How to Organize your own Home Preschool Schedule with Cheap and FREE Resources

What does it take to organize your own home preschool schedule for your kids? It may not be as hard as you think. With some cheap and free preschool resources, you can have your preschool running in no time.

Preschool from home

I would love for my kids to go to a formal preschool where they can interact with other kids, learn new things, get out of the house for awhile. (Mostly the last one, jk). But, preschools are usually too expensive, or out of our budget, so we are stuck with good old fashion home preschool. This might overwhelm a lot of people. They have hopes of doing preschool, and some big dreams, but can never actually execute it. However, doing preschool with your little one can be super simple and easy. Kids love simple AND easy. It doesn’t take much for them to learn, and they don’t mind repetition. You don’t have to have some awesome new and exciting thing each time.

If you fall into the boat of I-want-my-kid-to-do-preschool-but-can’t-afford-it, then you have come to the right place. There are so many good resources out there for teaching young kids, it’s insane. I know I won’t be able to cover ALL of it, but I have a lot. I have done some research through the years, and done some programs myself, so I hope this helps to make your life a little easier on the preschool front.

Let’s dive in.

This post contains affiliate links.

What do kids need to be taught from a Home Preschool?

I think one of the first burning questions of any parent who is about to preschool their child is “what the heck do they need to learn?”. What is going to get them prepared for Pre-K or Kindergarten? What do they need to know right now?

Well, according to the experts, some of the things kids should be learning now are:

• Learning Letters
• Practice writing his/her name
• A few Sight Words
• Numbers
• Making Decisions
• Be familiar with holding and looking at a book
• Master Eating
• Memorizing their name
• Listening Skills
• Let them fail

You can read more about what things to learn in the article Things Your Kid Should Know Before Kindergarten. They also go into more depth on each of these points.

Some other common topics are colors and shapes, but it really is just simple things. And, most of these things come naturally to them if you are just a decent  parent. All the other things are just bonuses. A kid can survive school without doing preschool, so if you’re doing any kind of preschool, you’re already a step ahead of the game.

Where to get Preschool curriculum, lessons, and resources?

Now you know what you are looking for, you have to be able to find it, so you can start teaching. There are so many resources out there. I’m going to talk about the free ones, cheap ones, and the more in depth curriculum that you can buy (possible for a pretty penny). I also will discuss some of the electronic, online teaching.

Where to get FREE printables and curriculum for preschool

Make your own

One option would be to just make your own curriculum. If you know what they need to learn, you could create printables and activities based around learning that knowledge. If you are super creative and have a lot of time on your hands, this could be a good option for you.

However, I think most of us don’t have time to make our own preschool curriculum. Below are some free resources for making a curriculum. Because it is FREE, it will take a little more time on your part to put together and organize it all, which is totally doable. If you’re looking for some direction on what to do with the free printables you already have, look at the schedule options listed below.

Paper Scissors Craft

I have to do a plug-in for myself. I do have a few FREE preschool printables in my store. They are mostly activity based. I do have a counting printable that you can get for FREE here. I also have some FREE Q-tip painting preschool activity sheets that include numbers and letters, here.

Teacher’s Pay Teachers (tpt)

Teacher’s pay teachers is an online marketplace for people to sale an endless supply of digital educational products. We’re talking worksheets, coloring pages, printables, or sets of printables, you name it. You can find any level, any grade, or any subject. Just type in FREE Preschool worksheets, preschool activities, or preschool curriculum, and you’re bound to find what you are looking for. You could also search for specific worksheets like “free preschool alphabet printable”. It’s an overall great resource.

Side note: I do believe you have to have an account with them to buy/download things. 

I have to do a shout out to my sister who actually makes her own products on TPT geared toward 5-6th graders on her page Teaching in An Organized Mess. If you have kids that age, you should check her out.

Jump Start

Jumpstart.com has several free worksheets and ideas for preschoolers. There are no fees and no obligation to sign up.

Easy Peasy All-in-One Home School

Easy Peasy All-in-One Home School has curriculum for just about every age. They have a preschool program that goes through the alphabet, a letter a week, as well as, shapes, colors, sight words, and motor skills practice. They also have a transition program from preschool to kindergarten. You can buy the workbook version, or you can download the black and white version for free.

Progressive Phonics

Progressive Phonics is a free program that helps teach kids to read, even as young as three. It’s a super easy program to follow. It is something you could use as the reading portion of your preschool.

ABC Jesus Loves Me

ABC Jesus Loves Me is a preschool curriculum from 0-5 years. They have a very basic FREE version that gives you weekly lessons with all the activities, supply lists, songs, and crafts to do. It is bible oriented, so if you love Jesus, this is a good one for you!

Stay At Home Educator

The stay at home educator website provides free weekly preschool lessons for parents. All you have to do is sign up for their newsletter, and they send you everything weekly.

Everything Preschool

Everything Preschool has very simple lessons and worksheets to print out and follow.

Education.Com

Education.com has a great FREE digital and printable library to access all different topics and learning activities for all ages and grades.

You can probably find FREE printables just about anywhere online, just search for what you need specifically. Like, “free letter A preschool printables”, you’ll find one. It might not be as nice as a paid one, but it will work. Putting the FREE things together might take up more of your time, but it’s FREE, and you can make it more of your own. (if you need a basic schedule, look below).

Where to get cheap printables/curriculum for preschool

Paper Scissors Craft

Again, a little plug, I have a lot of preschool Q-tip painting sheets that are geared for learning and motor skills. They are my most popular product. I have Q-tip Weather Printable for learning the weather, Q-tip Counting and Numbers printable, Q-tip Alphabet printable, and a Q-tip printable that has a little bit of all of them. I also have a paint by letter for learning the alphabet and letters. You can check out all my Preschool printables, here. 

Amazon

Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a book highly recommended by many moms. If you wan to get a jumpstart on your child’s reading, check out this easy book. Once they get reading down, everything else comes easier!

There are several other preschool workbooks on Amazon that might strike your fancy.

Teacher’s Pay Teachers

Again, Teacher’s Pay Teachers is a great resource for cheap printables, not just free ones. Actually, this is where I recently bought some preschool printables and worksheets. It was $25 for 2,000 pages of printables. I decided to use them to create my own preschool curriculum and schedule. Here is the product I purchased.

Reading the Alphabet

You can find little products all around for preschool. This one is Reading the Alphabet which helps young readers learn sounds, letters, phonics, handwriting, syllables, and motor skills. It may not be a while curriculum, but it would be great to get your own little preschool going. It’s only $35.

Education.com

I will add this again, too, because it has a premium option with access to special features. It’s only $8 a month, or cheaper if you sign up for the annual plan.

Busy Toddler

Busy Toddler has it’s own Play preschool, where all the learning happens through play. It’s only $39, and is pretty in depth. It has great reviews. I have a friend who is using it and loves it.

Highlights Book

One year I based all my lessons around the Highlights Preschool book. It was super easy, and I didn’t spend too much time on it each day, but it’s a great preschool book. It’s great for supplementing preschool.

Where to get more in depth (maybe not cheap) preschool lessons

The Good and The Beautiful 

We used this program when my kids were in K and 4th grade. They do have preschool things as well. They actually have a digital option that is A LOT cheaper, and you can even find some FREE digital options as well.

Joy School

I used Joy School a few years ago when my daughter was in preschool. I loved the curriculum they have, and they make it easy. It is on the pricier end. It cost about $150 dollars, but you get the whole package for a lifetime. You can keep using it for each child that hits preschool. The lessons are simple and they teach a lot about enjoying learning and encouraging curiosity.

When I did Joy School it was with a group of about 6 other moms and kids. We took turns hosting a different week of school and it was great. The kids had a blast, we got all took our turns getting a break and teaching. If you can create a group, I highly recommend it.

The Preschool Box

Maybe you just want to do preschool a few times a month, and that’s great. No where does it say that preschool has to be done so many times a week. You can make it your own. If you only have a few times a month for it, do it. I think anything helps, and preschoolers are always willing to learn. One way you can do this is through The Preschool Box subscription.

If you need some other ideas for great educational subscription boxes, you can check out my post The Best Craft Boxes for Kids and Toddlers. Craft boxes are a great addition to any preschool.

Learning Box Preschool

This is a more expensive option, and it’s normally used for public preschools, but if you ordered the box, you get all the supplies and lessons shipped to you.

Mother Goose Time

Mother Goose Time is a monthly subscription that includes all the supplies and lessons you need. They also have a theme each month that is centered around their learning. Their mission is to teach researched based curriculum.

If you’d like a more in-depth list of some of the best preschool curriculum out there you can visit homeschool.com.

What online and electronic resources are there for at-home preschoolers

I wanted to make electronic and online resources separate from all the other resources because not everyone has access to a computer for their toddler, or multiple computers, or wants their toddler doing preschool on a computer. However, if you can make it a part of your preschool, here are some online resources:

Epic

Epic is a great reading resource that my family uses. It has a huge digital library of books. It is great for all ages, you can see my review for it here. It is a monthly subscription.

ABCYa

This is actually a website that I just learned about, but it has a lot of educational games for all subjects: math, science, or English. It also has some non-educational games as well. They have a free and paid version.

Explore.org

Another website that I recently learned about. This is an awesome site for anyone, including adults. It is a website full of live cameras all around the world. You can watch the elephants in Africa, the bears in Alaska, or the little kitties at a sanctuary. I love watching it, and I think it is extremely educational.

ABCMouse

ABC Mouse is a popular online learning site. They have programs that cater to as young as 2 years old. They do have a monthly fee as low as $9.95 per month. They usually have a free 30 day trial. You can check them out at Abcmouse.com

Time for Learning

Time for learning has a subscription preschool for $20 a month. You get all the lessons and helps to keep your preschooler on track.

I’m sure there are a ton more online resources, but these are the ones I am familiar with, use, and enjoy.

How to organize preschool topics into a home preschool schedule

Now that you know what you need to learn and where to get it, how do you go about teaching it?

I came up with a basic preschool schedule that works best for me, and I thought I’d share it. You do not have to do exactly what I do, you can shape it into your own, but maybe it will give you an idea of a schedule you can make your own.

I only do preschool 2x a week for about an hour to an hour and a half. I wanted to make it easy on myself, and I didn’t want to feel overwhelmed by it. I teach my son and my nephew. They are both 3, but my son turns 4 very soon.

Here’s what we do.

Home Preschool Schedule

5-10 Minutes Welcome to Preschool

During our welcome time, we get the wiggles out. We usually sing a couple of songs, play follow the leader, and then find our spots on the floor. You could have blankets or big carpet circles so that they actually have a spot. Most kids sit better when they have a specific spot.

10-15 Minutes Discussing the Day

Next we go over what day is it, what is tomorrow, what was yesterday. We review the year, season, and month. We talk about the weather. We got outside or look out the window and talk about what the weather is like. Then we dress our little bear in clothes that is fitting to the weather. (I have a bear print out with paper clothes to dress him). Some days this is short, and some days we go into detail about a day, or the weather, or Mr. Bear. All of these things have a visual with them. I have a paper for each one of the days and seasons. I have little suns, rain, and clouds to look at and pick the weather. It is all visual.

I have a board that I tape all my visuals to.

5-10 Minutes going over the rules

Kids really do learn from repetition. We have about 7 cards with pictures of the rules of our classroom. We do a quick review of them with visuals before every class. This way they know the expectations every time and it helps them for when they will be in a real classroom. You could make this fun by acting them out or letting them hold the cards.

5 Minutes What did we Learn

We spend the next few minutes talking about what we learned the day before. What letter did we go over and what did we talk about. They usually need some guidance with this one.

10-15 Minutes learning a new concept

I like to teach something new each week. Since I do preschool 2x a week, we discuss the same concept for the whole week. Again, they really learn from repetition. This could be anything like: Learning about our emotions, learning how to listen, learning what happens when Fall comes, learning about animal sounds. Really anything. I like to plan out my concepts 4 weeks in advance and then print off all my printables the beginning of each week. I get a lot of my ideas from the printables that I bought. They have a ton of different things to learn.

If I want to teach my own thing or idea, I either make a printable for it, or find one online for cheap or free. I can’t just stand up and speak at my kids. I have to show them something and get them involved. Take learning about our emotions as an example. I could show them emotion cards with all the different kind of emotions and ask them to imitate the cards. Next I could ask them to think of things that would make them sad, and why. We could also talk about expressing those emotions and what is right and wrong. You could also do a craft about emotions by making a paper plate that has a smile on one side and a frown on the other.

5-10 Minutes Reading

I try to read a book each lesson. I also try to make it a book about the concept or letter we are learning about. This is where Epic comes in handy a bunch.

15-20 Minutes Learning about the Alphabet

I follow the idea of learning a letter a week. Then once we complete the letters, we do numbers and than shapes and colors. Each day we talk about the letter of the week, what it looks like, what it sounds like, how to write it, and what words start with that letter. Sometimes we write the letter out. I try not to just trace letters all the time, cause that’s boring. I usually try to create a craft based around writing out the letter. For example, we did painting with toy cars for the letter A.

After we discuss the letter, we do a craft. There are so many different crafts out there that you can turn into a learning-the-alphabet craft. I’m hoping to make a post about that soon, but in the mean time you could do Q-tip painting, car painting (as mentioned above), sidewalk painting, rock painting, or paint by letter.

That’s it!

It is so simple and requires little prep time on my part. I try to do really simple and easy crafts with supplies I already have on hand, or with very little supplies.

Again it usually takes about 1 hour to 1-1/2 hours, but sometimes, if I’m not in the mood, I just shorten it. I try to stay consistent so that they have some consistency, but sometimes life happens.

You can download my Home Preschool Schedule printable/cheat sheet so you can have it readily accessible.

Don’t Stress Over Teaching at Home Preschool

I know that, as parents, we tend to get stressed out about our children’s education. We think, “have I done enough?”, “Will my child ever measure up?”, “They aren’t getting the alphabet as fast as Johnny”, or “I haven’t prepared them enough for Kindergarten and they will fall behind”.

Don’t Stress. All children develop and learn at their own rate. Don’t force it, and don’t feel like you have to “be ahead” or “out rank” other kids. Your child is doing just fine, and if you’re taking some time with them every day, no matter how small, you are making a difference and you are investing in their future. They have plenty of time to learn, and Kindergarten is going to teach them so much.

You don’t have to have the perfect preschool to get started and get going. Just do as much as you can, as often as you can, and you’ll be doing it right! You don’t want to discourage your child, you want to create a love of learning, and everything else will fall into place.

Related: Tips and Tricks for Crafting with Young Kids: It doesn’t have to be Hard

Related: 11 Crafts and Activities that your Toddler will Love and Engage in

Related: How to do Q-tip Painting with Your Toddler