Letter of the Week: Preschool Made Easy at Home

Last year, when I was about 6 months pregnant I decided to leave my full time job and stay at home with my toddler. Working full time with a toddler was more challenging then I expected. This for me was a really hard decision as I loved my job and the thought of being a stay at home mom was really terrifying. What will I do with her all day? Of course I can play with her, but all day? She also was used to an environment with a schedule and ongoing activities at her day care. I decided to do some research and come up with an at home preschool curriculum. This was less for Safa and more for my own sanity as my day could be more structured. Since Safa was just under 3 at the time, all of her “learning” is through play and activities. The important thing to remember, it is not about mastery but exposure to concepts she will learn when she starts Kindergarten. It’s about having fun and not expected her to know everything I “teach” her. If along the way, she is able to recognize letters and numbers, then great! And if not, that’s okay too.

Developmental Areas

Like I mentioned, it is all about helping preschoolers build the foundation before they actually start school. For example, kids don’t just pick up a pen one day and are able to write. Before that they must learn how to hold a pen or crayon, color how they want, eventually color in the lines and so on and so forth. This skill would fall into a "fine motor developmental area. There are 5 developmental areas that I always keep in mind when doing any activity with her: Communication, Fine Motor, Gross Motor, Problem Solving and Personal Social. A great tool to help you follow along is the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. I used this with my clients and I continue to use it with my kids. It is designed for parents and gives you an idea of what skills they will be or should be doing at their given age. There is a huge range, as all kids develop at their own pace. It is also designed for children under 5. When doing all of Safa’s activities, I keep these five areas in mind and try to incorporate them in our daily and weekly activities. At the end of the PDF file I linked above, there are a list of activities suggested that you can use as well.

Letter of the Week

Many people choose to do different themes for the week. I chose for mine to be the Letter of the Week. Every week we start with a new letter. When we have ‘preschool time’, just about 1-1.5 hour a day broken a part throughout the day, all the activities will be around this letter. If you scroll below, I have given a sample for the letter A.

Worksheet

When I introduce the letter, I make a quick worksheet for Safa with an uppercase A and lowercase in bubble letters. Around it, I draw images of items that begin with A. Ideally the ones we’ll be working on for that week. For the uppercase letter she’ll either glue pom moms on it or fill it in with her dot markers. For the lowercase letter, she’ll trace it or color it in. She then will color and decorate the items that begin with that letter. This introduces the letter in a fun activity. After a few weeks, Safa started to ask “lets do letter of the week”. We then would hang it up in her room so she could visibly see it. This activity really helps them focus on their fine motor skills and communication skills.

Craft

For a craft, I would choose an item that we drew that begins with the letter and do a simple project. For example, for A is for apple, we painted with apples cut in half. It was a fun painting activity and we also learned A begins with apple. It can be any simple craft such as for A is for Airplane, we decorated and made a paper airplane. If its hard to come up with activities, Pinterest is your best friend. I’m great with coming up with curriculums and plans, but have zero creativity! Safa even told me I am not the best drawer :) This activity really incorporates fine motor skills.

Activity

For an activity, I try to do a physical activity incorporating gross motor skills and problem solving. This is sometimes the hardest and some weeks I could only come up with two and just would rotate them throughout the week. For A is for apple, we would get apples and play apple toss with them. Another great physical activity is Yoga. I love this ABC guide for Yoga that gives a different move for each letter! Great way to introduce Yoga too! There are many books you can use too. If your child loves blocks, use ABC blocks and build a tower too.

Cooking

One concept I really borrowed from Montessori school of thought was teaching real skills at an early age. Of course, toddlers can’t help cook big meals, but it is important to introduce them to basics in the kitchen. You can get really creative and teach them cutting, mixing, measuring, time and so on. This activity incorporates fine motor skills, personal-social, communication and problem solving.

Reading

Lastly, we cannot forget reading. This is the best one and can incorporate all developmental areas. If many of the above activities are hard or seem time consuming, then this is the one to do everyday. I have been reading to Safa since she was born and thankfully, she is in love with books. She has memorized most of them and now narrates them to her baby brother. I love it! If you cannot buy a lot of books or don’t want to, a library is your best friend. If you go to the library once or twice a week, you can find books in that theme and discuss the topic and letters there. Before number two came, we were going to the library every week for a playgroup and then would find books related to the letter of the week. Best part is, it is free!

Most imporatantly, have fun! Children at this age and up to age 6 learn through play. They cannot sit for very long and do structured activities, so it is really about learning through play. Utilizing arts and crafts, books, blocks, puzzles, dramatic play and so on! If you feel lost, there are so many amazing resources and preschool guides to follow online. I have listed below some blogs and books I have used to help me develop my own system.

Blogs: Busy Toddler, This Crafty Mom, Mrs. Plemons’ Kindergarten, Simple Speech

Books: Toddler Lesson Plans (my favorite), Preschool Workbook