Our 3-K Curriculum

     

I've always known I would homeschool my children and so when my husband and I were planning to build our house, we both really wanted a room especially devoted to studying and teaching our kids. We painted it bright yellow and I stocked it with fun learning tools and lots and lots of books! :) This year, we decided to begin 3-K with Nathan and introduce him to a school schedule. So today I am sharing with you our 3-K curriculum for 2014-2015.

I am a big fan of dry-erase. Nathan has a few dry-erase books and I made him a binder (see above) where I can print off what I want for him, slip it into a page protector, and he's free to work on the same thing over and over again. Definitely cuts down on the stacks of paper and the ink in my printer! However, I also bought a few colored folders for those papers I want to keep forever. :)

Math: For a three-year-old, math is simply learning numbers. Currently he can count to twenty, but what we are now working on now is his visual recognition of each number and his ability to trace it, then write it on his own. This Match-It game has been a fun way for him to recognize each number as he counts.

Shapes and Colors: Opportunities to teach your child shapes and colors are easy. For colors, I grabbed a stack of paint color samples to use. We play with play-doh and talk about each color, we have used paint to mix and create variations. It's simple to find inexpensive ways to teach your child colors. For shapes, I printed out pages of different shapes and put them into his binder. When he was a baby, he received these blocks which I've used. Plus, things can always be found around the house to further teach him shapes and colors. Tires on the car, plates, books, etc.

Letters: Nathan has two dry-erase books, "I can Print!" and "My ABC's" which he loves. I like how he can use them over and over. I also have a notebook called Learn to Letter with raised pulling that helps him write his letters on his own. We have a poster on our wall where we go through each letter in the alphabet and so he can see the upper and lower case letters and identify each letter with the proper sound it makes.

Science: With Nathan being so young, I wasn't stressing about introducing him to a full curriculum at age three. But I did want to begin teaching him Science in a way that he could understand. I happened upon this book on Amazon that not only teaches Creation Science for his age group, but has thirteen 6-in-1 curriculum lessons inside it. For $12, you can't beat that. And what I love most is it is very solid, Biblically, with scripture memorization for each lesson (in KJV and NKJV translations, which we prefer).

Geography: I saw this wooden puzzle of the USA on Zulily and immediately bought it! Nathan loves puzzles and is beginning to identify a few states already.

History: Like Science, I really wanted to start teaching Nathan a little history in a way that he could not only understand, but enjoy. I did a little searching and found the whole series of Liberty Kids on Amazon marked down to $5! He loves it and I've enjoyed how it makes each story to come to life.

Bible: For Bible, we have two charts of Bible scriptures we go through. We also sing Scripture Songs a lot! On a trip to Mardels book store, I picked up this poster where we learn the books of the Bible and the category each one falls under. Along with that, we have lots of Bible story books and DVDs like Theo that we enjoy and watch often.

What about you? Do you homeschool? What age do you begin teaching your little ones?