Today, I’m sharing our selections for a classical Christian curriculum for the preschool years. I’d love to hear your plans, too!
I’m going to be honest and tell y’all that these curriculum posts are HARD for me to write.
Not because I’m over here, hand-wringing about what curriculum to choose. (We’ve been on the Memoria Press bandwagon for seven years.) It’s because I really don’t have any idea how to fit it all in. #truestory
At the moment, we’re juggling students in sixth grade, twins in a second/third grade split, and a kindergartener at ‘away school’ (more on that later), plus Baby Daniel at home. I also work outside the home 2 days per week, and have a real problem with not cramming a bazillion activities into our calendar. (Hello, cross country, AHG, Catholic co-op, and weekly riding lessons. Aaack!)
I’m going to save myself another dose of crazy, and take a very relaxed approach to preschool with Daniel this year — much like we did with his big sister, Maeve.
During our heavier school days for the big kids (Tuesdays and Thursdays), my plan is to keep him alongside us, but occupied with some of our favorite toddler and preschool toys and tools.
Ready to take a look at the pieces of our curriculum?
We’ll be using the Memoria Press Classical Preschool Curriculum again. This is a very gentle approach to preschool, set up as a four day week. In our family, we will spread one lesson out over 2 weeks. (Find a lesson plan sample here)
The curriculum is based around reading excellent children’s literature and reinforcing letters, numbers, colors and shapes. There’s also some simple memory work, prayers and a few Bible verses. It addresses all areas of his development – from fine motor skills to letter recognition as well as gross motor and coordination practice.
A benefit of having older children? I can ‘assign’ the board books to my twin boys to read to Daniel while I’m working on Latin with Rachel or handwriting with Maeve.
Books in Our Classical Christian Curriculum – Preschool
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Jesus Is With Me
Jesus Hears Me
Big Red Barn
Little Fur Family
From Head to Toe
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Numbers, Colors, Shapes
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
My First Counting Book
The Animals’ Christmas Eve
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
Prayers for Children
Jesus Knows Me
The Best Mouse Cookie
Bunny’s Noisy Book
Goodnight Moon
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
The Very Busy Spider
Good Night, Gorilla
Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings
My Very First Book of Shapes
ABC: Amazing Alphabet Book!
Put Me in the Zoo
Cars and Trucks From A to Z
Big Dog … Little Dog
My First Real Mother Goose
1 Is One
My very best resource for purchasing our books is Thriftbooks.com. They have free shipping on orders over $10, as well as a frequent buyer’s program.
Another homeschool confession? I stink at arts and crafts.
I’m a control freak, and I hate the 30 minute set up for 10 minutes of mess.
This fall, I’m swallowing my pride and letting my kids enjoy themselves. I’ve signed up for access to fall art lessons for preschoolers on video.
Maeve and Daniel will get to create apples, leaves, spiders and candy corn, all with chalk pastels. I’m certain my big kids will jump in, too, even though I have plans to explore some of the more advanced chalk pastels with them. They always enjoy lessons with the smaller kids, too!
Chalk pastels are inexpensive, have a easy cleanup, but with a huge fun factor for kids. These lessons will keep us busy all the way up to Halloween.
When colder weather hits, I know we’re going to be going a little stir crazy. At that point, I’m planning on packing everyone up and heading to our local park, using these Preschool NaturExplorers as a guide.
More Resources for Your Classical Christian Curriculum for Preschool
I’d love to hear from you in the comment box! What are you using in your preschool this fall at home?
All those classic preschool books make me so happy just looking at the titles 🙂
Oh, Gina! Thanks for popping over! <3
These books are completely precious. We keep them separate from our other board books, since they are from school. They are WELL loved in our house. I'm thinking it's time to replace Goodnight Gorilla. My mom bought it for us when Maeve was small. When I first opened it, I thought, "What in the world? This book has no words!" --- later, I saw how genius it was. My kids adore that one, and it's getting pretty worn. 😉 Dear Zoo is another favorite of ours. (not on this preschool list, but it's awesome)
We’re going to try Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven with our 4 year old this year.
So Great!! TY so much for sharing all of this!!