Create a flexible, yet structured homeschool routine for your preschoolers. Learn how to break up the day, without breaking down the minutes!

Reminder Before Beginning

Before I begin, I just want to remind you that just because I do things a certain way with my children, does NOT mean you have to do the exact same thing. What works for my family may not work for your family, and that is totally okay! With that being said, let’s jump into a detailed look at my daily homeschool routine for my preschoolers!

CREATING A ROUTINE CHECKLIST – ROUTINE FOR PRESCHOOLERS

Here is a glance of the checklist that I bought, edited, printed off, and laminated for my kiddos to check off every day. Every time my kids finish a task on the checklist, we discuss it, and they use a dry erase marker to color in / check mark the box under that day. I personally printed my chart off on card stock, and laminated it with 5M laminating paper. The $25 Scotch laminator at Walmart is the one I personally bought and use. Laminating activities from my curriculum helps to keep them nice, and extend the longevity. Having a checklist not only provides your child with a tangible visual, but allows them to be part of their homeschool routine.

MORNING ROUTINE

Although I have tried, I cannot live by a “timed” or “minute to minute” schedule. As much as I would love to be able to operate doing activities during and at a certain time, I just can’t. I’m not going to lie either, when I try to do things based on a time frame, I feel trapped. I don’t like the feeling of “running out of time” or completing activities “too early” and having to fill time before the next thing. I give props to anyone who lives with their schedules timed out, that is just not us.

If you look at my homeschool routine chart above, you will notice that it is broken up in to morning, afternoon, and evening activities. I found that completing XYZ activities in a certain “part of the day” works the best for us, especially me. It is easy for me to follow, when making lunch and dinner break up the afternoon and evening for us. Also note, we do have things come up (therapies, appointments, play dates, etc.) so our day to day may look different depending on what we have going on for the week. However, this is what I try to stick with majority of our days. By being consistent, my children are able to get used to their preschool routine. 

-OUTSIDE PLAY

After we have finished with the morning basics (getting dressed, brushing teeth, and eating breakfast), we try to get outside right away to get some energy out. My kids (and probably all kids) have lots of energy in the morning once they have fully woken up. Going outside is a great way to get the morning wiggles out, and allow kids to play before their minds have to focus on school. We like to water the garden, go on walks, play on the tramp and equipment, and enjoy the fresh air. Once it starts to get cold, we will just do play time inside.

You can find our morning music playlist HERE.

My kids love starting our school day off with music and dance. We listen to both educational and Christian songs to get our day started. We listen to all of the songs in order. It may seem like a lot of songs, but my kids are use to singing and dancing to all of them. I also listen to a Christian kids songs playlist randomly as well, which you can find HERE. We also have a tote of instruments that I let my kids use in order to make “their own music” while singing along.

My kids LOVE to memorize scripture, mainly because they get an over abundant amount of praise, and some candy. I usually have my kids memorize a smaller version of the passage or verses I am memorizing. I also create actions to go along with the words to help them remember. Surprisingly, they do really well remembering the actions and the words. I try to introduce a new memory verse a week, if not two. Once a new verse is introduced, we continue to say our “old” ones so we don’t forget.

EXAMPLE VERSES:

“Be angry, but do not sin.” -Ephesians 4:26

“Honor your father and mother.” -Ephesians 6:2

“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” -Luke 12:32

Thanks to my friend, I created a snack, or “yes basket”. Yep, it is exactly what it sounds like, a small basket with snacks in it. My friend has the rule that whenever her children ask for a snack, they know they can eat from that specific snack basket, which she calls a “yes basket”. My kids are the kids that would be constantly eating from it, so instead of it being a “yes basket”, it is just our snack basket. I like to keep it in our homeschool room so that we can continue to work in our room, and don’t get distracted by having to go upstairs for a snack.

Snacks I like to keep in the basket: granola bars, dried fruit, trail mix, Veggie Straws, oat cookies, crackers, fruit strips, etc. When we do our afternoon snack, we are in the kitchen, so we do more “fresh or cold snacks”. My kids love cheese sticks, yogurt, carrots, peanut butter, fruit, pickles, popsicles, eggs, and other snacks that can’t be kept in the homeschool room downstairs. We do have a mini fridge downstairs, so I may move snacks and portable drinks downstairs so we have access to both kinds of snacks in the morning and afternoon.

-FOUNDATIONS IN EDUCATION

Once we have finished with our snack, we start our main curriculum, “Foundations in Education”. The lessons usually take us around 45 minutes – 1 hour. If I can tell my kids are getting wild, we will take a small break, but switching between subjects and activities fairly quickly helps to eliminate this. Another good thing is that this curriculum uses the Westman Academy method, where my children are always using their fine motor skills. This helps to keep them from getting distracted and bored, especially since they always have something in their hands they are working on. If you want to see more in depth about how I use this curriculum, please click here.

AFTERNOON ROUTINE

Our afternoon routine is more relaxed and gentle. After lunch, I read to them whatever books they want. If they have books they want to read in the morning, I will have my kids put them in a special pile that we will read during this time. The books include ones I have bought (usually not educational) and library books they picked out. This helps to settle my kids down for quiet / nap time. Once we have finished with quiet time (lasts an hour or two), we do another snack.

-SAINT STUDY

I love teaching my kids about saints. I know this is a very controversial topic for Christians, but it really comes down to our children learning about inspirational men and women, and their devotion and love for Jesus. This does follow along with my family’s Catholic beliefs, but please understand that we (Catholics and my family) do NOT worship or pray to saints. When we ask saints to intercede (talk to God / Jesus) for us, it is just as if we were to ask you to pray for us. We believe that God is the one that is to be worshiped and prayed too.

Ex: “St. John, please intercede for me that Jesus would help my broken heart to heal, and allow me to live without depression.”

“Hey Kathy, will you please pray for me that I no longer have a broken heart, and that God will help heal my depression.”

WE ARE SIMPLY ASKING SOMEONE (IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH) TO PRAY FOR US TO GOD.

I bought two packs of saint cards to learn from, along with a saint matching card game (flip it over, name the saint, try to remember where the matching saint card is and flip that one over too). 

SAINT FLASH CARDS

SAINTS AND PRAYER CARDS

SAINT MATCHING MEMORY GAME

-OUTSIDE TIME

Depending on what the weather is like, we try to go outside. This helps to get a lot of my kids’ energy out, along with providing them nature exploring opportunities. It also allows for a positive break in my preschooler’s homeschool routine.

EVENING ROUTINE

Our evening routine is very relaxed as well. This time is more flexible. We need to go get groceries, to the park, enjoy the splash pad, or play before my husband gets home. This is honesty the longest part of the day for me.

-ART AND MUSIC STUDY

I do not have a specific curriculum that I use for this, I just do my own thing based off of how I am feeling and what I want my kids to learn. You can get free art from the “National Gallery of Art” website, which is what I use. I print off an art piece a day on card stock paper, or show my kids on my computer. My favorites are all of the religious art pieces that they have available, but I try to pick a different “theme” or type of art piece each day.

My family also utilizes radio.garden (no .com) to listen to music around the world. We try to find music from the same country that the artwork is from or set in. There will be times when we do an artist study, and focus primarily on artwork created by that artist, but I am slowly easing them into art by just randomly picking pieces for them to explore. Art studies are also incorporated into the “Foundations in Education” curriculum.

I like to ask:

• What do you like about this painting / picture / sculpture /etc.?

• What colors do you see?

• What do you think this piece of art is made of?

• What do you see in this _____?

• What do you not like about this ____?

-DINNER PREP ON…

From dinner prep on, the kids are playing and running around. They might take this time to go outside, watch PBS Kids, or help me make dinner. I want to allow them enough freedom throughout the day where they can express themselves through play. After dinner, we do bath time and get ready for bed. We like to calm down the evening by beginning to read books. My husband and I usually let them pick out three books (one each, and one they have to agree on). After we read books we pray and put them down for the night. Garrett and I then spend time together by doing our Bible study, playing games, talking, and snacking. We cut out TV in order to allow our relationship and marriage to grow in God, and focus on each other and our communication.

-FIELD TRIPS / FUN FRIDAYS

Once a week, we also take field trips or do “fun” activities instead of school work. I believe it is so important for children to be exposed to new experiences and play on a regular basis. The “fun” could also be sewing lessons, cooking or baking together, sensory play, or exploring nature outside of the home. These activities are included in the “Foundations in Education” curriculum, and is focused on every Friday. You can always move days around and do “Fun Friday” any day of the week.

Thank you so much for coming alongside our homeschooling journey with us. Again, this is the schedule or routine we are trying to stick to, but it doesn’t always happen. I am praying for you, your child(ren), and your homeschooling year. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment! God bless!

Related Posts:

I wrote another blog post talking about how I use my “Foundations in Education” curriculum. You can find that post linked right below! This post, however, discusses our overall daily routine more in depth, not just curriculum. If you want to see how I present the Foundation in Education curriculum to my children, please read the post below!

Related: How to use Foundations in Education?