to the provided activities, we do a little more to practice the alphabet and higher numbers since my son is ready for more. He will get more in-depth practice with the alphabet next school year and I don’t believe in pushing little ones, but when they have interest in something it can be a great opportunity to provide supporting activities.

We just started gently incorporating a letter of the week and number of the week, and as you can see on the above shelves, we are currently on the letter B and the number 2.

On a side note: One of my favorite small shops that has quality wooden toys and learning tools is Treasures From Jennifer. My son’s name puzzle is from there and it’s helped him learn how to spell his name. He’s so sweetly proud of himself that he can spell his name. The calendar we use during morning time is also from there and it’s wonderful!

Books

Good books are some of the most valuable learning tools. Both of my children enjoy reading and looking at books, it’s the best. One thing that drew me to this curriculum is that it provides several wonderful books and story time is woven into each day.

For each animal unit, it also provides a long list of additional books you can check-out from the library related to that animal. I love that they provide this list—it saves me so much time! And I’ve always been able to find a good handful of books from it.

A week or two before we start a new unit, I use the list to put books on hold at the library so that I can pick them up all at one time. Right now, we have a pile of duck books that I keep in a designated bin. Then when we’re done with the unit, I swap them out with the next set of books. So easy!

Not only am I enjoying teaching this curriculum, but my son seems very smitten with it too. He loves having special story time with me everyday and gets excited for surprise time when he gets to pick a number and see what’s in the corresponding bin.

It’s gentle, yet rich with learning opportunities. And it’s very manageable teaching it with the commitment level that comes with a 5th grader.

Homeschooling With Two Different Ages

I also want to chisel away at the idea that you need to have children close in age for homeschooling to be successful. As a Christian, I know that God’s ways aren’t limited to a boxed in way of thinking. He gave me children spaced apart in age and laid it on my heart to homeschool—so I choose to trust Him.

I’m intentional about finding some activities my boys can do together. We start our day with Morning Basket. It’s a coming together time that benefits both my kids. Once a week we do Poetry Tea Time around the kitchen table. I have boys, so it’s not a fancy tea party, but we have warm drinks and special treats while we read everything from poetry to chapter books. My boys love it! I also have the boys come together at the kitchen table for art activities and handicrafts. And of course, they spend plenty of time outdoors together.

The younger learns from the older and the other way around, too.

If you have any questions about homeschooling with a preschooler, I’m happy to answer them! I’m planning to write a future post about our 5th grade curriculum picks for the year, so be on the look-out for that in the coming weeks if you have interest. That’s a bit more in-depth, so I started with the simpler one.