We didn’t decide to homeschool until Jacob was in kindergarten, so Sarah has been my guinea pig when it comes to preschool. We do “preschool” for two years. Year 1 is all about basic basics. Mostly it is just reading books and maybe sitting with me for 10 minutes working on other things.
Sarah was definitely ready for more her second year. And I wanted to do something different and found The Peaceful Press. They have several resources {we even did their tree unit last summer for fun!}. And we decided to try their Peaceful Preschool curriculum. It was a great fit for Sarah and our family. We tweaked things to make it work for us {we will get into that later} but we will definitely be using it again in the future!
What is included?
The Peaceful Preschool is only available as a PDF download. When you purchase the curriculum you get five separate PDF documents.
- Parent Guide
- Printable Files
- Recipes
- The Master Supply List
- The Book List
Supplies
There is a variety of supplies that are needed for this curriculum. At the beginning of each week there is a supply list given. “The Master Supply List” gives you all of the basic supplies you would need on more of a regular basis but you would need to look at your weekly list as well.
Weekly Lessons
The Peaceful Preschool is divided up into weekly lessons. Each week focuses on a letter in the alphabet going from A to Z. Your weekly activities are centered around literature and projects. It is very much about hands-on learning – no worksheets.
Monday through Thursday you are given prompts of things to do, and Friday is set aside for field trips are other activities.
Each day has seven different categories:
- Read Aloud
- Phonics Skills
- Counting Skills
- Fine Motor Skills
- Large Motor Skills
- Practical Life Skills
- Art Skills
We didn’t do it this way. We used The Peaceful Preschool along with The Good and the Beautiful Pre-K and so some of the things would have been fairly repetitive. Instead, with The Peaceful Preschool we focused on the read aloud, practical life skills, art skills, and occasionally the phonics skills.
Schedule
Because I was using two different programs at the same time I chose to adjust things a little bit. When we started a new letter, I would look at the activities listed for the week {in the categories I listed above} and would plan for those.
I didn’t stick to a strict Monday through Thursday schedule. We school year round {to some degree} and we just moved onto the next activities when it worked for us.
This worked out great for us. Do what works for you and your family!
Read Aloud
This is tied for my favorite part of this curriculum. Each day you are given a book, poem, or scripture that focuses on your letter of the week.
All of the books are listed in “The Book List” file and they are also included at the beginning of each letter week. I thought it was a great mix of good classic children’s books.
Phonics Skills
We didn’t use the phonics skills, with the exception of the “glitter glue flashcards”. In your “Printable Files” PDF you are given pages for each letter with an uppercase and lowercase letter in print and in cursive. I decided to just focus on the print for preschool.
Each week when we began a new letter, Sarah would use glitter glue to trace the printed letter. I would then hole punch the corners and put them on a ring and it was a fun flashcard activity Sarah could do on her own to practice her letters and the sounds that they make.
Practical Life Skills
This category was really unique and we really enjoyed it – and it is the other part tied for my favorite. I loved that cooking was included in this curriculum. Not every week, but several weeks (19 to be exact), you are prompted to cook something together with your child. Oftentimes, it is a food related to one of the books that you are reading, or it may just start with the letter you are learning.
Either way, it was a great bonding time with one another. Sarah loves cooking and this was great one-on-one time together.
Art Skills
This was a fun activity. There was a lot of painting involved and you are often prompted to do art activities related to scenes of books that you have read. Again, it was just a nice casual activity for Sarah to do. We are ALL about art around here!
Favorite Moments & Activities
Final Thoughts
Sarah genuinely seemed to enjoy everything we did with this curriculum. The Peaceful Preschool seemed very much about connection and that is a beautiful thing. We were given lots of time to snuggle together and read good books as well as have time to create with one another {whether that be through art or cooking}.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone that is looking for a gentle approach to learning. Two thumbs up from us!
