What spilled yogurt taught me about homeschooling preschool

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Spilled yogurt showed me homeschooling preschool without curriculum is possible

Without a curriculum or a book, I knew my preschool needed:

more pattern work and practicing counting. This is a flannel set for counting it comes with several sets of pictures. It’s great for working on patterns and having your kids add or subtract concrete numbers. I remember loving flannel boards as a kid, and my preschoolers seem to like them too.

putting together a floor puzzle, I inherited several when my niece and nephew got too big for them, then I picked up more at thrift stores.

Reading and acting out our Nursery Rhyme book (read more about that in our Nursery Rhyme section)

You know what I did do when my kids were in preschool?

We went to the library a lot. We checked out books by the dozens, and went to reading hours.

We made crafts and strengthened that hand grip that is so important in later life.

We snuggled and read books.

I read other blogs to get great ideas for fun activities.

We played outside.

We played outside some more and walked to the park.

You know what I did that I regret?

I bought a preschool curriculum. I very quickly figured out I didn’t need a preschool curriculum to homeschool. I think I used the ideas in it for about a week.

One caveat: If it helps you, get one

There are some homeschool Moms who need/crave/want a curriculum. It helps them, and gives them the structure they want. If that is you, buy the curriculum. Own that curriculum and love it.

You know why I bought that preschool curriculum? A mom I admired used it with her daughter. She was the mom who taught the parenting classes I took that helped me survived three toddlers at once. She had a lot of wisdom, and for her family that curriculum was amazing.

For me it was stifling and not a help.

If you’re doubting buying that preschool curriculum, don’t buy it

Your child will be fine.

They will learn to read.

They will learn to count.

They will get into college or whatever career choice they have.

You are still a good Mom.

Some more preschool fun to keep you going:

I first published this post way back on March 2, 2009, you know when I had preschoolers. I’ve updated it a bit from that (I mean this was back in the dark ages of blogging), and of course since then I’ve had a few more ideas on the matter:

I may have updated a lot of my preschool history posts so far, here’s a few literature based ones (be warned the pictures are super bad, but all are homeschooling preschool without a curriculum):

• Nature Study for Preschoolers (okay this isn’t literature, but it amused me)
• Clifford’s Halloween (process versus product in art)
• Chores your preschooler can do (yeah, I’m just gonna say I lied on that literature, they’re all buried)

Yeah, most of my preschool posts are back when I had my pictures on photobucket and now all the pictures are gone (kind of like this post before I fixed it)

How about you? Are you homeschooling preschool without a curriculum?