Dear Sis,

Although the bulk of our pre-k curriculum materials come from either the Timberdoodle Pre-K curriculum kit or are components of Torchlight Pre-K: Curiosity and Character, we have added cooking, folding, music, sewing, an additional math curriculum, history, and geography too. Here is how we’ve blended everything together:

PreK Curricula & Learning Tools

Timberdoodle, Torchlight, Our Picks

Art, Cooking, and Music

1. Adventures in Veggieland, activities and recipes by Melanie Potock
2. Art Lab for Little Kids, art study and projects by Susan Schwake
3. Draw + Learn Animals + Places, workbook by Blue Apple Books
4. Let’s Fold!, workbook by Kumon
5. Music is…, narration, music history, and listening samples by Stephen T. Johnson
6. My First Sewing Kit by Alex Toys

Emotional Intelligence and Health/Fitness

1. A Whole Bunch of Feelings: What do they mean? by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos
2. Breath Like a Bear: 30 Mindful Moments for Kids to Feel Calm and Focused Anytime, Anywhere by Kira Willey
3. Look Inside Your Body by Usborne
4. What’s Going On Here? conversation cards by Eeboo

Language Arts

1. Activities:  Alphabet Bingo by Peaceable Kingdom, Montessori Sand Tray, Wikki Stix Alphabet Cards, etc.
2. Doodling Dragons:  An ABC Book of Sounds and songs by Logic of English
3. Literary selections from level pre-k Torchlight literature based secular curriculum
4. Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature, poetry by Nicola Davies

Mathematics

1. Activities:  GeoBoards, Junior GeoStix, Tiny Polka Dot Game, Sticker by Number Book, etc.
2. Literary selections and activities from Monthly Math Inquiry Tables from level pre-k Torchlight
3. Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning 2, workbook by The Critical Thinking Co.
4. Math 1: Book 1, lessons and songs by Shiller Learning, Montessori at Home
5. Moebius Noodles, natural math by Yelena McManaman
6. Socks Are Like Pants, Cats Are Like Dogs, games and puzzles by Malke Rosenfeld

Science

1. A Little Bit of Dirt: 55+ Science and Art Activities to Connect Children with Nature by Asia Citro
2. The Berenstain Bears’ Big Book of Science and Nature by Stan & Jan Berenstain
3. Look I’m an Engineer, projects by DK
4. Look I’m a Scientist, experiments by DK
5. Nature’s Wonders by Alejandro Algarra
6. PreK Smart Start STEM, workbook of stories, activities, and challenges by Evan-Moor
7. Show Me Science: 30+ Experiments to do with Children by Timberdoodle
8. ThinkPlay STEM Junior Extra, building set and model manual by Morphon

Social Studies

1. A Street Through Time: A 12,000 Year Journey Along the Same Street by DK
2. My First Atlas of the World by National Geographic Kids
3. My Very First Our World Book by Usborne 
4. Spot the Differences All Around the Wold by Genie Espinosa
5. Things People Do by Anne Civardi and Stephen Cartwright
6. World Map Puzzle by iPlay iLearn
7. World of Wonders: Great Buildings by Mack van Gagelonk

Thinking Skills

1. bambinoLUK, self correcting puzzles, Sets A and B
2. Camelot Jr., logic puzzles by SmartGames
3. Developing the Early Learner, four workbook series by Simone Bibeau
4. Lion in My Way, problem solving cooperative game by Eeboo
5. Three Little Piggies, logic puzzles by SmartGames

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Our Picks

Art, Cooking, and Music

Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetable–with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes by Melanie Potock

The book is broken into sections by season. Each section is broken into chapters by vegetable. There are recipes and a fun activity for each vegetable, because playing with food helps get kids more comfortable with it! 

William and I built an asparagus log cabin. He didn’t enjoy the first recipe, but he tried it without complaint because he helped make it.

We scheduled one vegetable per month and broke it into three lessons: one activity and two recipes. 

Let’s Fold! by Kumon

We did both the cutting workbooks in preschool. William has folds on occasion when he is doing art, but he isn’t very good at it and always asks for help. We do a page each week to help his folding skills grow.

Music is… by Stephen T. Johnson

We signed this book out at the library last year sometime. William enjoyed the playful narration, I appreciated the music history and listening samples. The book is one big fold-out, so I photo copied it, for easier page turning. Our reading and listening schedule:

1. Classical: Narration & Sample 1
2. Classical: History & Sample 2
3. Classical: Strings & Sample 3
4. Classical: Woodwinds & Sample 4
5. Classical: Brass & Sample 5
6. Classical: Percussion & Sample 6
7. Country: Narration & Sample 1
8. Country: History & Sample 2
9. Country: Instruments & Sample 3
10.  Country: Sample 4-6
11.  Electronica: Narration & Sample 1-2
12.  Electronica: History & Sample 3
13.  Electronica: Sample 4-6
14.  Metal: Narration & Sample 1-2
15.  Metal: History & Sample 3
16.  Metal: Instruments & Sample 4
17.  Metal: Sample 5-6
18.  Hip Hop: Narration & Sample 1-3
19.  Hip Hop: History & Sample 3-6
20.  Jazz: Narration & Sample 1-2
21.  Jazz: History & Sample 3
22.  Jazz: Instruments & Sample 4
23.  Latin: Narration & Sample 1-2
24.  Latin: History & Sample 3
25.  Latin: Instruments & Sample 4
26.  Latin: Sample 5-6
27.  Pop: Narration & Sample 1
28.  Pop: History & Sample 2
29.  Pop: Sample 3-4
30.  Pop: Sample 5-6
31.  R&B: Narration & Sample 1-3
32.  R&B: History & Sample 3-6
33.  Rock: Narration & Sample 1
34.  Rock: History & Sample 2
35.  Rock: Sample 3-4
36.  Rock: Sample 5-6

My First Sewing Kit by Alex Toys

I love to sew and William is inspired to try to learn hand sewing. We’ve done a half dozen project together over the past year. I thought this kit would help us continue learning.

Mathematics

Schiller Learning: Montessori at Home Math Kit 1 Digital: Pre-k through 3rd Grade

Schiller Math One is a scripted, hands-on math curriculum loaded with opportunities for learning through play, movement, auditory, and visual techniques. We will only cover about 100 lessons this year.

Social Studies

A Street Through Time: A 12,000 Year Journey Along the Same Street by DK

Each spread is a different era. It’s just the right balance of pictures and words for a young person. Although the text takes only a few minutes to read, we spend much longer exploring and discussing the entire scene. When we finish, we try to spot the time traveler. It’s a very cute way to end the lesson. Our reading schedule:

A Street Through Time

2 (18 week) cycles

1. The Story of a Street (page 1)
2. Stone Age 10,000 BCE (page 2-3)
3. First Farmers 2,000 BCE (page 4-5)
4. Iron Age 600 BCE (page 6-7)
5. Roman Times 100 CE (page 8-9)
6. The Invaders 600 CE (page 10-11)
7. Viking Raiders 900 CE (page 12-13)
8. Medieval Village 1200s (page 14-15)
9. Medieval Town 1400s (page 16-17)
10.  The Plague Strikes 1500s (page 18-19)
11.  Under Attack! 1600s (page 20-21)
12.  An Age of Elegance 1700s (page 22-23)
13.  Grim Times, Early 1800s (page 24-25)
14.  From Town to City, Late 1800s (page 26-27)
15.  The Street Today (page 28-29)
16.  Street of the Future (page 30-31)
17.  Timeline 10,000 BCE – 900 CE (front spread)
18.  Timeline 1200s – Today (back spread)

My First Atlas of the World by National Geographic Kids

This introductory level geography book, is a gentle way to introduce the whole world. We like to use it in conjunction with a globe. Our reading schedule:

My First Atlas of the World

3 (12 week) cycles

1. Earth, Globe, Map (page 4-7)
2. Land and Water (page 8-11)
3. Where People Live (page 12-13)
4. North America (page 14-15)
5. United States (page 16-17)
6. Canada (page 18-19)
7. South America (page 20-21)
8. Europe (page 22-23)
9. Africa (page 24-25)
10.  Asia (page 26-27)
11.  Australia (page 28-29)
12.  Antarctica (page 30-31)

The Usborne Book of Things People Do by Anne Civardi

We read Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day? in preschool and fell in love with it. William wanted something similar. This book contains a bit more information, and features characters that are human instead of fuzzy cute animals:) There are countless plays on words. My four-year-old doesn’t catch them, but I get a good laugh with each spread. This book contains 17 different topic/spreads we will read through twice this school year.

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That’s a wrap! …or rather a review for all the curricula we are using for pre-k this year. See you next spring for our end of year pre-k reviews and start of year kindergarten reviews series.

Timberdoodle Pre-K Kit Start of Year Review

Torchlight Pre-K: Curiosity and Character Start of Year Review

Happy Homeschool!

Love,

b