I've been doing a lot of "preschooly" things with Lilly lately and its had me wanting to write down my current thoughts on preschool because I've changed and grown a bit since doing what I called "Pre K" with Reaghan. I haven't had a complete turn around in thought process, but more of a going further down a road I was already travelling on, if that makes sense. ; )

I was so excited to start "school" with Reaghan but I knew I didn't want or need to do anything too soon. Even though I couldn't wait to start doing little themed crafts and "unit studies" with her I tried to keep the long term view in mind and held off on doing anything formal with her until she was 4. Her birthday is in September, so literally the week after she turned for, just a couple of weeks after everyone went "back to school", we started our little homeschool preschool. (Or Pre K ;)) I made a calendar board (we still use it in 1st grade so no regrets there!) and 2-3 times a week we would do school together. We would sing songs like the ABC's and Jesus Loves Me, read a bible story, and talk about the weather. Our school time only lasted about 30-45 minutes and we followed a letter of the week plan that I pulled together kind of on the fly each week by printing things off from Pinterest. If a holiday was coming up we would do little crafts or activities to go with it and sometimes little themes like Dental Health Week in February, or Farm Animals in the spring. It was SO much fun. We both really loved and looked forward to our scheduled time to do something intentional. 75% of the time it was low key, 25% of the time I was a little extra, and that's what I would go back and change. I would take that 25% that tried to introduce addition at 4 years old *face palm* and tuck it away for Kindergarten. Its NOT necessary to try to teach addition at 4! Or the 25% that got a little frustrated when she didn't remember a letter we had learned *cringe* and give her a kiss and just tell her what it is. Everything should be low key during the preschool years because here's what I realized after teaching Reaghan Kindergarten... she didn't need to know any of the things we learned that year of PreK before going in to Kindergarten. I do think it helped that she recognized her letters and numbers as she learned them all again, but the curriculum was geared towards teaching letters and numbers as if she didn't know them yet. 

Reaghan practicing cutting with Apple Printables After talking with some Kindergarten teachers, they shared that Kindergarten used to be a year to learn letters and numbers and maybe learn to read simple words by the end of the year, and now parents feel like they need to know all of those things before even getting to Kindergarten! I know I had that mindset a little bit with Reaghan, but praise God for growth and wisdom, yes?! Now that we've finished Kindergarten, are on to 1st Grade and have Lilly coming up into those preschool/prek years, I feel like I have a more solidified view on how to treat this preschool time and here it is: don't feel pressured to do preschool with your toddler. If you want to do something then keep it simple and fun and full of play!

I asked her to sort them by shape but she wanted to sort them by color instead. Fine by me!

Working together in one of the Dollar Tree books.

To kind of complete my thought process here, I just want to say that my heart behind talking about preschool is kind of two sides of one coin. On one side, I think it is so much fun to do preschool/prek things! I love doing a Letter of the Week with crafts and fun themes like Apples, Bugs, Ocean Animals, Farm life etc. When I did it with Reaghan like I talked about above, or when I do it with Lilly we had/have a blast!  Tons of positives came from it; one of them was that it just gave us a little schedule and structure for our week and it helped me be intentional about beginning bible reading with the girls. But even though I was trying to keep it relaxed, I realize looking back that somethings were a little overkill and just not needed. So while I still pull out the fun things to do with Lilly and I absolutely don't think there is anything wrong with these preschool things, I am even more sure of the other side of the coin. (Thank you Lord for growth and wisdom.) The other side is that none of it is absolutely necessary. Especially at 3. I get so sad when I see parents sharing that their 3 or 4 year old is crying because of "school work." Or when parents are stressing out over how to homeschool preschool for their kids this year since everything is still shut down due to Covid-19. I've seen a few friends having their 3 or 4 year old do "virtual preschool" with an online class and teacher. I'm not trying to pass any judgement, but virtual pre-schooling is so unnecessary. I am not a full on "unschooling" homeschool mama, I think there needs to be some genuine textbook learning that takes place as children get older, but not at 3. And not even at 4. At 3 they will learn all they need to know through playing and helping you go through your day. They definitely don't need to be sitting in front of a computer for virtual preschool. I understand some parents like preschool for the socialization aspect (and that's a completely different conversation for another day!) but virtual learning doesn't accomplish this. This year if you are finding yourself home with your toddler when you would've had them in preschool, please don't stress out. You don't need to do anything. Read books and play. If you feel like doing more then Pinterest is full of fun ideas but if its not your thing, then just let your toddler learn through playing. It's really okay!

One last thought - I am still valuing play time for Reaghan at 6 years old. Yes, she has book work to do, but if she and Lilly are engaged in some imaginative playtime when its time to start school, then I don't interrupt. We just start school a little later. I've found that its almost harder for her to get back in to the swing of playing after school but in the mornings they are full of fun ideas and I don't want to take that from them. There is so much time for book work and sitting still in her near future. Each year they will both naturally play less and sit more and so I want to protect and nurture their playtime as much as I can. The younger they are, the more their playtime should be seen as the real work of their childhood. 

Take a step back and evaluate preschool mama's... if you're having fun and enjoying your preschool time together then awesome! BUT if you're feeling stressed or your toddler is not into it then don't push it. Value their playtime. ABC's and 123's can wait, their precious toddler days can't. 

R E S O U R C E S

Check out Busy Toddler and Days with Grey for some fun, playful learning activities to do with your preschoolers!

Check out Arrows and Applesauce for Busy Binder ideas. She has an adorable digital download of a Preschool Journal for sale in her etsy shop, along with so many cute printables for learning and life with littles.

Teachers Pay Teachers is another great site for printables. Many of the downloads are for purchase but you can find tons of cute free items as well. Easy to find things using the search bar and filter for grade/price you're willing to pay. Love it!

We've been cruising right along the last 4 weeks with Kindergarten and now that we are officially one month in I feel like we've really hit our stride! The girls are settling nicely into their routines {some days are still a learning curve with Lilly!} and *I* am learning how to be flexible and still get all of our work and goals accomplished for the week.



I thrive on schedules. I like to know what to do and when to do it. Sometimes if our morning is going a little slower then planned I can feel the need to rush things to get back on track, but I've been trying to consistently remind myself that the slow, unhurried mornings are a huge perk to homeschooling. For instance, this morning after breakfast and chores the girls settled in to playing "house" together and I couldn't bring myself to interrupt that! A little voice on one shoulder was telling me to get them going and at the table for school but another voice was shouting "NO! Let them play!" And not because I'm being lazy and not taking her schooling seriously {the lies the enemy tries to tell me} but because play is so important for them at this age! If it happens naturally at 9am instead of during the scheduled "playtime" later at 11 then we'll adjust... Even though I know this is good and one reason for our homeschooling, it goes against my personality. But I'm learning to embrace the beauty and freedom that this flexibility can give for their little developing brains and personalities.

With that being said, I thought it would be fun to share a little bit of what we have set in place for our school day.

Learning concepts like "Less than" and "Greater than" with counting bears.

Even though I was homeschooled growing up and always had an idea of how I wanted to homeschool my kids, I was still a little overwhelmed and intimidated when it came time to actually get started.  Now that we've started, it feels completely natural.

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it here in any of my posts, but Mark and I are planning on homeschooling our girls {and other kids we hope to have one day!}. We have several reasons for wanting to keep our kids home that I might explore in another post one day but for now I just wanted to share what we're doing for Reaghan for Preschool.