After focusing so much on our older boys in past posts, I figure it’s about time to highlight our preschooler, Levi. But be forewarned: I am not a creative preschool teacher. Fortunately, I don’t have to be because he’s pretty creative all by himself.
Disclaimer: Our 4-year-old has the normal attention span of a 4-year-old boy. (At least… I think it’s normal?) Thankfully, he likes to color, but he doesn’t stick with an activity for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time. So… we mostly use a coloring book, a notebook, play-doh, and Wikki Stix.
That’s a boy who loves his Wikki Stix.
Our goals for preschool are to master (or practice) the following:
- Obedience and Getting Along with Brothers
- The names and sounds of each letter of the alphabet (short vowel sounds first)
- How to write each letter of the alphabet
- To write numbers to 20
- To count to 100
- To recognize numbers to 100
- To recognize some Greek (or Latin) letters
- To learn to draw basic shapes of (and label) continents and oceans
- Narrate some Bible stories (mainly through simple puppetry, our Grapevine Studies timelines, or however he chooses)
- Some Living Math (He’s learning a lot of math skills just from life itself.)
- Memory Work (Scripture, Poetry)
[Note: Next year for Kindergarten we aim to start Saxon 1 (for math) and All About Reading Level 1 (for phonics/reading).]
Our 4-year-old’s notebook consists of 7 sections:
- Calendar
- ABCs
- 123s
- Latin
- Greek
- Geography
- Other
Calendar Pages are from Motherhood on a Dime. Click here.
Cursive alphabet is from the Script-n-Scribe Roller Coaster Writer. Manuscript ABC pages are from PrintNPractice. Click here for manuscript uppercase and lowercase alphabet sheets.
Also available are the colorful A-Z Handwriting Pages from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Get them here.
123 pages are from PrintNPractice Worksheets. Click here for number writing practice sheets.
Latin: Our Latin coloring pages, requested by our 4-year-old so he can do Latin like his older brothers. Click here.
Greek. Greek Coloring Pages by Classical Academic Press. Click here.
Geography: Our Blob Map Template and our current map from our Missions Curriculum. Click here.
We also like Ducksters Geography for the key maps you can color in like the one shown below.
Our Blank Handwriting/Illustration pages, but he’s not quite there yet. (He does like to draw in the illustration section at least.) You may want to check out this list of free copywork pages if your child is ready for writing.
For Fine Arts, we have our Fine Arts Notebooking Packet.
[Note: I’ve found that our 4-year-old will complete more if I take out the sheets for him to complete and then put them back into the notebook when he’s finished.]
That wraps up our notebook time. But let me go ahead and spill the beans here and admit… we don’t get to everything every single day. This is, however, the beginning of a habit that’s simple and works well for us.