What Curriculum Do I Teach My Preschooler?

What Curriculum Do I Teach My Preschooler?

Connection, Confidence, Creativity, & Contribution…

Notice there is no C for curriculum. 

I decided to homeschool my boys at 4 & 2. As you enter preschool age there are so many programs on how you should start off your child in these preschool years. It seems so serious and so important. There is a lot of talk on the playground about which preschool or which programs all the little ones will be attending. 

As I was about to decide which school my boys would attend, our world was turned upside down with a global pandemic & ALL the schools in our district went to mandatory masks, strict rules on hand sanitation, distancing & many went remote all together. 

My boys are wild at heart, free spirits & adventure seekers. This new environment of no hugging, distance, fear & covering their little precious faces gave me a new opportunity to look at homeschooling as an option. A disaster turned into my greatest blessing because as I looked into the world of homeschooling, I knew that this was the right path for us! It felt good, it felt right & it made me excited. 

As I dove into the world of homeschooling I found there were also endless resources, endless ways to do it & millions of curriculums to pick from. I stumbled upon a mom who said preschool and kindergarten should be fun,  play based & full of nature exploration. This clicked with me & from that moment I ditched the idea of curriculum based learning for preschool & decided to forge our own path. 

Over the last 2 years I have had incredible success with my boys with hands-on learning through nature, play & the arts. If you are worried about how you will teach your preschooler or stressing about what to do, this is my encouragement to throw out the idea of curriculum. This is my encouragement to go outside, explore, laugh, play, & have fun. 

I love homeschooling because we create our own day.  If we want to take our time and make breakfast together & spend time snuggling in the morning we can do that.  It allowed us to forge our own path and focus on Connection, Confidence, Creativity, & Contribution. 

Homeschooling Allowed Me To Focus On Connection

I focused on the connection with my children above anything in these early years.  I was more concerned about the relationship building & the relationships we were making with our neighbors, friends & with each other than I was about learning abc’s & 123’s.  I wanted to spend the time understanding my boys, snuggling them, letting them feel good about who they were & how they were showing up in the world.  I wanted them to form positive relationships with the world around them above all else.  When you focus on your relationship with your children & their relationships with others it sets a firm foundation to grow off of. Homeschooling allowed me to place the connection with my children over curriculum & the benefits have been incredible.  

Homeschooling Allowed Me To Nurture Their Confidence 

Learning should be fun, it should be full of curiosity & it should be full of wrong answers.  You have to be willing to get things wrong so you can also get things right. This approach has helped my children feel confident giving any answer! I never tell them they are wrong, I always respond with a positive validation because their answers are always wonderful & exactly correct for them at that moment. Once they gain more knowledge over time their answers are correct, but all along the way they are confident. My boys are incredibly active & rarely sit still. They are full of life & full of excitement which is GREAT!  Children are so amazing & have endless energy to create, explore & imagine.  Homeschooling allowed me to let them run, learn while in motion & let them be enthusiastic without having to force them to be still & learn in a way that wasn’t right for them. We focused on confidence in talking to others, confidence in their movements & confidence in their own decisions.  They get to make a lot of choices throughout the day & validating your children's choices helps them gain confidence in their own decision making.  They pick out their own outfits each morning, they pick out their breakfast items & ultimately get to decide what is best for them throughout the day. 

Homeschooling Allowed Me To Use Creativity Daily 

My boys helped me to tap into my childlike wonder & learn again through play, imagination & creativity.  Painting, creating a camp in an area under evergreen trees, digging for dino bones, pretending to be animals…. The options are endless & kids are naturally creative. Homeschooling allows you to take learning and turn it into fun exciting activities that are all hands on, play based & full of adventure.  We did everything from painting kindness rocks for local parks, creating a camp in our backyard, creating food art, baking, painting canvases, music & ninja courses to create our learning environment. I’ll give you guys all the activities we did to really get creative with learning throughout our preschool years! 

Homeschooling Allowed Them To Contribute 

I discovered my boys are the happiest when they are contributing. Helping me clean the house, helping do the dishes, helping make breakfast… They just love helping! The best part about homeschooling for us was being able to incorporate helping at home with our daily routine & finding all the ways they could be productive and contribute to our household.  Organizing our pantry, organizing & cleaning the refrigerator, putting their clothes away, sweeping, weeding.. These are all things they my preschoolers helped me with on a weekly basis. A lot of times we want to do everything for our kids, but don’t ensure that we find ALL the ways they can give back.  It is quite fascinating to see their little faces light up when they are productive & help YOU! This concept has been so beneficial to our family & more than anything else I can say this has helped my boys feel their best & feel like productive members of our family.  Don’t we all feel better when we are able to use our abilities to contribute? 

Homeschooling has taken on many forms that I never expected.  Our family has thrived & become so close to each other focusing on these core concepts first. If you are thinking of homeschooling, I hope you take something from this that can help you :) 

I will continue to share my realizations, experiences & practical activities with you that have helped me on my homeschooling journey! 

Love, 

Ashley Budzik