Preschool and Pre-K Plans 2025-2026

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It is August, so we are now weeks away from “back to school.” I know many parts of the country start in August, but I just can’t grasp that. School is after Labor Day around here! I finally got around to ordering our curricula for the next year. So, now I am going to share a bit about our plans for the upcoming school year. I have 3 children. In September, they will be 4.5, 2,5, and 12 months. This is the first year I am doing more work dedicated to my 2.5-year-old. She will be in what I call “Gan Ima 2s” (basically meaning Mom Nursery 2s). My son will be in proper Pre-K, but doing a mix of curricula levels.

My 2-Year-Old Preschool Plans

First up are my plans for my 2-year-old. I know 2-year-olds do not need a curriculum. Most of the learning is in our daily life, games, and things like that. She also works with the Montessori sandpaper letters and some of the sensorial materials, such as the knobbed cylinders. However, given she is my second child and we have less one-on-one time, I am choosing to get a set curriculum to work on with her. I think this will be a great opportunity for us to connect and focus on her learning.

I am going with Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool. I explored this curriculum last year, but it was too easy for my son at 3.5. At 2.5, I think it will be a good match for my daughter. I love how it is play and connection-based, but it gives us some guidance on activities to do together. I think she will absolutely love having her own lessons. The biggest challenge will be getting that time with her. I am sure my older son will want to join, and I will have to make sure he doesn’t take over. I also need to get around to getting the curriculum printed and spiral-bound.

I am very curious to see where she goes with learning this year, and, as I always do with my son, I will adapt as necessary. She knows most of her lowercase letter sounds and some uppercase. I have noticed recently she points them out more and more while “reading” books. Interestingly, at this age, my son still knew nearly none of his letters, but a few months later, he was reading! I will not start All About Reading, though, until she is blending words.

We are also members of Hands on Kids Activities and I have used their resources for about a year and a half with my son. Each month has a preschool pack and literacy resources that I plan to use with M. Often there is one that will coordinate with what she is doing in Playing Preschool. This works well since Playing Preschool doesn’t have printables.

Pre-K Plans for my 4-Year-Old

Now for the plans for my 4-year-old. For those unfamiliar with our homeschool journey, he is likely gifted, and many of our picks are not standard for Pre-K. He is a fluent reader, and in the past year, his math skills took off as well.

Math Plans

I am still not completely sure of the path we will take with math. I planned to switch to Singapore Dimensions Math, along with Montessori math. I ordered the year of curriculum, but then All About Math level 2 was released. Last year, we combined Montessori math with Math With Confidence (the Kindergarten level). When choosing a curriculum last year, I spent a lot of time looking for a math curriculum that was similar to All About Reading. We adored All About Reading. Since then, All About Learning has released All About Math. Without question, if it had been out last year, that is what I would have chosen. However, it was not out yet at the time. I was led to Math With Confidence for a similar style. It is similar, with open-and-go, lots of multisensory and hands-on work, and very little workbook-style work (crucial for my son, who is advanced in math but still Pre-K age and thus not in the same place fine motor-wise). Overall, we really enjoyed Math With Confidence, and I will write a more detailed review on it. That said, we found the pace of Math With Confidence too slow for us. We started it in January, I believe, and finished it very quickly. I think it is a wonderful curriculum, but I don’t know that it will be the best fit for my son.

Singapore seems to be more focused on mental math and logic, which I think he will enjoy. It also has opportunities for more challenge through the challenging word problems and intensive practice. This means we can dive into those deeper, more challenging problems when necessary, rather than grade acceleration. I plan to try Singapore Math first grade in September. I got him the KB workbook to let him work on as he wishes this summer (I do not push workbooks, but he LOVES them). Though content-wise, he had learned everything from Math With Confidence, the format is different, and I wanted to make sure he had familiarity with that prior to starting new material. So far, he has loved that and asks to do a few pages every day. I do find the textbook, workbook, and teacher’s guides as 3 different books a bit overwhelming.

I am still going back and forth on whether our core that I will use for teaching will be Singapore or All About Math Level 2. It was just released (after I already purchased Singapore Math), and it looks incredible. It has a slightly different scope and sequence than most other math programs (my guess is it doesn’t follow Common Core). My biggest hesitation was the manipulative set they require. However, looking a bit deeper, it is a pretty simple set of commonly used items, and it comes in a storage box. It seems to forgo workbooks, which is exactly what I was looking for last year. It turns out my son really loves workbooks, despite them not being my teaching preference. His fine motor skills have improved, but I am still unsure if they will allow him to keep up with the writing in a first-grade-level math curriculum. In the end, I I think I will teach using All About Math and continue to offer workbooks from Singapore Math for independent work. This is where I am currently leaning, but I want to look at both teachers’ guides to make the decision. So far, the Singapore Math home educator’s guide is overwhelming me, but I just looked at it for a couple of minutes.

We are also going to continue with Montessori math. Montessori math has a very different scope and sequence from traditional math. He knows 4-digit numbers, for example, which is not taught in traditional math until much later. We will continue working with 4-digit numbers and fractions there. I know combining different math programs feels like a lot, but I am in no hurry to complete any of them. I see it as using different curricula to offer us different types of math to fulfill his interests.

Language Arts

For phonics, he completed the full phonics sequence from All About Reading last year. From that, he is a decent speller. I have found his spelling has naturally improved a ton this past year as he has used the movable alphabet, kept a bit of a journal, and written for some of our projects. That said, I will eventually do a spelling program. I purchased All About Spelling last year. I found it overwhelming, particularly since his hand was not ready to write the words at the time. His handwriting has taken off in the past year, and we may try All About Spelling this year. I am not sure, though.

He is in the stage of reading to learn versus learning to read now, so most of our reading is focused on gaining information from reading. Reading will be part of our overarching curriculum this year as he reads books, summarizes, narrates, tells stories, etc. We use the Montessori grammar symbols and grammar farm for grammar.

Our Overarching Curriculum

That brings me to our overarching curriculum. I was exploring a few options, including Beautiful Feet Books around the world, and some other similar options. However, I decided I wanted to go hyperlocal. We are going to spend a year exploring New York City history! This curriculum doesn’t exist, so I am working on my own. So far, I have a spreadsheet with books for each topic, but still a lot to add. I plan to go on a historical exploration of NYC, focused on different landmarks. We will also spend a significant amount of time exploring immigration in NYC, both some of the major immigrant waves and some immigration relevant to our own family. On both sides of the family, we have ancestors who came from other countries to NYC. This includes my Grandmother from Cuba to the Bronx, my Father-In-Law from Lebanon to Brooklyn, and some earlier family from Eastern Europe to the Lower East Side. We will focus on each of those places in addition to some of the general immigration waves. I am so excited! This will allow for a lot of field trips and hands-on learning. The City is central to my children’s daily lives and their heritage, so it feels like a very fitting way to jump into history. Each week, we will have a picture book we read multiple times, a field trip, and some relevant other activities such as science experiments, art projects, or cooking.

I have included my very rough outline below. There is a lot I need to add, much of which is floating around my brain, and plenty that is not there yet. The idea, though, is that the main book will be read all week. Each week, there will be a field trip (I often didn’t include that on the spreadsheet because it’s rather obvious). Then, I hope to have 2 or so more activities: cooking, craft, music, or STEM. As I said, a lot isn’t written on here yet, but it is in my head. We will also bring Y to his first Broadway show!

I hope to incorporate art, music, and some science. When relevant, for example, I will incorporate art study from Hands on Kids Activities.

Handwriting

For handwriting, we have been using Learning Without Tears Kick Start Kindergarten. We are moving pretty slowly through this and will continue to work through it. We are finally finishing up all the uppercase letters through the curriculum. Once he finishes that, I will probably go to the next one from their set. I think Handwriting Without Tears is a fantastic program, though their website is truly horrendous. I find their Amazon page slightly better. We will also continue with Doodles Help Handwriting, which my son loves as well. He was never a big drawing fan until we started using those books for directed drawing.

Other Curriculum

For science, we will mostly read books and listen to podcasts. We listen to the Curious Kids Everyday podcast, which answers a lot of our science questions. I just got Y some Yoto cards as well. We also love the Big Books of Why and the Let’s Read and Find Out series. I like to add in materials from Hands on Kids Activities. I will allow his interests to lead for science. He is currently interested in natural disasters. Otherwise, science is incorporated into our overarching NYC curriculum.

We are continuing Hebrew Scouts for Hebrew reading. My husband is taking over with this, though, and I am thrilled about that. His Hebrew is much better than mine, and it is a huge relief for me to have that particular subject off my plate.

We will learn about the Jewish holidays throughout the year, along with the Parsha. I am yet to find a curriculum I love for that, unfortunately. I was hopeful about a Reggio one I came across, but the price was startling.

Extracurriculars for my Children

We will also be using extracurriculars as part of our homeschool. My 2-year-old will be in a ballet and music class. My 4-year-old will do music, tennis, and soccer.