Preschool is the perfect time to start homeschooling.

It’s where you begin to build an educational foundation for your child and instill in them a love for learning that they’ll carry for the rest of their lives.

If it’s your first time homeschooling, you might feel a bit overwhelmed or lost on where to start.

But preschool is pretty straightforward.

All you have to worry about is that you and your child should have fun, so it shouldn’t be stressful at all.

Of course, while your preschooler’s job is to play, you’ll still be incorporating lessons within their playtime.

Intertwining study with their natural tendency to have fun is the best way to teach them to enjoy learning.

And you’ll find that including educational activities during playtime isn’t hard at all.

Your little ones have actually begun learning already even before you’ve made the decision to homeschool them, and right now, they’re eager to learn more.

They’ll find all the topics, experiments, and concepts you’ll introduce to be exciting curiosities and adventures.

That said, the complexity of how you’ll approach homeschooling your preschooler depends on you.

Some parents simply go with the flow, allowing their kids to explore whatever they want, while some parents prefer to have some kind of structure with the help of routines, lesson plans, schedules, and a preschool homeschool curriculum.

Both are perfectly fine, as long as you keep things relaxed or at least have a good balance between playtime and formal lessons.

Luckily for you, play and study can be so closely interwoven with homeschooling that your child won’t even know the difference.

Just always remember to keep things light and engaging.

Your child won’t stay young and carefree forever, so give them room to enjoy their childhood and make sure they have fun while learning this year.

Preschool Homeschool Curriculum Schedule

A typical preschool homeschool curriculum includes language arts, math, science, and social studies.

Some parents opt to include additional subjects such as music, arts, physical education, and even bible studies depending on their religion or background.

In our sample daily schedule above, you’ll see the subjects highlighted in green and each one is for a duration of 15 minutes.

It might not sound like much, but 15 minutes per subject is more than enough for preschoolers.

If you want to include PE or bible studies in your daily sessions, you can include those under Outdoor Time or Circle Time.

Homeschool Hours Per Day in Preschool

So, within the 15-minute allotted time for each subject, you can include 1-3 short activities with brief breaks in between.

A Quick Disclaimer…

Download Our Daily Planner

Here’s another printable for you to plan out your daily homeschool sessions!

To use this planner, simply write down what you want to learn in the Objectives box, the exercises you’ll be doing in the Activities box, and everything you need to prepare in the Materials box.

What Your Kids Will Learn in Preschool

Because your preschooler will be so actively curious about everything around them, they’ll be learning new things constantly.

It’ll happen everywhere. Whether they’re playing with blocks in their room or pointing out plants, animals, and colors outdoors, there’s always something that they’ll pick up.

So you really don’t have to try too hard when teaching them.

If we’re talking about what kids need to learn in preschool, though, so that they’ll be prepared for kindergarten and the years ahead, then here are 5 important milestones your child needs to reach according to the American College of Education:

1. Take care of their basic needs such as tying shoelaces, showering, going to the bathroom, or putting on clothes on their own.
2. Build fine motor skills by learning how to properly use scissors, hold utensils when eating, put together puzzles, and draw with paintbrushes, pencils, crayons, and markers. Fine motor skills are crucial for learning how to write later on.
3. Have great listening skills in order to improve literacy, follow step-by-step instructions, and be better when socializing.
4. Get along with others and resolve conflict peacefully.
5. Play freely and let their imagination run wild, so they can be as creative as they can be.

Below, you’ll find specific learning objectives for language arts, math & science, social studies, and music & arts.

But you should only use them as general goals to look forward to and not strict requirements that your child should achieve.

Let their learning flow naturally and don’t force them to learn things if they’re not ready.

Remember that your child is unique and has their own pace of picking up new things, so just let loose and have fun in this new journey you’re taking together.

Preschool Homeschool Curriculum Subjects

Preschool Language Arts Curriculum:

Language Arts in preschool should be focused on helping your child build the skills that they need to learn reading, writing, and speaking.

Early literacy is linked with better academic performance, emotional and social wellbeing, reduced risk of juvenile delinquency, and adult productivity.

Usually, children start learning how to read in kindergarten or first grade, but it’s not like they suddenly get that ability during those years - what they learn and their experiences before those years greatly affect how fast they learn to read and how much they’re able to comprehend the text that they read.

To help your child become an early reader, you can help improve their phonological awareness and vocabulary with rhyming games, nursery rhymes, reading books together, and extended conversations with you and other adults.

Language Arts Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Writing

• Draw or write using pencils, markers, crayons, and computers
• Recite the alphabet, identify the letters (both upper and lower case), and even begin writing them
• Identify their name and begin writing it

Reading

• Know the difference between letters, numbers, and words
• Start pronouncing the sounds that letters make
• Recognize rhyming words when reading or talking
• Enjoy being read to
• Understand that you read from left to right, top to bottom, and front to back
• Understand that stories have a beginning, middle, and end
• Understand that a title is what you call the book, an author is the one who writes the book, and an illustrator is the one who draws a book’s pictures
• Show reading comprehension by answering questions about books that you’ve read together
• Name a story’s characters, setting, and events

Listening & Speaking

• Listen effectively to gain information, perform a task, or converse with a peer or adult
• Follow multi-step oral directions accurately
• Create, act out, and retell familiar or simple stories, songs, and rhymes
• Tell a simple story using personal experiences or picture clues
• Speak in fairly complex sentences
• Effectively communicate what they want, need, and what they’re feeling
• Participate in discussions while speaking clearly and audibly enough to be understood by adults
• Use new vocabulary to express emotions, experiences, ideas, and observations

Language Arts Worksheets & Resources

Language Arts Tips for Parents

Preschoolers learn best when what they’re learning is deeply integrated with playtime.

That’s why learning activities that include manipulatives, games, and movement are very effective.

For example, playing with playdough to cut letters or alphabet magnets to spell words are fun activities that also help build your child’s pre-writing and reading skills.

And reading out loud is always a staple.

Make sure to find time to read picture books with them, sing nursery rhymes, recite fun poems, and then ask questions about the stories to test their reading comprehension.

Preschool Math & Science Curriculum:

Your child might seem too young to be learning math and science, but you’ll be surprised how deep the inquisitiveness of young minds really goes.

With the help of engaging play activities, your child can grasp basic math and science concepts this early on.

Take advantage of your child’s innate curiosity during this age to help them develop an enthusiasm for scientific discovery and build foundational math skills.

If you nurture in them a positive outlook on math and science during this key developmental phase, they’ll most likely carry with them a lifelong love for the STEM subjects, and that’s pretty useful in today’s world.

Science and math education during early childhood can also pave the way to improve other skills and attributes such as analytical, communication, problem-solving, and reasoning skills.

Math & Science Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Math

• Count to 10, maybe even beyond that
• Show an understanding of symbols
• Recognize basic shapes such as circles and squares and replicate them in drawing
• Quantify objects using numbers and measurements
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of money and how it’s used
• Understand that you can add and take away from amounts
• Recognize simple patterns such as “blue yellow blue yellow”
• Complete simple puzzles

Science

• Make connections, comparisons, and matches between objects
• Express creativity and imagination
• Observe with their senses and define objects by their attributes such as size, shape, color, taste, or texture
• Separate and classify objects based on one attribute
• Ask questions and find ways to answer them by observing, inferring, or predicting

Math & Science Worksheets & Resources

Here are 23 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Math

Science

Math & Science Tips for Parents

Preschoolers have different paces when it comes to learning math and science, so don’t stress if your child doesn’t count as well as you’re expecting.

If you feel like they’re having a hard time, just be patient.

With the right tools and lots of encouragement, your child should be able to grasp the foundations of math and basic scientific skills.

Remember that you can always incorporate learning opportunities during playtime.

For example, if you’re building a tower using blocks, you can ask your child to count the number of blocks used.

When you’re eating, you can ask them to compare whose plate has more grapes.

And when you’re at the playground, you can ask them to identify the shapes and patterns they see.

Preschool Social Studies Curriculum:

Preschool is when your kid starts learning about the community beyond their home.

That means you can make social studies super fun by going on a lot of field trips.

You can help them better understand their neighborhood by having them observe various establishments such as neighboring houses, the bank, barbershop, bookstore, church, dry cleaners, fire station, grocery store, library, mall, movie theater, playground, police station, school, and even the senior-citizen center.

You can go to a diner to observe how meals are cooked and served or go to the bookstore to check out children’s books that attract their attention.

And when you get back home, you can set up a play area where you pretend to be in a grocery store, bank, or mall.

This will help them act out what they’ve observed from being outside.

Preschool social studies is also a good time to teach them about holidays, awareness for different cultures and traditions, who their relatives are, and where they live in the country or globe.

You can also have them meet new people, encourage them to be active in conversations, and this will help improve their literacy.

Social Studies Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Behavioral Skills

• Take care of their basic needs such as tying shoes, showering, going to the bathroom, or putting on clothes on their own.
• Demonstrate delayed gratification or resist the desire to grab an immediate reward in exchange for a later but better one
• Tidy up their space and return items to where they belong
• Display positive self-esteem
• Follow a daily routine
• Respect others’ property
• Feel proud when they finish something

Social Skills

• Engage in conversations and have a reasonable attention span
• Display politeness by not interrupting on private conversations or when someone’s still talking
• Engage in social activities in a small to large group setting
• Know how to share and resolve conflict with peers or friends
• Communicate their needs and what they’re feeling
• Follow basic directions
• Show love and respect toward their family and friends
• Understand that their actions have an impact on the people and environment around them
• Participate in role-playing

Culture

• Be aware of diversity in the community - that people have differences but fundamentally the same, being all human and experiencing the same emotions
• Know their neighbors, relatives, and close family friends
• Remember their birthday and significant holidays that their family celebrates

Social Studies Worksheets & Resources

Social Studies Tips for Parents

When it comes to social studies, regular outings are always beneficial, especially if you can organize field trips with other homeschooling families.

These trips don’t always have to be super expensive.

You can simply walk or drive around the community, go to parks, the public library, or the local museum.

Those should be plenty enough experience for your kid to be familiar with their neighborhood.

If there’s a homeschool support group near you, you can contact them to see if you can get involved with field trips or other activities that they organize.

Throughout the year, you can also take advantage of holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Ramadan, and Easter to teach your child about history and other cultures.

Preschool Music & Arts Curriculum:

Music and arts can be very beneficial for your child.

According to a study by the University of Southern California, musical experiences in early childhood can help improve kids’ intellect, socio-emotional skills, mathematical abilities, and overall literacy.

On the other hand, art helps improve children’s gross and fine motor skills too by helping them practice bilateral hand use and hand-eye coordination. These skills are very helpful when they start reading and writing later on.

Children learn by doing, so by making art or learning to play a musical instrument, you’re fostering their creativity, learning ability, and confidence.

Music & Arts Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Music

• Identify basic instruments like a drum, piano, violin, or trumpet
• Know the difference between a speaking voice and a singing voice
• Sing repetitive verses and choruses
• Participate in singing games
• Dance to music
• Have been exposed to a few basic musical concepts such as low and high pitch, rhythm, volume, and steady, fast, and slow beats
• Be creative and express themselves

Arts

• Cut using child-sized scissors
• Write, draw, or scribble on paper using crayons, markers, and pencils
• Know the primary colors (blue, red, and yellow) and that mixing two primary colors can yield another color (like blue and yellow producing green)
• Understand how colors represent themes (e.g., bright colors represent a happy mood; green and red are Christmas colors)
• Sculpt clay
• Work with different media
• Express themselves through their art and explain their compositions

Music & Arts Worksheets & Resources

Music & Arts Tips for Parents

Music and art are a great way to connect with your kids, and as long as they’re having fun with the musical and crafting games that you do with them, they’re sure to pick up important skills along the way.

Preschool Physical Development Curriculum:

Physical activities are just as important as academic lessons. They promote your kid’s health by improving their muscles and bones, cardiovascular fitness, motor skills, thinking skills, and overall body composition.

So, keep track of your child’s physical development with these milestones.

Physical Development Milestones

By the end of preschool, your child should be able to:

• Use scissors and other tools that require safe handling and coordination
• Jump and run
• Climb, stand on one leg, roll, and somersault
• Bounce, catch, hit, kick, roll, and throw a ball
• Ride, pedal, and keep balance on a bicycle, tricycle, or balance bike
• Play with small objects like blocks and playdough
• Move to music
• Correctly hold tools for art and writing
• Draw a circle
• Properly eat with a spoon and fork

Preschool End-of-Year Checklist

Your child’s first year of homeschooling should be a fun and exciting experience for both of you.

To keep track of this wonderful journey, here’s a checklist of the milestones you can look forward to them achieving.

But even if it’s tempting to teach them everything at once to see how far their talents go, remember to take it easy.

Whether you’re using a preschool homeschool curriculum or simply going with the flow, this year should be all about play.

Just focus on that and you’ll find how natural it is for your child to learn new things.