How to Teach Preschool at Home
Are you contemplating teaching your preschooler at home? If so, that awesome! Let me give you the basics of how to teach preschool at home.
I have three kids who did preschool at home, and they are now all in elementary school and are thriving! Preschool was such a special time, and I’m so thankful I was able to share it with them and be the one to teach them throughout those years.
Am I Qualified to Teach Preschool at Home?
One of the first questions we ask when deciding if we want to homeschool our kids is, “Am I qualified?” And the short answer is yes.
You’ve already been teaching your kids up until this point. You’ve taught them how to get dressed, put their plate in the dishwasher, sing the alphabet song, tie their shoes, and so on. Teaching preschool at home is a continuation of this teaching and learning process you already have with your child.
So where do you start? Let me give you 5 essentials for teaching preschool at home:
5 Essentials for Teaching Preschool at Home:
1. Read Aloud Every Day
If there is ONE thing that would benefit your child the most while teaching preschool at home, it is cuddling up together and reading aloud everyday. So, pick a time, grab your favorite picture books and make it happen.
Marilyn Jager Adams said it best when she said, “Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read.” Who knew that a such a simple activity, could make such a profound influence on our kid’s lives?!
2. Understand that Play Time is Essential
Give your kids plenty of time to play. Play is essential! When children play, they are problem-solving, processing information, and fostering creativity.
Not convinced? Read this quote by Fred Rogers which says, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” Let them play!
3. Build Age-Appropriate Life Skills
One of the best things about teaching preschool at home is being able to teach everyday, life skills. These skills include things like good hygiene, how to make a bed, how to fold a towel, shaping cookie dough, organizing books, taking care of animals, or how to tie their shoes. The list goes on.
In a classroom setting, only a handful of these skills can be taught. At home, however, your child can get one on one instruction from an intentional, loving parent. That cannot be duplicated.
4. Foster Healthy Relationship Skills
Creating an atmosphere of safety, love, and acceptance is creating an environment for learning. Not only that but home it is a great place to foster healthy relationship skills that are often neglected.
At home, You can teach your preschooler how to look into someone’s eyes when they are talking to them. You can instruct your kids on how to listen, have self-control, display manners, and be polite. And the list goes on.
5. Offer Intentional Instruction
While preschool is a time for play, exploration, reading, and life skills, a little intentional learning goes a long way!
With that being said, plan some time to focus on things like letters, numbers, and writing your child’s name. At this age, we learned a lot of little songs with our kids that taught them the alphabet, counting and so on. We also went on walks and talked about animal life cycles, how the seasons work, and the names of colors that we saw.
Intentional learning doesn’t mean sitting down with text books, it means answering their questions, starting conversations, and providing instruction and practice where needed.
Things You can Teach your Preschooler at Home
Now for the nitty gritty of things you can be working on with your preschooler at home! Here is a general outline of things you can cover. (Be sure to get the free printable, detailed list of Things Your Preschooler Can Learn at Home.)
Topics to cover while teaching preschool at home:
- Uppercase letters
- Lowercase letters
- Letter sounds
- Beginning/ending sounds of words
- Sight words
- Prewriting
- Counting, numbers, matching, patterns, colors, shapes, size
- Name writing, days of the week, months, body parts, emotions
- Life skills
- Songs and movement
- fine and gross motor skills
- Extras: Science, history, Bible
Three Printable Resources For Teaching Preschool at Home
There are a ton of resources for teaching preschool at home. However, when we had little ones, I was in search of simple resources that I could pull out every day and use with them, and I just couldn’t find the right thing.
So created my own. Here are the preschool resources that I created and used with my little ones. Each of these resources are available for purchase.
1. Printable Preschool Daily Skill Builder
This Preschool Daily Skill Builder is a no-prep, print and go resource that focuses on preschool skill-building in seven different areas. (Calendar, Personal, Math, Writing, Letters, Reading, and Fine Motor Skills)
2. Printable Preschool Learning Folder
The Preschool Learning Folder is an interactive notebook that focuses on the building of cognitive and fine motor skills for toddlers thru Kindergarten. Even more, kids LOVE this resource. (This is a no-writing resource.)
3. Printable Preschool Prewriting Book One
A great way to introduce writing to your little ones is to start them on some simple prewriting activities. This Prewriting Book One focuses on building fine motor skills while introducing the basic strokes of handwriting, as well as, shape recognition. (There are two other books in this series).
Preschool at Home – Q & A
1. How can I do preschool at home?
Read aloud, facilitate play, teach life skills, build relationship skills, and offer intentional instruction on basic preschool concepts including letters, numbers, counting, patterns, colors, etc.
2. Is it possibly to homeschool a preschooler?
Is it possible to homeschool a preschooler? Yes! In fact, preschool is elective mandatory in most states and does not require written permissions or reporting.
3. What should I be teaching my 4 year old at home?
Letters, numbers, letter sounds, prewriting, counting, patterns, colors, seasons, calendar, songs and movement, life skills, relationship skills, and fine/gross motor skills.
More Articles and Resources for starting Preschool at Home
- Preschool Page
- Things your Preschooler Can Learn at Home
- Ten Thrifty Ways to Teach the Alphabet
- Life Skills Your Preschooler Can Learn This Summer
- Gluten Free Tactile Products for Kids
- The Importance of Building Prewriting Skills in Preschoolers
- Lessons I’ve Learned From Teaching my Child to Read
- 50 Sensory Spelling Activities
- Benefits of Reading Aloud to Your Kids
- How to Raise Preschoolers Who Love Books
