As a first-time mom, I am pretty much constantly stressing about what the best things for my kids are…
Including the fact that I had no idea what preschool objectives I should be teaching!
I went to pick in preschool or kindergarten prep was a huge concern
Where do I start and what do I teach them?
Do they need to go to a public preschool
Or can I do it at home
So many questions and they are going to be answered here in a second
What Do Kids Learn At Preschool?
The schooling of preschoolers should be fun and exciting
This age group learns best through play and that is going to be the core of everything they learn
The preschool objectives are based on academic readiness
Go line at this point should just be about understanding the world around them
Using sight hearing touch smell taste and strengthening sensory skills to be ready for the challenges ahead
The three main areas that they need to be ready in
- Motor development
- Visual discrimination
- Auditory discrimination
Those skills are mastered through a large variety of:
- Games,
- Coloring,
- Books,
- Exciting conversations,
- Wiggles,
- Cuddles,
- Exploration
Motor development
Starting at the basics of the preschool objectives…
Motor development includes gross motor skills (which are the large muscles)
And fine motor skills (which are the smaller muscles).
Running would be a gross motor skill, but putting beads on a string is a fine motor skill
Because it’s easier to learn, we usually start with gross motor skills
So we would play games that include
- Hopping on one foot
- Skipping
- Jump rope
- Throwing and catching a ball
- Walking on align
- Walking up and down steps without holding on to the rail
- And more
Then to work on fine motor skills, we will practice
- Stringing beads
- Listening
- Cut with scissors
- Buttoning and zipping
- Holding a pencil or crayon
- Playing with Play-Doh
- Opening a whiteboard pen and coloring on a whiteboard
- And more
Visual discrimination
Visual discrimination is the ability to see similarities and differences
These preschool objectives are important for both reading and writing
This should be done through:
- Patterning sequences
- Working on the colors
- Looking at different shapes
- Organizing by size
- Sorting silverware
- Spot the differences worksheets
- Visual memory games
- And matching
Auditory Discrimination
Auditory discrimination is the ability to distinguish different sounds
This is important to be able to tell the difference between the letter sounds
It’s the backbone of phonics, which leads to reading
These preschool objectives can be developed through:
- Making it to different salads and asking if they are the same
- Same to words and ask him if they’re the same
- Reading
- Rhyming games
- Clapping patterns
- Blindfolded Guess the Animal
- Taking a nature walk
- Simon says
- And more
Not only is this kill great for preparing for kindergarten,
It’ll help your child learn to listen better overall
Other Important Preschool Objectives
In addition to the academic skills that preschoolers need to learn
There are a lot of important life skills
Like:
- Learning about emotions
- Establishing a daily schedule
- Building character
- Learning to play with other kids
- Imaginative play
- Their name
- Their attention span
- And just general life skills
The Preschool Objectives are the time when kids build the foundation of everything else in their life
So they pretty much learned a little bit of everything
Is Preschool Important?
The short answer is yes but it’s not as complicated as you might think
Preschool is one of those things that are very flexible
Did you take your kids out to the beach to go look for shells in the sand?
Preschool
Even better if you talked about everything as you did it
Was the sand hot or cold?
Rough or smooth
How many shells did you find?
How many did you keep?
Preschool is important but it really should just be part of everyday life
If you are going to do a structures lesson with your preschooler, then shoot for about a half-hour a day
You don’t need anything super crazy because the goal is for them to experience life
And the only way to experience life is to experience life
Curriculum is not necessary to meet preschool objectives
At What Age Should Kids Start Preschool?
Preschool should be based on play
You can do a fun theme of the week for activities and games
But I sat curriculum is not necessary
So as long as you are interacting with your kids, they have started preschool
So when I was singing to my 2-month-olds
We were doing preschool
When we were outside listening to the sounds of nature…
We were doing preschool
Is easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself when it comes to your kid
We want to do the best we possibly can for them
So we don’t want them to get behind
One of the top preschool objectives is to make learning fun
And that starts with you
Follow what your kids want to do and want to learn
And have a lot of fun doing it regardless of age
How do you set up a homeschool preschool?
If you want to set up for a homeschool preschool, then there are some simple things that you can get
Then get a large variety of toys
Many different colors, shapes, and sizes
You can get many different books and get books that make sounds
They can have their own kitchen set
Can printer by coloring pages, like this free one that I made
Creating a schedule for your family is a great place to start on preschool objectives, even if it’s really simple
How Much Time Should Preschool Take Everyday?
If you want to do more formal homeschool preschool, then it really should only take between 5 and 30 minutes
Doesn’t even have to be every day
Other than that, interact and have fun with your child
No need to stress too much about how much time you were spending working on their core skills
Two-year-old Homeschool Preschool.
Two-year-olds are not going to have a lot of requirements for preschool
All the things that they’ll be learning at this age are those motor skills
So we’re going to work on jumping, skipping, kicking a ball, and maybe getting started on some fine motor skills
Daily Schedule:
A daily schedule for a two-year-old preschool could be something like this
8-9: Morning routine (Breakfast, brushing teeth, diaper changes, etc)
9-10:30: play with toys (puzzles, cars, fine motor toys)
10:30-11: snack
11-12: Outside play (running, big cars, exercise)
12-1: Lunch
1-3: Outside play (trampoline, sandbox, playground, etc)
3-3:30: Snack
3:30-4: singing and dancing
4-5: play with toys
5-6: Dinner
6-7: play with toys
7-8: Bedtime routine
Activities:
Two-year-old preschool objectives should be fun.
You can sing songs together
Play with puzzles and blocks, making sure to talk a lot during the play.
Those will help fine motor skills and encourage your child to talk more
You can jump on a trampoline or run in the park.
This will help your child learn the gross motor skills they need.
Remember that all of the preschool at this age is play.
Three-year-old Homeschool Preschool
Three-year-old preschool objectives will look similar to two-year-old preschool objectives
But now we are looking more increase fine motor, gross motor, and following directions skills.
Try to keep the schedule as close to the two-year-old preschool as you can.
Schedule structure can stay the same while some specific activities change
Daily Schedule:
A daily schedule for a three-year-old preschool could be something like this
8-9: Morning routine (Breakfast, brushing teeth, diaper changes, learning to clean table, etc)
9-10:30: play with toys (puzzles, cars, fine motor toys)
10:30-11: make snack together
11-12: Outside play (running, big cars, learning to ride a bicycle, exercise)
12-1: Lunch
1-3: Outside play (trampoline, sandbox, playground, playground, etc)
3-3:30: make snack together
3:30-4: singing and dancing
4-5: play with toys
5-6: Dinner
6-7: play with toys or coloring
7-8: Bedtime routine
Activities:
Three-year-old preschool will look very similar to two-year-old preschool
Except maybe you are adding more emphasis on following directions
You can make most of the day the same
Just add a little more age-appropriate activities
You can get a bicycle for them at this age too!
Or introduce them to making their own snack
Like using cookie cutters for fruit shapes
Or organizing pinwheels on the plate
Whenever you do any activities, practice counting, letters, and colors
Four-year-old Homeschool Preschool
Four-year-old preschool is starting to get more traditional, but still focused on play!
Maybe potty training becomes a main goal.
You can increase mealtime and cleaning time responsibility
Maybe even make a chore chart
Daily Schedule:
A daily schedule for a four-year-old preschool could be something like this
8-9: Morning routine (Breakfast, brushing teeth, using the potty, etc)
9-9:15: circle time
9:15-10:30: play with toys (puzzles, cars, fine motor toys)
10:30-11: make snack together
11-12: Outside play (running, big cars, bicycle, exercise)
12-1: Lunch and clean together
1-3: Outside play (trampoline, sandbox, playground, bicycle, etc)
3-3:30: make snack together
3:30-4: singing and dancing party
4-5: play with toys
5-6: Dinner
6-7: coloring and drawing
7-8: Bedtime routine
Activities:
Activities are just a little harder than three-year-old preschool.
You can use kids safety knives to work on cutting snacks
And help your child clean up after themselves more
If you started learning to ride a bicycle last year, they might be pretty good at it this year.
Maybe you can make sure more educational coloring pages are used at night
Like my free emotions coloring pages
And use activities to practice lacing and other fine motor skills
Circle time can be used to learn more numbers, letters, and coloring.
Just make it fun!
Five-year-old Homeschool Preschool
Five-year-old preschool is right before kindergarten for most kids
So we are trying to reach those goals mentioned above.
How are your child’s gross and fine motor skills?
Can they see differences in objects around them and on paper?
Continue to work on that this year
They might be getting up earlier at this time too.
Daily Schedule:
A daily schedule for a five-year-old preschool could be something like this
7-8: Morning routine (Breakfast, brushing teeth, using the potty, etc)
8-9: calm playtime/ reading time
9-9:30: circle time
9:30-10:30: play with toys (puzzles, cars, fine motor toys)
10:30-11: make and clean snack together
11-12: Outside play (running, big cars, bicycle, exercise/PE)
12-1: Lunch and clean together
1-3: Outside play (trampoline, sandbox, playground, bicycle, etc)
3-3:30: make and clean snack together
3:30-4: singing and dancing
4-5: play with toys
5-6: Dinner
6-7: coloring, drawing, tracing worksheets
7-8: Bedtime routine
Activities:
More structured PE time may be fun.
So playing games or meeting at the park with friends.
Continue learning to cook and clean up at snacks and lunch, but the meals and responsibilities may be harder than before
You can also start tracing practice during coloring time to practice letters, numbers, and shapes!
In Conclusion:
Structured preschool is a personal family choice
There are some benefits to starting homeschool preschool,
But it won’t devastate anything if you decide not to because most kids catch up quickly in kindergarten and first grade
Just focus on having fun and exploring the world around them.
What is a preschool activity you like doing with your kids?
Let me know in the comments!
