Preschool Curriculum
Fear of Failing
If homeschool supplies were a fruit, I would have a whole fruit salad of preschool curriculum. Currently, I have four children. Three of them learned how to read in public school. My four year old Baby Cakes is my first to learn how to completely read at home. That’s not to say that I didn’t educate my other children before they were sent to public school. It’s just that Baby Cakes is my first child to have the total weight of reading on my shoulders. This has caused significant stress on my heart. Not to bash homeschoolers or struggling readers, but I really was proud of our public school. They really were phenomenal at teaching my other children how to read. I didn’t want anything less for Baby Cakes just because she is home for Kindergarten. Here’s a short review on what different things we have done, and what we have stuck with for now.
“No teaching is equal, more spiritually rewarding, or more exalting than that of a mother teaching her children.”
President Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, Feb. 2000, 16, Children quote results, Read the Scriptures, 2023. http://readthescriptures.com/Children_quote.ashx
Zoo Phonics
Years ago, before any of my kids started public school, I was trying to teach my oldest child Scooby to read. I had tried lots of things, but I had no idea what I was doing. One day I asked my sister-in-law what she used. She introduced me to zoo phonics. All my kids have learned their letter sounds with zoo phonics. It’s very effective, and it is also very quick for limited attention spans. After my kids got the letter sounds down, I would move onto teaching them 2 and 3 letter words with the zoo phonics cards. I couldn’t recommend this enough.
All About Reading
Another program I tried was All About Reading. On several websites, AAR was mentioned as very effective at teaching to read. I decided to order the preschool curriculum to try it out. With the kit, you can choose to order a zebra puppet named Ziggy. This is hands down my daughter’s favorite part of the curriculum and her best friend. If we’re doing homeschool and Ziggy isn’t around, the whole world is put on hold before we can continue. I have to admit, even though he was rather expensive, I really like him too. Ultimately, this curriculum just wasn’t open and go enough for me. It told me to read to my daughter for 20 minutes after a long lesson. With three other kids to do school with all day, this really stressed me out. I’m sure this curriculum would’ve been very successful, but mostly my daughter and I just used part of the kit as a game. If you decide to do this curriculum, I highly recommend that you photocopy all of the pages (if that is ok) and bind them to save you time.
Hooked on Phonics
Moving on, Hooked on Phonics is an outstanding option. This very thorough curriculum comes with books, cd’s, online resources, and workbooks. It is a very good curriculum. I didn’t feel like it was super helpful with my daughter at the time because she seemed to be somewhere in between the preschool and kindergarten level. However, I plan on pulling this back out soon and using it to highly supplement the other things we are pursuing.
The Good and the Beautiful
All of my other children are learning language arts with The Good and the Beautiful. I wanted Baby Cakes to have that as her main language arts as well. We got the preschool, kindergarten preparation, and kindergarten curriculum so that she would be ready for everything that is in the kindergarten level. I can’t say if this is effective at teaching letter sounds or not because my daughter learned her letter sounds using zoo phonics. However, I feel like it is a gentle but thorough program. Yet, I do wish there were more reading books included with the kindergarten kit and more words to sound out in the daily kindergarten prep lessons.
Internet App Options
Two app resources I have loved for are ABC Mouse and Reading Eggs. These are great for Baby Cakes, but they are also good for my other kids. I decided to get Reading Eggs to help with Baby Cakes, but also because there’s is something to teach reading to all of my children on it. Furthermore, the subscription comes with Math Seeds. It is a math supplement for children up to 9 years old. My older daughter struggles with math so I loved that I could have her practice math on my phone. The same is true with ABC Mouse. My children 4-9 use this app and they really enjoy it. However, I feel like quite a bit more learning happens with Math Seeds and Reading Eggs. Having said that, our family uses both resources right now. When the subsciption ends, I probably won’t get ABC Mouse again, but I will definetely be keeping Reading Eggs and Math Seeds. For Mom’s with multiple age children and especially with a preschooler that you feel like is getting left behind, these programs are a life saver. When my daughter is really wanting attention and wanting to learn, I hand her my phone. She either sits by me, sits by Daddy, or hangs out in her room and plays these apps. Nonetheless, with Reading Eggs, I like her by me so I can help her more. This program is also really nice when I am working with either my 7 or 9 year old and I don’t have something else for the other sybling to do that’s independent. If you want something else that’s free to teach how to read, Duo ABC (like Duo Lingo) is an amazing, free option that doesn’t require internet to work. My daughter does that sometimes for fun when we don’t have cell phone service. I like these options for when I am busy. I just hand them my phone, and they go find a comfy spot to learn on their own.
Older Syblings Read
The last resource, that is not a curriculum, that I can’t recommend enough is older siblings. I wish I had more time to read to my youngest child. My older daughter Bear Bucks started a habit of reading to her younger two siblings. Before going to bed they all ask me if she can read to them before bed. The thing is, Bear Bucks loves this. She is such a little mommy. It makes me so happy that at least sometime in our crazy chaotic life, I can take a second and listen to her happily reading to her siblings on each side of her. It really warms my momma heart.
“The most common and the monstrous defect in the education of the day is that children fail to acquire the habit of reading.”
GoodReads Inc, Charlotte M. Mason Quotes, Goodreads 2023, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/106311.Charlotte_M_Mason
I hope this overview has been helpful for you. After giving this review of all the crazy things I have done, please don’t forget to just let your little ones be kids. They will learn so much just from playing. I know with all the amazing resources out there, we can teach our children to read. It is a difficult and scary process, but I know it will be so rewarding.