Should I consider implementing a preschool homeschool curriculum? Which?

Post date: 2020-08-03 14:25:02

I'm starting to wonder my son's next group experience may welll be in kindergarten, September 2021. Even if he goes back to daycare before then, it won't likely be until at least January. Right now we're just hanging out. We read a lot and play a lot, but I'm not really "teaching" him anything, beyond life-skills/human-skills explicitly/deliberately. Should I consider getting a homeschool curriculum for preschool and running with it? If so, how do I find? Can you recommend one?

My son was born late April 2017. So 3 years and 3 months now. He's scheduled to start kindergarten in September 2021. He was in daycare from about 14 months. His daycare will reopen August 17, but I won't be sending him back at that time and likely not until at least January. Obviously no one knows how this will go, but I can also imagine he doesn't go back to any group learning environment before kindergarten. As a coping mechanism, I'm assuming that by September 2021, it will be safe for him to go back.

He was in the "preschool room" at daycare, but that means it's the room for preschool-aged kids (2.5-4). It was not "school" in any sense. It's emergent -curriculum-based and though there are curricular goals, they are not really academic type things. I'm fine with that. I'm actually kind of opposed to academic-type learning for young kids. Kids here start learning to read in Kindergarten now, and even that is disturbing enough to me that even while I was pregnant I was wistfully googling private schools looking for a play-based non-academic kindergarten.

But still, I'm worried about all the learning he's missing out on while he's home and whether he'll be prepared for kindergarten. Should I consider a homeschool curriculum to cover non-academic skills and pre-literacy/pre-numeracy/experiential stuff (i.e. pre-science)/art stuff?

We already read a lots (figure 10-15 books per day), play outside, and chase buses. He cooks. There was a bit of a screen-time problem earlier in the pandemic where he was watching up to an hour in a day, but it's now down to 15 mins max. Pre-pandemic he was fully screen-free from birth.

How do I find something like this? Has anyone used a curriculum they recommend? I don't see this as an all day thing (and will be working) but maybe things I or grandmas could do 2-3 hours per day. How do homeschool curriculums even work?

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