Preschool Homeschool Curriculum

LifeIsRocqi
14 hours ago
6 min read

What values did you want to teach your children?

To preface, I went back to school specifically for child development once I knew I was going to be able to be a stay at home mom. If I was going to be their daycare provider, I needed to make sure that my children were being educated and prepared. I am also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who initially specialized in seeing children and has transitioned to specializing in Prenatal and Postpartum Women.

That said, obviously there was focus on:

Reading - Letter recognition, phonics, sight words
Math - Number recognition, counting, 1:1 correspondence with tangibles numbers and things to count
Emotional Intelligence - Emotional regulation, identification, and expression as well as kindness and empathy
Gross and Fine Motor skills (https://lovevery.com/)
Sensory Play - different sets for each season
1. Spring Equinox
2. Summer Solstice
3. Fall Equinox
4. Winter Solstice
Colors - recognition and matching
Shapes - recognition and matching
Body Parts - just playing "Hands, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" helps with that. I also teach correct terminology for private parts. As it is just another part of the body and there is no shame in that. I started by narrating when my daughter would explore her body as an infant.
Days of the Week/Months of the Year
Life Skills - laundry (taking clothes from the dryer and putting them in the laundry basket or drawer & taking clothes from her hamper and putting them in the washing machine), putting her toys away, cooking
And I have been exposing my daughter to 6 languages - Standard American English, Spanish, Swahili, American Sign Language, African American Vernacular English, and Guyanese Creole

I prefer to cater to the different learning styles in teaching so my daughter primarily learns through auditory, kinesthetic, visual, and interpersonal (there are several more). So I have a music playlist for her (shoutout to Gracie's Corner, JoolzTV, and Doggyland), educational toys she can play with by herself (included in the YouTube links above), and things we can do together as well as me modeling.

Even with all of that, I still allow for plenty of outside time, free play, representative play, QT with her family, and socialization with her peers as we attend 2-3 activities per week.

Oh we have reduced screens in our household, but allow for Family Movie Time 1-2x/week plus shows like Karma's World on Netflix, Eureka on Disney Plus, and the old school Reading Rainbow with LeVar Burton and Magic School Bus on YouTube and that's 2-3x/week.

And all of that is just to establish the foundation for an adult who can thrive. But getting to the part of instilling our values in our children, with me started with centering the Heritage Months within our Homeschool Curriculum. (Check out my blog about also centering the Seasonal Holidays like the Fall Equinox within our Homeschool Curriculum)

January: Diversity, let's talk about everyone, all the cultures, all the different types of families, people, bodies, abilities etc. Cause we are also honoring MLK. We also talk about different ways people celebrate the New Year at different times of the year.
February: Black History Month - Black Beauty AND Black History not beginning with slavery
March: Women's History Month and the Spring Equinox, Easter, Passover, and Holi
April: Arab American Heritage Month and Ramadan
May: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
June: Pride Month and Juneteenth, Summer Solstice
July and August: For More Black stuff lol, the Diaspora, our Greatness.
September 15 – October 15: Hispanic Heritage Month (going into Dia de los Muertos. As well as Diwali)
November: Native American Heritage Month
December: Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannukah

Now after the first year of this curriculum, I was like damn I'm not talking about White people at all lol. Although the Seasonal Holidays do discuss European traditions and Whiteness is based in White Supremacy....

But to make sure we are discussing positive cultures of Europeans:

Jewish - Passover, Hannukah, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

Norwegian/Scandinavian - Frozen and Frozen 2 (Winter)

Scottish/Irish - Brave, Luck of the Irish, Riverdance on Netflix (St. Patrick's Day)

Russian - Anastasia (Winter)

Greek - Hercules (Summer)

But please let me know about any children's books, movies, tv/shows relating to European cultures.

We can attend an Oktoberfest for some German culture if we can find a family friendly one.

This is how I try to incorporate each culture from the heritage months:

Books from the Public Library
Arts/Crafts (I get free printables from Pinterest). I will create a separate post for these.
Movies/TV Shows (shoutout to Disney for it's diversity representation as well as HBO's Happily Ever After series)
Events/Experiences
- In addition to attending events celebrating Blackness - Juneteenth, Kwanzaa, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as a Family Reunion
- We've also attended an Indigenous Red Market, an Asian Pacific Islander Festival and Lunar New Year Fesitival, Diwali celebration, Dia de los Muertos Festival. Very thankful for living in Oakland, one of the most diverse cities in the U.S.
- Also, FOOD! Food is an amazing representation of culture. We have eaten Native American cuisine, Filipino, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Eritrean, Nigerian, and Irish.

Here is a list of books available at our public library for each heritage month. Very thankful to our Oakland Public Library and maistorybooklibrary on instagram for helping me create this book list.

Diversity:

Our Favorite Day of the Year by A.E. Ali
Global Baby Playtime by Maya Ajmera
Global Baby Bedtimes by Maya Ajmera
Same, Same, but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
My First Body Book: Explore your Body With Windows and Sliders by Yujin Shin
Every Body A First Conversation About Bodies by Megan Madison
Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race by Megan Madison
Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder
Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi
Baby Animals With Their Families by Suzi Eszterhas
A Family Like Ours by Frank Murphy
Love Without Bounds: An IntersectionAllies Book About Families by Chelsea Johnson
I Can Be All Three by Salima Alikhan
Lunch From Home by Joshua David Stein

Black History Month: (I also pull from these lists in May, June and August)

Black Beauty
- https://oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/2377776829/2467243020
Black History
- https://oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/2377776829/2429123671
The Diaspora
- https://oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/2377776829/2467245289

Women's History Month

Standing on Her Shoulders: a Celebration of Women by Monica Clark-Robinson
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland Shows a Young Girl How to Dance Like the Firebird by Misty Copeland
Maya Angelou by Lisbeth Kaiser
Nobody Owns the Sky the Story of "Brave Bessie" Coleman by Reeve Lindbergh
Josephine: My First Josephine Baker by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Mae Jemison by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Harriet Tubman by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Michelle Obama by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Rosa Parks by Kaiser Lisbeth
Aretha Franklin by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Laverne Cox by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Ella: My First Ella Fitzgerald by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Ketanji Brown Jackson: a Justice for All by Tami Charles
Zaha Hadid by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Ruth Bader Ginsburg by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Jane: My First Jane Goodall by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara
Greta: My First Greta Thunberg by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara

Spring Equinox& Earth Day/Easter/Passover/Holi:

The Spring Equinox: Celebrating the Greening of the Earth by Ellen B. Jackson
A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeffer
The Big Five by Bella Makatini
Baby Loves Vegan by Jennifer Eckford
Circle of Life by Tim Rice
Fox: a Circle of Life Story by Isabel Thomas
Zonia's Rain Forest by Juana Martinez-Neal
All Around Us by Xelena Gonzalez
You Are My Pride: a Love Letter From Your Motherland by Carole Boston Weatherford
Happy Earth Day! by Deborah Hopkinson
What Am I? Easter by Anne Margaret Lewis
The Story of the Easter Bunny by Katherine Brown Tegen
Miz Fannie Mae's Fine New Easter Hat by Melissa Milich
Emma's Easter by Lisa Bullard
Easter Babies: a Springtime Counting Book by Joy N. Hulme
As I'm exposing my daughter to different belief systems, I did get My First Illustrated Bible Stories New Testament by Wonder House. Most Easter children's books actually don't talk about Jesus Christ. I am working to find children's books for the Torah and the Qur'an as well as other belief systems.
Passover by Priddy Books
Passover: a Celebration of Freedom by Bonnie Bader
An Invitation to Passover by Kerry M. Olitzky
Around the Passover Table by Tracy Newman
Holi Hai! by Chitra Soundar
Festival of Colors by Surishtha Sehgal
Baby's First Holi by DK Publishing
Holi Festival of Color by Grace Hansen