Review of The Peaceful Preschool

While I am making huge changes in our homeschooling this year, one thing is staying the same – I will be doing preschool again.  I’m hooked!  I didn’t do preschool with my older children, but I’ve been feeling the need to spend quality time with my tiny ones, and part of that involves using preschool materials that are not rigorous or difficult to implement, but give us plenty of together-time.  Last year, we used A Year of Playing Skillfully, and this year, we are moving on to The Peaceful Preschool.

–> You can watch my review of The Peaceful Preschool on YouTube HERE <–

First of all, I love how simple this curriculum is.  It is literally open and go.  You need very little to make it work, and it is super affordable – $39 for the entire downloadable curriculum – SEE IT HERE!

I printed the curriculum out myself (it doesn’t require a lot of ink), but you could use a service like the Homeschool Printing Company to have it printed and bound.

I printed the letter and number cards on cardstock and put them in a separate folder to pull out as needed.  You may want to laminate the counting cards, and if you are using this curriculum with more than one child (like I am), you will need to print out a couple of copies of the letter of the week each week.

By the way, I should probably share that I am using this with my 3 and 5 year olds.  My 3 year old (a girl) loves being included in school, and my 5 year old (a boy) isn’t ready for formal curriculum.  He craves projects, and this curriculum teaches him his letters and sounds and numbers through play-based activities.  It is a logical progression from A Year of Playing Skillfully because it is more “schoolish,” but not so much that he feels boxed in.

Each week has a Supply List, an Assignment Grid, and then day-by-day instructions.

Get a FREE “Letter A” Unit HERE!

As you can see, I flagged my weeks with sticky note flags like these:

It makes it much easier to turn right to the week we are studying.  I also use one of my fun paperclips from my Grace Notes Subscription to move from day to day and clip together pages as I go.

Also, if you absolutely cannot buy or borrow from the library the books listed each week, check out YouTube.  Most of these books can be found on YouTube read by kind people who have entire channels dedicated to reading children’s books!  Here’s an example of The Runaway Bunny.

The Peaceful Preschool is a 4 day a week curriculum, with Fridays used for corresponding (and totally optional) field trips.  I actually often find myself only doing 3 days a week and smooshing activities together.

One of my favorite parts of the curriculum are all the yummy recipes!  Nearly every week there is a cooking or baking activity to do with your children.  If you have older children, this can be a great time to pull everyone into the kitchen and work together, letting the younger ones do the bulk of the work.

That leads me to another point about this curriculum that I love – it appeals to a variety of ages!

During the “Letter B” week, my 7 & 9 year olds (both boys) joined in to make Bunny Masks and Carrot Cake!  They loved it, and often join us for lessons from The Peaceful Preschool!

As with every curriculum, remember YOU are in charge, not it!  We don’t always do every project or read every book.  We sometimes move things around, and we rarely go on the suggested field trips.  But, it is still worthwhile to have the ideas there where I can pull from them each week!

This is truly a fantastic curriculum, and so easy to use!  I would highly recommend this for moms who have a lot on their plates, but still want to have some activity time with their little ones!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PEACEFUL PRESCHOOL!