Since my son started kindergarten, his three-year old sister has insisted that she also participate in school. Eventually I obliged, and decided that we could work on recognizing letters. I also wanted to make sure that we found something the kids could do together, because I’m all about simplicity. I could have just reviewed one letter at a time every few days and called it good, but I really wanted something special and beautiful for her.
I took inspiration from fellow homeschooling families on Instagram, and found some wonderful resources. I started with The Peaceful Press that was written by Jennifer Pepito, who is a homeschooling mother of seven. She has three different curriculums geared towards different age levels. Right now, we are working on The Peaceful Preschool. It is a literature and project based curriculum full of great book suggestions, and hands on activities that covers all 26 letters of the alphabet. You can click here to learn more about Peaceful Press.
I also draw a ton of inspiration from Habitat Schoolhouse. It includes thoughtfully crafted classes, book suggestions, meal ideas, and play with added arts, culture, animal and plant study. These have been wonderful ideas to draw from, and I’ve been able to expand on them for my 5-year-old. The owner, Charlotte is the sweetest, and I’ve loved everything she’s done. If you’re interested in trying out this curriculum, she has kindly sent along a coupon code for me to share with you! You can use the code BOTCHFAMILY for 10% off at checkout. Click here to learn more about Habitat Schoolhouse.
Okay! Want to see how we use these at home?
We introduce a new letter every week or two, depending on the amount of fun activities and books I have picked out. We move along gently, and in no hurry. These are all done during morning basket time.
Miss 3 is given the opportunity to try some of the activities. While she is working on those, we go into more depth about the subject at hand with her older brother. Most of the time, we round out the week with a fun notebooking lesson. We love painting a picture from one of the books we read, then Mr. 5 adds a few words or very short sentences to summarize what he learned (I keep copywork very light at this age). Of course, little miss 3 has her very own watercolor paint, and loves to join us!
Like I said before, our main goal is letter recognition, but of course she gets much more out of it through some of the fun activities!
After she’s learned a letter, we add it to our wall, and she will randomly (and very proudly) read the letters out loud for everyone!
*I have partnered with both The Peaceful Press and Habitat Schoolhouse after trying out and loving both of their curriculums.*
