I recently purchased a preschool curriculum from TeachMeJoy.com by Joy Bryant.
Though she has several offered (and more coming) after researching those available I chose Animal Play for 2 and 3 year olds. I had been wanting something a little more structured for BigMan (my soon to be 4 year old, like this month) and this really fit the bill for us. I’m normally not a proponent of “curriculum” for “preschool”. I believe in playing, freedom, and learning in life at this age. But I saw that he wasn’t getting as much one-on-one time since school work with the other three has increased this year. He also had begun to ask for school work like his siblings. So I wanted school work combined with play. Structure but flexible fun.
I think I found it in this.
Also, confession time.. Four years into homeschooling and I’m a complete nervous wreck chicken anytime I have to buy school books. I love talking about them. I love looking at them. I love getting them in the mail. I love using them. But I break out into a cold sweat when I have to fork over the money for them. It’s not the money so much as the fear of wasting the money on something I won’t use. But it was much easier to step up to this one. The price was already very reasonable and then she had a half-price sale going. Which doesn’t seem to be a one-time fluke – she currently has a 20% sale going.
What You’re Paying For
A download. All the paperwork and worksheets for your child to complete, flash cards, a memory game and the weekly layout of what you should do when.
It’s an extensive printing download so get a ream of paper and a new ink cartridge. But every printout can be printed black and white (that SO matters to me). I printed the entire thing at once. Well, there was that my-printer-jammed-in-the-middle-of-it-issue, but that was resolved quickly (and caused by me, incidentally, unlike this most recent printer hitch that involved a wadded up pipe cleaner). I stacked the printouts according to category, used my 3 hole punch to punch holes in all of them, and set aside to organize later.
I already had 2 binders around the house – a large one and a small one. Perfect for my teacher’s book and his completed work book.
After everything was printed I set about organizing it by day instead of categories. I wanted this quickly usable each day so it was worth the work upfront. And I love detailed organizational work like this, in my former big city life I was the perfect Administrator’s Assistant. I’m a helper like that.
In his binder (per her suggestion) I put a separator between the alphabet work he would be doing and his numbers. I didn’t have pre-made separators so I just cut a manilla folder to fit, punched holes and used the other half to keep my place in the teacher’s guide. A bookmark, if you will.
I keep the teacher’s binder, his completed binder, the books, and that week’s craft supplies in a bucket in my homeschool cabinet. I just pull it all out when we’re ready.
I didn’t have card stock so for the flash cards and memory game I printed it on regular printer paper and glued them onto construction paper. I will go back and contact paper them for durability now that I know I will use them.
It was all pretty self-explanatory as to what went where once I sat and looked at it a bit. Which I planned on doing anyway, I just separated it as I went. I left the clip art grouped together and put it in the back of the binder to pull from at my will. I also punched holes in some blank printer paper and put it in the back of my teacher’s binder. That way when it calls for painting, gluing, crafting on plain paper it was already done and ready to hand to him.
What Else You Should Buy Ahead of Time
In the download you get a product overview and suggested book list. I printed both of these as well and put them in the very front of my binder. I’ll use the library for the suggested book list. But the daily recommended books I wanted to buy. Now, again I was tempted to break out in a buyer’s remorse sweat, but then I realized they were really good books (with a Wee Sing cd thrown in and we all know how much I love Wee Sing!). These are books I would buy anyway. That I would use even if my (and BigMan’s) desire fizzled out on the curriculum. So, I looked around and ordered the suggested books. I will tell you, she suggested some animal homes books (four of them to be exact) and I didn’t get them. One of the main reasons I didn’t get them was while searching I realized the author wrote palm reading books, a Golden Compass book, and some other books I wouldn’t allow my kids to read. I’m normally not a “boycotting” kind of person, but it didn’t set well with me and I figured I could buy something else or just skip that section. So, I did.
Here’s the list of what I bought with sample pages from each. I LOVE them! Well worth the prices and if you order through my Amazon links (the titles of the books are links to my Amazon account) below I get a kick-back – just so you know!
My Big Book of 5-minute Devotions
Bible Animals (My Little Church Book)
Alphabet Art: With A-Z Animal Art & Fingerplays (Williamson Little Hands Series)
Wee Sing Animals, Animals, Animals
Not listed in her list, but something I love for this age to learn to cut and build hand strength are these Let’s Cut Paper! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks).
What You’ll Be Teaching
Alphabet letters
Numbers
Shapes
Colors
Music, Fingerplays, and Musical Activities
Bible Stories
Memory Verses
Animals and their habitats
How You’ll Be Teaching It
In a unit study, 3 days a week style.
For instance, week 1 you’ll cover the letter A, the number 1, and the animals Alligator and Ant.
There are 32 weeks of planned activities with new information all the way up to the last week and fun systematic reviews built in all along the way.
You can choose to do the 3 days or like us, do it everyday that all my other children “do school”. Between the ample info for each day and the extra activities section for each week, plus the extra printouts I got from Enchanted Learning and sticker books from the dollar store it was very easy to stretch it to 5 or 6 days a week.
The Pros and Cons (I haven’t already addressed)
I love that once you’ve done the organizational work that it’s super easy to see what you’re going to do today. And next week. Speaking of the next week, I also love that there is a list of “This Week’s Supplies” so that when I’m making my regular shopping list for payday I can glance at that and jot down any items I don’t already have around the house like this weeks bubble paper, color tissue paper, and contact paper. I also buy for two weeks at a time (since our paydays and thusly our shopping trips are every two weeks).
It can definitely be a con for you if you’re not fond of organizing like I am, but I say again, push on through (or bribe someone else to do it!) it is worth it.
Also, noteworthy. I’ve had several people ask about the age appropriateness of the material. They’ve asked about doing these things with their 2 year olds. I say again, I’m starting this with my almost 4 year old. I watch for readiness from my children to know when to start their actual “school work”. With this child (and it would’ve been the same with my 2 older boys at this age) he hasn’t been ready to do this work until now. Some of the Bible and devotions reading is a tad long for his attention span. That’s one of the reasons I have been able to easily stretch it out to 5 or 6 days. And his fine motor skills would’ve been sketchy to do stay in the lines and trace the letters before now. But my girl would’ve been ready for this right when she turned two. She was a sitter, listener, be-still-er, and she loved writing even then. So, yes, it is age appropriate if your child is ready for this kind of work. If not, I would totally suggest relaxing, taking it easy, waiting til they’re ready (like I did with my nearly 4 year old) and not push them to do work that will only frustrate them and you.
Another huge pro for me is that my other much-too-old-for-this-kind-of-work children join in too. They want me to wait until they get to a stopping place in their age-appropriate work so they can come sit with us and listen to the Bible Stories, devotionals, and animal facts. They love learning the actions to the songs and singing and dancing with BigMan. And BigMan loves that he’s a part of the group, not doing “baby work” all alone. It gets everybody moving, singing, and crafting together. A good fun break from all that language arts, history, and math work of elementary school!
I do know this: two week’s of lessons in and my 3 year old boy can’t get enough of it. This is working for us and I love it! And I know that I am anxiously awaiting the Kindergarten curriculum this summer.
If you have questions please feel free to ask me!
