Homeschool Preschool

Here are our homeschool preschool materials we are currently using, mostly from our local library.  I'm pretty much addicted with the library because it's so easy, the seem to have everything I can think of and it's free.  I go online, search their database, place holds and pick up!  LOVE IT!  We make library runs at least twice a week.


Help me be good series by Joy Berry is fabulous!  I grew up with these books (the older versions, it's been updated) and am enjoying sharing them with my daughter as she learns about good behavior through titles like Help Me Be Good About Whining, Help Me Be Good About Fighting, Let's Talk About Feeling Angry Let's Talk About Being Patient etc.    They are just really well done and my daughter really enjoys learning about how different behaviors can have certain consequences, like being selfish makes other's feel left out and not want to be around you....or being messy can make people feel unhappy and can also be dangerous.  The books illustrate the behavior, such as being greedy or disobedient, and the consequences of such behavior, and then teaches how to not be that way by showing examples of how to be generous or obedient instead and the good consequences that come from that.


Our next favorite series we are using is My "a" book (My first steps to reading series) by Jane Belk Moncure.  These books are really great for teaching phonics to your preschooler and my daughter gives them the stamp of approval!

We've also been renting some of the Animated Bible Stories by Nest Entertainment.


We have been practicing phonics in preparation for learning to read through activities like the sound game, as outlined in the book Mommy Teach me to Read.


and just received our sandpaper letters from amazon today to practice phonics and reading skills.




And we have been working on our Counting Apple Tree Book, my daughter loves this, I found it on this  website with preschool lesson plans.  Each day she colors a new page and we glue on more apples for learning numbers and counting.  Since it's the same picture each day, I try to switch up the art medium....crayons, markers, watercolor, watercolor crayon resist...and just switch it up a bit.

Then we do art lessons and I teach her how to draw using the Monart Method. 
These week we mastered spiders, dragon flies, butterflies, lady bugs and other simple insects.  I try to never draw on the same paper as her, I also show her step by step how to draw something on a separate sheet of paper as she follows along.  But sometimes we'll make collaborative artwork.  Other times, I'll just put out the paints, watercolor or tempura, or whatever other art materials we have and let her do her own thing.  The other day we had fun making up a song as illustrated it with the painting, and kept changing the painting as we sang out our story.  She loves that...the final product was just a big sheet of paper covered in muddy looking paint, but the process was a really fun experience and my daughter keeps talking about it and singing parts of the song we were making up. 

Another great book is .  I've used some ideas from this book for art projects to add to my preschool lesson plans to bring in some fun art history and creations.

It's all been pretty casual, our preschool lessons are not overly formal and most of the time my daughter would never think of it as work as she has loved everything we do throughout the day from our preschool lesson plans, it's more just like a variety of activities we do in spurts throughout the day.