Pre-K is still a time for plenty of outside play and discovery, I believe. But the special Mommy+Me time when my little man and I snuggle onto our giant blue chair and read together is priceless. These are the best homeschool Pre-K Materials for reading, math, science, geography, art, history, and music that I’ve found so far. Each child is different, so you’ll have to try some different methods to see what works for you. (Teaser: picture books are where it’s at, folks! Informational picture books abound these days, and your library is probably full of them!)
Best Homeschool Pre-K Reading
The choices below are our current favorites.
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This book could no longer keep my 4 year old’s attention by about lesson 72. However, it gave him a great foundation for reading. He now practices reading with the old Sing, Spell, Read, and Write primers my mother passed down to me, along with the charming Biscuit readers listed below.
2. Biscuit 12-Book Phonics Fun! Readers
3. LOTS of read-aloud with Mom! I try to do a large variety of picture books, fiction and nonfiction, as well as one longer book that we pick up almost daily.
Last year, we read through the complete Beatrix Potter collection of stories. We recently finished The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh. We read something from a children’s Bible storybook and/or devotional each morning. And this week, we are starting this beautifully illustrated version of The Wind in the Willows. (I ended up buying the brilliant Robert Ingpen edition because I wanted the unabridged version, and I am very pleased by how beautiful it is. I was sorely tempted by Inga Moore’s LOVELY illustrations, though! Take a peek!) My husband is also reading aloud from the Bible and from Marty Machowski’s The Ology: Ancient Truths, Ever New.
Best Homeschool Pre-K Science
- Library Books! We check out books about everything from astronomy to the life cycle of a frog. I recommend the Mrs. Frizzle books–they’re ubiquitous in most libraries! (Please don’t feel compelled to read every single sidebar to children this young.) We also LOVE Brian Floca’s informational picture books–Moonshot tells the story of the first lunar landing. (We bought our own copy and have been asked to read it aloud to our fascinated budding astronaut approximately 40,000 times.)
- Outdoor Exploration. Let nature spark your kid’s interest and then follow up using books and videos!
- Usborne books. I really love the lift-the-flap books on topics like the human body, our world (includes a beautifully rendered explanation of the water cycle), etc. Best of all, you probably already have a friend who sells Usborne Books!
Best Homeschool Pre-K Math
- Abacus. Yes, a simple abacus is still an amazing tool. Thank you, ancient Sumeria! 🙂 “It works!” my shocked little boy exclaimed the first time we used one!
- M&M Subtraction Book. While we have duly bought and admired the creative math books by Japanese artist Anno, none really made my son want to do actual math until this one from our library. Perhaps it helped that I got real M&Ms for practicing simple addition and subtraction.
- SumSwamp. This board game for practicing addition and subtraction is seriously so much fun!
Note: if your child is still in the stage of learning shapes/patterns/basic counting, you might be interested in the HotDots products. They have given my little guy lots of fun pre-math practices. (The Pre-K math set was the best Christmas gift ever!) Also, you might enjoy Preschool Math at Home, by Kate Snow. I used a lot of her ideas for preschool math.
Best Homeschool Pre-K Geography/History/Art
- Map. Find a fun map to hang on the wall. When you read a picture book, help your child find the country it’s written about on the map. I purposefully bought lots of multicultural storybooks for this activity. (For example, Jan Brett has some gorgeously illustrated books with reworked folk tales that feature animals native to various regions. Thomas Locker is another author to check out.)
- This Is the World: A Global Treasury. Somewhat dated, but really fun for kids trying to picture what different countries and their people and famous places might look like.
- Map puzzles. My kids love our United States puzzle, which I bought for $5 at Big Lots! 🙂
- Around the World coloring book. We find the country we are studying on our wall map, color the country map together, and listen to the composer featured for each country as we color. This is one of my little boy’s favorite activities to do with me. We average only about one country per week, since I prioritize his reading.
- Again, picture books. So many stories give glimpses of how it used to be in our country and elsewhere. Check out books by the writers Allen Say and Alma Flor Ada and others by the wonderful illustrators Sophie Blackall and Barbara Cooney.
Best Homeschool Pre-K Music/2nd Language/Art
- Instruments.
We have a real piano keyboard and a small play one, a quarter-size violin, and a ukulele. We also have a collection of play musical instruments (a wooden recorder, small tambourine, lots of rhythm instruments, etc.). I think the best way to inspire a love for music in kids is to show love for it yourself and make instruments readily available.
Note: We are very clear about the difference between play instruments and real ones! The kids are not allowed to bang the real violin around like they do the egg shakers! - Usborne Step-By-Step Drawing Book. Uses simple shapes to guide children to draw recognizable dogs, astronauts, rockets, cars, etc. This book has been a blast for both little J and artistically-challenged Mom!
- Bilingual books/books in Spanish. I still regularly read to my kids in Spanish, even though they’ve dropped most of their Spanish words and prefer English. Their current favorite is Dragones y Tacos! Check out our lists of essentials for a bilingual children’s library for ideas.
Finally, I’m not claiming that these materials are the absolute best materials in the world. They’re the best for my son right now, and I love sharing what is working for us! Please let me know in the comments if you have books or games that you are loving for homeschool pre-K right now!