We are so excited to begin some more focused preschool activities with Karis this year. She loves her school time! My goals this year for my little preschooler is to read a lot of good solid literature together, memorize one Bible verse each week, learn our letters, and cultivate a love for learning and serving.
Literature
We have decided to use Sonlight for our curriculum base because I simply love the focus on a literature based education. Sonlight provided us with such a wonderful set of literature as we purchased the P 3/4 curriculum (many of the books in this set are available used through Amazon, which provided a significant savings).
This curriculum core is simply a collection of fabulous classic children’s literature that has stood the test of time. I love the literature based method of education because it focuses on just stirring up a love for reading and books, and what better way to learn about history, geography, writing, and so much more rather than just a textbook. The P 3/4 curriculum does not include any lesson plans or workbooks unlike the other Sonlight curriculum sets, but is basically just encouraging a lot of reading together, which is simple and fun, providing us with a solid base for her education. We spend 30 minutes every morning just reading these books together, over and over, and talking about the stories and concepts. The literature selection is awesome! Even if you don’t use the curriculum guide, you are getting a wealth of good stories. Both my children (2 & 4 years) absolutely love these books!
UPDATE: As of January 2011, we graduated up to the P4/5 curriculum and love it too! It is a great literature supplement to the letters curriculum that I share about below. The book titles help graduate my daughter up to reading longer stories with fewer pictures. We love the Developing the Early Learner workbooks that accompany this set, providing a lot of practice with pre-reading skills. My daughter loves any workbook practice, so they are a great addition to our collection.
Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve
The second part of our preschool plan is utilizing Laura at Heavenly Homemaker’s newly launched preschool curriculum, Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve. This 240+ kit includes thorough lesson plans, games, crafts, recipes, memory verses for each letter of the alphabet, Bible story suggestions, vocabulary stimulation and discussion, play, books to read and so much more…all while encouraging service to God!
I absolutely love Laura’s unique focus on teaching letters while creatively serving other people. As you learn each letter, you identify one person whose name begins with that letter, and you think of a creative gift to give them that also begins with that letter. Each letter you study includes suggestions for service, such as “Take a new Bible to B__________” on Bb week, “Make soup for someone who is sick on Ss week, and “Deliver flowers to F_______________” on Ff week. Your child will make gifts or food, offer help and learn to think of others. As a family you can delight in praying together about who you would like to serve and what form of service you would like to offer!
The lessons are not complicated but very simple and manageable, especially if you have multiple lessons, and a great option to supplement with any other activities you may have planned. I am eager to start working this in to our schedule as well and encouraging my little ones to delight in serving others in creative means! I also love how this course could be used easily for multiple age groups and is not limited to preschoolers alone. Check out a free sample lesson here!
As we learn our letters, we are utilizing The Letter Factory DVD, and Cuisenare Rods Alphabet Book with Cuisenare Rods for extra reinforcement and problem solving.
Character Building & Scripture Memory
Along with these resources, we are using Teach Them to Your Children: An Alphabet of Biblical Poems, Verses, and Stories by Sarah Wean, and My ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt for further Scripture memory inspiration around the alphabet along with quality character building stories. Our goal is to memorize one verse a week and study each letter for two weeks, thus memorizing two verses for each letter of the alphabet. Thus far, Karis has actually memorized four verses for letter A. We write it out on a dry-erase board and store in a visible place in our living room/dining room. We strive to read the verse several times a day, but mainly at means times. And of course she loves listening to Songs for Saplings: ABC CD, and God’s Word from A-Z by Abe & Liza Philips for verses set to music. These little preschoolers can really store up the Scriptures! I have been pleasantly surprised by the way she so sweetly articulates each verse we learn.
That’s our preschool plan this year along with lots of trips to the library and exploring nature together!
Hi Lindsay, if you have time to answer, could you go a little more in depth on why you’re thinking of using a different language arts and math program? Also, were you able to keep up with the Scripture memorization and extra supplements on top of the Sonlight program for your daughter’s first year?
We’ll be purchasing preschool curriculum soon (I’d like to start my older daughter in September) and ironically, had happened onto “Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve” a few weeks ago. It is great to see you also bought the curriculum and have enjoyed it with your daughter!
Thank you for the reviews and sharing what your family is doing!
Hi! I’ve been researching preschool curriculum options for my almost four year old for the fall and am really interested in Sonlight P4/5 program. The only thing that I don’t feel like it would teach (but which really needs to be taught at this age) is letter and number recognition. I just took a look at “Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve” and am very interested in adding that to the Sonlight Curriculum. Since the year is almost over, can you tell me how you’ve felt about your plan this year? Have you liked it? Would you do it all again? Also, I saw that a couple of people who commented said that they have used Sonlight for years and love it. I saw that you asked one person if they used it exclusively or added other curriculum to it. What was their feedback on that question? Ahh! There’s so much out there and so many wonderful curriculums, it’s overwhelming! It’s always nice to know what others have done and what works! Thanks so much!
I definitely love the use of Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve in companion with the Sonlight P4/5 program. The Sonlight does an awesome job exposing the kids to wonderful enjoyable literature, which is the one of the best steps towards letter and sound recognition. I also love the Developing the Early Learner workbooks in the set. Karis loves workbooks and these form a great foundation for reading. Learn Your Letters is an awesome supplement because it provides more that God-centered focus while learning the letters and sounds and serving other people. We have been praying for people around the world with it. I am excited to continue to use Sonlight for upcoming years because I think it only gets better. I plan to use a different math and language arts program but will definitely be using the core (history/geography) and science programs from Sonlight. The person did not respond to that particular question, but after my personal research, I will be using Spell to Write and Read for language arts (as many homeschooling mother friends of mine highly recommend its solid foundational approach) and probably Math-U-See or Horizons for math.
Lindsay, do you have a Sonlight member rewards code? If so, please post and I would use it to put you down as the one who introduced me to Sonlight if I order from them.
If you decide to order, simply click through my links above. They are affiliate links and they will give me 5% of your order, I believe. Not sure if I have a rewards code…don’t recall getting one of those. Thanks for your consideration!
Hi Lindsay,
I saw the rewards ID option about halfway down the page on the first link …
https://www.sonlight.com/cart/IAFDispatcher
The second link has more info on the program. I just started looking at Sonlight since I remembered reading about it on your blog. I’m not too familiar with them yet, so I don’t know if you earn more if I use your affiliate link. If you don’t have a rewards code then I will use the link instead. We are still looking at other options for kindergarten, but if we homeschool, we will be getting materials from Sonlight! Thanks so much for all you do on the blog. Just let me know if you do end up getting a rewards code. If I don’t hear back, I’ll come back and use your link when we order!
http://www.sonlight.com/rewards.html
I found it! I think the rewards ID would be a better option since it would give me credit towards my future purchases there. Here is my reward ID: LE20303484. Thanks! I do love Sonlight and highly recommend it!
Thanks for responding, Lindsay. I registered under your rewards ID and put a note on my order to make sure they credit you since I found out about them first on your blog.
After doing a lot of research, we are going to start out with using a Sonlight core this year, although we are using other stuff for science, math, and language arts (Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, RightStart Math, and Phonics Road.)
I also found a lot of good deals on Rainbow Resources!
Thanks Sarah for your thoughtfulness! Definitely a huge blessing to receive the credit towards our future purchases!
Thanks for sharing this. I had never heard of Sonlight, but after spending lots of time on their website and hearing positive feedback from friends who’ve used the curriculum (I had never asked before what they used) I decided to purchase the P 4/5 package. I will be purchasing the resources through a couple of sites to save money but I did find a lot on vegsource.com. A friend told me about it yesterday so now I will be able to have an additional saving of $70.00 that I had not expected! So I just wanted to share that in case anyone is looking for a used homeschool curriculum.
Great info! I’ve just started looking into preschool homeschooling stuff and have been overwhelmed by all the information. It’s nice to read about what others are doing.
First of all, I love reading your blog-I get so much encouragement from you and your guest posts. I was so excited when I read your preschool plan-it is the same as mine!! I recently purchased the P3/4 curriculum from Sonlight and am using Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve!! We also are using a curriculum called Raising Rock Stars Preschool from 1+1+1=1, and her memory verses come from the Susan Hunt book you are using (which I love). I can’t wait to read more about your preschool experience. I am excited/nervous about this homeschooling journey but it is great to have others to share with, even if it is only in cyberspace!
I am starting a preschool program with my son too. I just love to watch him grow and learn.
Thanks for sharing this. It looks great! I looked up the classic literature list from Sonlight and put a lot of the books on hold at the library… cannot afford the curriculum right now. I’m looking into purchasing Laura’s curriculum in the future.
Thanks for the ideas for various preschool material!
My 3 year old amazes me with his ability to memorize Bible verses! And I was delighted to discover that my 2 year old is soaking it all in and “knows” the verses (in his own 2-year old language!) It’s such a privilege to hear little ones reciting God’s word and discussing the verses practically.
My son made a tower and said “Look Mommy! It’s a strong tower just like the name of the Lord is!” =)
What a lovely plan! This is our 8th year homeschooling and we love it. I must say, I’ve never heard about Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve. It looks perfect! What a blessing that you too are able to homeschool. Charlotte Mason has some great ideals. The one that I love the most (especially for little ones) is to not do more than 10-15 minute intervals at a time. It might sound crazy but it keeps their attention and they retain everything! May you be blessed this coming school year. May God let his favor rest on your family during this exciting adventure. May you find the support you’ll need along the way. Be blessed. God is good, all the time!
Best verse memory program for individuals and churches I’ve found:
http://www.premeditatedparenting.net/48_memory_madness.htm
They also have the best parenting book I’ve read- and I know their family well and they are doing GREAT with their own 8 kids, wonderful character and hearts for the great commission. I highly recommend it!
PS. I have a 5,3,2, and 3 month old- and my 5 and 3 (almost 4) are loving the memory program
Your blog is an encouragment 
Terri! How awesome! We do the same memory madness. It’s awesome! I highly recommend the memory madness, even we did it with the kids. We are doing a mixture of Sonlight and our own since it’s kindergarten.
Looks like a great year planned and we have also utilized some of the things you are doing this year. Another great literature-based program is Five In A Row. Can’t say enough good things about them! My son started K last year and we “rowed” quite a few books. We are continuing this year and also doing some Before Five In A Row and including my 2yo daughter. It is such a sweet time to build memories together….God’s blessings!
Hi Lindsey,
Great encouragement seeing all you do with your little one regarding reading, planning and moving forward with homeschooling. My husband and I are trying to figure out if homeschooling is a viable option. Could you point me in the direction as to research the advantages of this path for edcuation. My husband is of the traditional since thing public schools is the way to go. My conscious tells me that I should be the one to provide her with the best edcuation through homeschooling. I am a fond reading of your blog, forgive if you have already covered this as I do not recall this being discussed. Any bit of help would be greatly appreciated our little girl Sarah Mary is 8 Months old today.
Thank you for sharing Karis special time with reading.
SIncerely,
Shannon
Shannon, I am currently preparing a post on the reasons why we have chosen this route and our goals with homeschooling. I hope to share this with you soon! I would encourage you both to read a few resources together: Family Driven Faith, and The Whole-Hearted Child…both these books were influential in helping us make a decision.
Thank you so much for responding. I look foward to reading more from you blog and I will read the books you have suggested.
We LOVE Sonlight!! We have used it for 4 years now. I have tried a variety of curriculum with my kids (ages 6, 7, & 11), but nothing beats Sonlight. We will definately use it for the duration of their school years. I tell everyone I can about their curriculum. Even my 11 year old son can’t get enough of their wonderful books. It’s just great!
great post. My older two are 4 and 3, and I homeschool them. They LOVE learning.
I have a recommendation for you regarding Scripture memory. I’ve been using Founders Press Truth and Grace (http://www.founderspress.com/shop/store.php?action=show_detail&crn=205&rn=417) book for 2 years now, and it is amazing. For each age/grade level, it has certain scripture memory, children’s catechism, and songs. My girls are so eager to ‘learn the next one’ on our questions or verses.
I have heard about those resources, but I thought they were for a older age group. Is this workable for 3 year olds?
Sounds like a great plan! We have loved using Sonlight but we have to tweak it a little bit to fit our schedule.
We have actually had the pleasure of spending time with Dana Dirksen and she is awesome! What a gift God has given her. Have fun this year!! And thanks for this blog. 
Awesome! We’re doing the “Learn your Letters, Learn to Serve” cirriculum too with our 4 year old this coming year
We greatly restrict my soon to be 3 year old’s tv/dvd watching but I have made the exception for the occassional watching of the Letter Factory. I am also a teacher and have used this in the past with a Developmental Kindergarten classroom. My daughter is not yet 3 and sometimes when we watch it, I have little alphabet cards that we follow along with the DVD. We identify the letters and make the songs. We also frequently sing the letter factory songs afterwards. I also use some other homemade ways to get her to know her letters. We use handwriting without tears for handwriting so she knows all her letters, all but 3 sounds, and can now write 10 letters. I also like Eric Carle’s ABC book. Touchmath is also awesome for teaching numbers. If you review the concept of it- which you can get on their website and download free materials, you can really teach it without purchasing anything. I just introduced numbers this summer. We also use starfall.com to reinforce her letters, it is a fun activity to do together. Along with baking, constant reading, and her christian daycare (I work during the school year) she gets a well rounded teaching!
I’m glad to see someone else who made a preschool plan for their child, I thought I was just being overly-organized.
I have a similar plan for my 3.5 old and 2.5 year old boys. Having a plan and looking at it often will hopefully help me to be more intentional in teaching them in our everyday activities.
I’m going to take a look at the curriculum from Laura you posted…I love her blog!
We loooveee Sonlight. After 7+ years using their curriculum-My son is off to college and majoring in international relations/history. We have so many great “Sonlight” memories.
All the best to you,
Jana
Awesome to hear such a testimony! I have been wanting to get some feedback about it from others. Thanks for sharing! Did you use it completely or replace some of the language arts, etc. with other materials?
thanks for sharing! we borrowed the letter factory video recently, and it was fantastic. i’d love to check out the other items you’ve suggested.
Hi Lindsay,
How old is Karis? My dd is 4 and will be entering JK this fall. My son will be entering gr.4. I have decided to homeschool for the first time and am very excited about it! I think I have decided to go with the Sonlight curriculum. I also am going to use Heavenly Homemaker’s Preschool curriculum with her. Really looking forward to it!
Karis is 3 years old. Congrats on deciding to homeschool! It is so much fun!
Sounds like a wonderful grouping of materials. We have been using Sonlight P 3/4 for preschool as well and everyone loves it, even my 9 year old! The stories are just classic. Have a blessed school year!
Thanks for sharing your plan! I had been on the lookout for some preschool homeschool programs. I know that this may be implied did you order any of your materials throug sonlight themselves? I was wondering if there was a way to get the parent resource book that they talk about without having to purchase the whole kit (I too would like to piece it together by purchasing books through Amazon or somewhere else)? About how long are you planning to do “school” each day for your daughter?
I was able to buy half of the books used through Amazon, but the other materials and parent guide I purchased individually through Sonlight. Yes, you can purchase them apart from the kit. I am doing a total of one hour of school time with her each day. I am devoting thirty minutes to reading the books from the Sonlight set, and the remaining thirty minutes to work on our letters, memorizing Scripture and the other activities in Laura’s curriculum.
We used the sonlight prek 3/4 curriculum also and loved it. We live overseas, so I stalked Amazon’s used books for good deals and had people bring them or ship them whenever someone was able. My favorite books were the Flip Flap Body Book (we’ve read it through 4 times now!) and What Do People Do All Day (we’ve read it countless times!). If we were in the states, I would have probably only bought those two and gotten the rest from the library. We’re wrapping up the PreK 4/5 curriculum now and it is superb. I’ve added in a few books to go along with other titles- like a 1st atlas to go with Stories from Around the World. In my opinion, you can do without the teacher’s guide in these early years. I can’t speak for once elementary formally starts though- I imagine the teacher’s guide would be much more important… I compared what we had done with a friend who followed the teacher’s guide. What we did was very close just a slightly different order of reading. I feel like my preschooler is really exposed to a lot of ideas/content he wouldn’t have been if we hadn’t read the books in the curriculum.