1st month of Preschool Homeschool

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been “doing school” for a month already, but we’re wrapping up week 5 (we took a couple of weeks off)! If you haven’t already, check out my post, Preschool Planning – 3-year-old, to get an idea of where we started. This year I purchased the Gentle & Classical Preschool curriculum because I liked that it had a focus on literature-based learning and not bookwork. I’ve been mostly happy with that purchase, and I’ll share what I’ve liked and maybe what I would change.

Things I’ve liked:

• My favorite part of it is that I have some guidance for adding structure to our day in a way that still lets the kids be kids. A three-year-old isn’t ready to sit at a table for very long at all, and this curriculum doesn’t require that.

• As I said in my post about picking this curriculum, I love the shift of mentality and vocabulary away from “schedule” to more of a “rhythm.” I’m still working on finding the rhythm that works best for us, but I can still know that I can “check the school boxes” even while I’m figuring that out. Life is always changing and my biggest takeaway from toddler mom-hood is that something that works one week may not work the next, so flexibility is key. This curriculum supports that.

• There are a lot of good resources recommended by the curriculum that I hadn’t heard of otherwise. Even with the free version, you can see them listed, so I’m not spoiling anything here by saying that some of the songs used for the Bible verses have been good at keeping my three-year-old’s attention and have encouraged the memorization of Scripture. The same artist who did the verse album also has some catechism albums.

• I like the book lists included in the handicraft and activity guide. I like that there are enough books that I can find a decent number of them at my library, but aren’t so many that I feel overwhelmed.

• I love how excited my three-year-old is at the start of a week when it’s time to change out the cards on our “school board.” I include her in that process, and she like’s commenting on which cards are changing and remembering cards that were there previously (it’s a great impromptu review that has become a habit).

Things I may/have changed:

• My kids really like music and dancing around. From the first week, I realized that they would benefit from listening to the songs just as much as sitting and listening to me read– maybe even more if I’m being honest. I started creating playlists on Spotify that I use whenever we need to prep for a hard transition, like stopping play time to have lunch, that have the added bonus of being educational. It’s a win-win for me because it gets their bodies and minds moving, and also gets them in the frame of mind to be ready to listen.

• I’ve added in learning a classic hymn and a modern kid’s worship song. I think it’s a good way to add in some spiritual truths through music. I’ve been creating a plan to listen to the same one for 3-4 weeks at a time since they’re longer songs and I’m already hearing her sing them throughout her day.

• Although I love the simplicity of the art and music sections, I would rather get a small exposure to more artists/composers over the course of the year. There are so many options, but even just having it change every few units would give a little more exposure versus only doing a few all year long.

• While a lot of the activities are neat and geared loosely toward the main book of the week, I end up supplementing a lot of activities too. We do a lot of crafts in our household!

Overall, I’m still happy with my choice to use the Gentle and Classical Preschool for this year. While there are little things I would change and things I haven’t even mentioned, I also think that’s part of the beauty of it. It gives you the tools to get started and acts as a spring board to be customizable for each family. I also realize that we’re only a month into this, and some of the things I would change could be as they are for a reason I don’t know yet. I can’t wait to keep encouraging the library trips and learning things that sound interesting to her. Ultimately that’s the focus for this age — making learning fun and giving her the tools she needs to foster an encouraging learning environment.