If you’re trying to decide whether or not to homeschool your preschooler, then this is the place to be! I want to share the benefits we found from homeschooling. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, “Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.” Being a public school kid myself, I was surprised by this! I’m know this doesn’t apply to every person who is homeschooled but I did find it interesting.
We tried “real” preschool, and we’ve also homeschooled. I thought homeschooling would be way too much time and effort with another toddler around the house. But I was pleasantly surprised. The advantages of homeschooling for preschool outweigh any negatives for me! Both my son and I have benefited from the relationship!
I’m happy to say this is the first installment of my back-to-school series. I’m posting 5 Days of Preschool Prep ideas just for you! There are homeschool preschool printables, a preschool schedule, and preschool toy ideas for parents. These could work for the stay at home mom doing preschool at home during the day or any working mom wanting to augment on the weekends. Here we go!
Day 1: 8 Reasons You Should Homeschool Your Preschooler
Day 2: 9 Free Preschool Resources for Parents
Day 3: A Sample Preschool Schedule Any Mom Can Follow
Day 4: Our favorite preschool educational toys [and how to use them]
Day 5: 19 Awesome Eco-Friendly Toys for Preschoolers
8 Homeschool Benefits for your Preschooler
Preschool planning for your kid may seem like a daunting task if you are not a trained teacher, or if you aren’t sure what’s expected for preschoolers. But choosing to preschool your own kids can be both rewarding for your kids’ learning as well as beneficial for your relationship with your children.
Why we originally sent my son to a preschool
First, I’ll say that I haven’t always done preschool at home. When I worked full time, my oldest attended this cutest little preschool for 3 hours a day 4 days per week. I thought this preschool was so cute. They did lots of crafts. They sang songs for three shows a year. And his teacher there had been teaching preschool for over 25 years. She evaluated the kids twice a year to see how prepared they were for Kindergarten.
I learned a LOT from his first year in preschool. I had no idea what to expect or what he needed to know for Kindergarten.
During his first fall as a preschooler, he started practicing writing his name. But I noticed the teachers didn’t get a ton of one-on-one time with him. He mostly rotated through centers and played. This was fine with me by the way because I think kids do need to play and learn to socialize, but I’m saying academically he wasn’t improving that much.
Socialization is important, but that’s not why we did it
The social aspect just wasn’t that important to us. Since I worked full time, he attended a full time in-home day care when he wasn’t in preschool. We picked him up from the daycare to take him to the preschool and then brought him back to the daycare afterwards. This definitely caused extra logistical issues but at the time seemed worth it since they weren’t doing too many preschool activities at the in home day care he attended. Different day cares offer different benefits.
All this being said, I experienced traditional preschool with our oldest but I wasn’t in love with the experience.
I liked it but it wasn’t the perfect set-up. So, when we moved from Colorado to Texas and I started staying home with the kids full time, I had to make a choice.
A choice that was kind of scary to be honest because I was now vulnerable to evaluation. I was now the one responsible for my kids’ education!
Thankfully my sister-in-law encouraged me in this decision. She homeschooled her oldest and was homeschooling him for Kindergarten too. I knew I could lean on her for support and advice on curriculum, activities, and expectations.
I decided to take the risk with a leap of faith.
I decided to homeschool my 4 year old and 2 year old from home.
Our 8 Homeschool Benefits
1. To Save Money
So, why did I decide to teach the kids preschool at home? The biggest reason – MONEY.
We moved to Texas, and I no longer worked part-time. Because of this, we thought the most frugal decision for our family was for me to teach my oldest at home. Even finding a church program that costs $200 to $300 a month can be a big commitment. In other words, the financial benefits of homeschooling are huge!
I came to the realization that I was letting excuses get in the way of me teaching my kids and saving money (which I am passionate about). My actions didn’t line up with my beliefs. I am definitely capable of teaching my kids.
And you can too. Especially with Pinterest, there’s tons of free resources available online.
2. Kids learn better with one-on-one attention
Another HUGE reason we decided to homeschool our preschoolers was the benefit of one-on-one attention and the ability to customize lesson plans.
In the fall, my son’s preschool teacher said he barely knew how to spell his name. What I ACTUALLY realized, was he was afraid to write his name because he wasn’t confident in his fine motor skills or letter sounds. I mean, come on, he’d been spelling his name at home since he was 2.
Over Thanksgiving break, I spent about 15 minutes for two days working with him on writing his name and tracing letters.
In that 30 minutes, I saw improvement and a boost in confidence. He returned to school the week after and wowed his teachers with his improvement. With very little investment on my part, I encouraged my son and gave him confidence at school. This is what motherhood is about right here.
With conviction, I realized: I was letting my own insecurities get in the way of helping my kids feel confident and inspire a desire to learn.
3. You can go at your child’s pace
Perhaps your child is way ahead of his peers at preschool or perhaps she seems like she is behind the rest of the “class.” As I mentioned before, providing one-on-one attention is only good for the kids learning progress. You can meet your preschooler where they are at.
You can evaluate how much your child knows and start from the beginning. You can make sure to build a foundation for your child. You can also make sure they master a skill before moving on to another skill, which is crucial for development. You don’t have to hurry on to a new subject just because everyone else is.
Want to get started with homeschooling? I put together a Powerpoint with preschool goals that’s super easy to printout and display. There’s room for stickers at the bottom when they complete the goal, or you can pin them to a cork board and move them around once completed. Subscribe to our newsletter below to get access to this free resource for parents with preschoolers.
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4. Better schedule flexibility
Since we just moved to a new city and state, I knew we wanted the flexibility to “make new friends” and see family in our new city! I didn’t want to commit to a preschool program and then not be able to meet up for play dates with new friends from church or go to family events. At the time, I also thought about looking for a Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) to join, which I wanted my son to be able to attend.
5. Get to know your kids better
During this season, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the sweet and quirky personalities of my kids. Although I felt I KNEW my kids when I worked full time, it’s a different type of knowing when you are at home with them all day every day. You spend enough time together that you experience all the joyous moments but also the ugliest of moments together.
You get the opportunity to live life messy and work through the day to day struggles of parenting and childhood. Again, this is the beautiful journey of motherhood. It’s a hard journey. But it sure is beautiful!
6. Teach your kids to face new challenges and accept constructive feedback
When my son gets excited about something he learned or about accomplishing a goal, it’s so AWESOME to see his face light-up and the pride.
On the flip side, it’s difficult to see his frustration with something he is struggling to learn.
But what I’ve found, is that I love being part of the journey.
I love to see my kids get frustrated and then get to be the one to help them work through it. I love to see what strengths the kids have and what weaknesses. I love to see them grow.
Learning new things is challenging. I experience that daily. But it is only through challenge and problem solving that we all grow.
I am in the process of teaching my kids to listen and accept constructive feedback without shutting down. I think this is a critical skill we could all work on.
7. Prevent bad habits from forming
For any mom EVER, I’m sure you’ve seen how easily kids pick up on habits of others. With ONE play date, kids can pick up bad (unexpected/different/whatever adjective you want) habits from other kids.
When you send your kids to daycare or preschool, they will pick up habits from the other kids both good and bad. For example, my son currently loves to wear muscle shirts and mismatched socks. I 100% know this came from another little boy at day care. I just accept it, but I’m just saying!
Other than fashion issues, kids can pick up behavioral habits as well.
Some behavioral habits can later turn into character issues that you may not want your children to exhibit. Selfishness, aggressiveness, a potty mouth, materialism are just a few.
When you homeschool your preschoolers you can invest in their character for as long as possible when they are young. You can choose who and when they interact with other kids. You can work to establish a strong foundation before letting them interact with the world.
8. Instill characteristics and traits you want in your kids
During these formative years, you are laying the foundation to eventually send your kids off into the world independently.
You lay the foundation for your kids to make decision on their own when they go to Kindergarten. By teaching them at home, you have more time to enforce behaviors you want like compassion, patience, and empathy. These traits are best taught in the day-to-day moments through repeated experiences and modeling these behaviors to your kids.
One of my favorite activities to do with my son and daughter is our daily scripture memorization.
We practice Bible verses during our preschool time. We’re also able to talk about what those verses mean to the kids. This additional proactive discussion helps give tools to my kids to make good decisions when I’m not around. It teaches their brain the path for decision making.
All of these reasons are reasons you should consider homeschooling for preschool. Although it’s not a choice for everyone, these are the benefits we’ve seen in our family. And if I didn’t emphasize it enough before, I was pretty overwhelmed with the idea of homeschooling my kids at first! But homeschooling has been a beautiful journey so far!
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Have you homeschooled preschool before? What benefits did you receive?
How have your kids benefited from homeschool?
Leave a comment below with your homeschool benefits!