Unschool Preschool: What, Why, and How I do it

My husband and I had a lot of conversations about parenting before we got pregnant with our oldest. It has always been my desire to homeschool my kids. There are so many reasons why I feel it is the best option for our family. I started our unschool preschool intentionally about three years ago. This year my oldest will be a homeschool Kindergartener, so I figured I would break down my unschool preschool experience so far, lessons I’ve learned, and what I plan to do moving forward.

What exactly is unschool preschool?

Unschooling is a homeschool concept that honestly is pretty controversial. A lot of people view it as educational neglect. I think if you aren’t being intentional, it can very well enter into educational neglect. However, unschooling done intentionally is amazing for me and my kids.

Unschooling is essentially backwards to traditional school and homeschool environments. In a traditional education, teachers or parents pick all curriculums and are 100% in control of what to learn and when to learn it. Unschooling is 100% student-led. The kids are in charge of what they learn and when, and it is my job as a parent to be paying close attention, fostering those interests, and providing any necessary resources for them to learn.

I know. Most people read about unschooling and are immediately shocked. Commonly there are immediate questions such as, “How will your child ever learn what they need to know to be successful?” “What if your child never learns about this specific topic?” “You can’t just let them do whatever they want, how is that teaching them anything?”

To these questions, believe me, I have answers. Maybe that’s a whole different post for another day. This is about my experiences so far. If you want these questions answered, reach out to me on social media. I’d love to discuss it further with you.

Kristi from iHomeschool Network has great information on unschooling if you want to learn more. Read her article below:

How to Cultivate an Unschooling Lifestyle in Your Homeschool

Why did we decide to unschool preschool?

Preschool is not a requirement for my state. I don’t have to put my kids in a preschool or report to the state that I am homeschooling yet. I do however have to report to my state when we start Kindergarten so that they are aware of our education intentions and know we are not neglecting our kids’ education. When it comes to Kindergarten for my oldest this fall, there are certain laws I will have to adhere to.

In my state, I can choose the curriculum however I want, as long as I report it to the state and receive a letter approving the curriculum I choose. This means that I can spend as much or as little on schooling as I think is appropriate for my own family. Of course, you need to look up laws for your state (if you reside in the US, I don’t know what homeschool looks like outside of the US). 

Although it isn’t required, I wanted to begin homeschooling for preschool for a few reasons:

I love the flexibility of routine for our unschool preschool

As you may know, I have Fibromyalgia. This means that it’s harder for me to stick with strict routines and schedules because of the unpredictability of my condition. I have plenty of days with high pain levels, and I don’t want that to be something that derails our whole system. I need a homeschool environment that works with my health.

As a stay-at-home mom, I know that it can be hard to get through some days. If you’re a struggling parent I have some tips here.

I find it helpful when I have a routine for us all to follow. It helps the kiddos understand what is coming next. Kids really benefit from predictability. Routines help them to feel safe.

Our routines are exceedingly simple, which allows for a lot of flexibility.

Your routine does not have to be anything special whatsoever. It’s a general guideline that serves ME, not the other way around. If we don’t get to something, that’s okay. If we scrap the routine because last second we decide to spend all day outside, great.

I like having a routine in place, but I don’t feel bound by it. There are hard days where no one is in a good mood, and it’s okay to step back and have a day where nothing gets done. 

By homeschooling for preschool, I get to make sure that the kids are used to routines. Sometimes things just need to get done. They understand that now, and hopefully, that will make it easier when we start our oldest in Kindergarten this coming fall.

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Testing out unschool preschool teaching

Another reason why I wanted to homeschool was that I wanted a much more hands-on role with my kids’ education. I have always had a passion for education, and I want to share that with my kids as they grow.

Until I began homeschooling, I had never actually taught before. I had never lesson planned. Unschool preschool is just as much for me as it is for the kids.

I need to use this time to test out how my kids learn. Are they visual? Do they need more frequent breaks? Do they have different needs for different subjects? 

I am taking this time to teach and observe as much as I can. Again, the idea here is to “troubleshoot” my homeschooling. I want to make sure that by the time all of this schooling counts legally, we are as prepared as possible.

Kindergarten will go so much smoother this way. I also think it will relieve a lot of stress on both me and the kids.

Practicing keeping records before it counts

Every state has different legal requirements of records to keep and report, etc. I’m lucky that my state doesn’t have much for me to keep track of. Therefore, I’m choosing to track more than is legally required for me.

I’m choosing to do this because I want to protect our homeschool. In the event that we ever get audited, having extra records like attendance, sample work, lesson plans, etc will help to prove that I am educating my kids.

I plan to write a general guideline of what my kids have been interested in learning, a resource we have used to further that learning, and any papers, etc. that are relevant if those are available. It’s not going to be super detailed or fancy. I just want a paper trail of education.

Making sure our unschool preschool is something that I enjoy doing

Education is something that I take very seriously. I want my kids to get as much out of their schooling as they can. If I don’t like teaching, I don’t think they’ll like learning from me. 

Preschool is giving me the chance to make sure that I like teaching as much as I thought I would. I have time to really reflect and think about if I want to do this for the long haul, or if it would be better to put them in public school.

I’ve had time to plan and test out different teaching methods, tried a more structured and hands-on approach, and tried to schedule a curriculum and certain topics to learn. I landed on unschooling after years of trying different methods. Unschool preschool is what has worked best for us so far. If that changes in the future, homeschool is flexible enough for that not to be an issue.

Making sure my kids seem to enjoy unschool preschool and benefit from it

I think it’s equally important to observe the kids as I am teaching. If I love teaching them, but they seem like they would benefit more from a different classroom environment; I need to make the decision that will help them best.

I want my kids to love learning. They should be inquisitive and search out information in different areas of interest. I want them to dream big, and be allowed to reach for their goals. I want to be the one that helps them as they go. If for whatever reason it isn’t working and I do not see my kids learning, I will have to reevaluate and send them to a school to learn.

Breaking down how I unschool preschool

Reading

Reading has been really straightforward for school so far. It’s not expected of preschoolers to read fluently. For now, I’m focusing more on the love of reading than the act of reading.

In my home, that looks like reading board books and cuddling together. I’ll even follow the words with my pointer finger. With my eldest, we started working on some sight words as we are reading. I might have him pick one or two words on a page to read when we get to that word.

I explore new aspects of a subject when my kids start to ask questions and become curious about things. We get library books (pre-pandemic) on subjects that my kids are interested in to read and learn from.

There’s a leapfrog show on Netflix called the Letter Factory. My boys love it so much, and they have decided to learn the letter sounds from watching that show.

My oldest and I play a game now frequently to work on letter sounds. I’ll give him a word, and it’s his job to tell me the letter it begins with.

He loves it and will even tell me throughout the day, “Mom! Bag starts with B!” It’s such a joy to watch his inquisitive mind explore the world in his own way. Both of my boys are so different, and they get interested in learning in different ways at different times.

Writing

There’s so many fun ways we have done writing practice! At first, we just focused on motor skills by coloring, playing with chalk, kinetic sand, and play-doh. It’s all about building strength and dexterity in the hands.

Then, we started tracing lines and circles, basically making shapes that you need to form letters. They practiced this on paper and dry erase boards. There are also dry erase practice books you can buy too. My kids love those as well.

I also found an idea on Pinterest to use glue. We get out construction paper and I write their names really big. Then I cut out squares, and they glue and paste the squares along the letters of their names. It’s also a really fun art project. It looks really cute on the fridge.

The past few months, my oldest has graduated to kindergarten ruled paper. I got Kindergarten ruled notebooks, and he practices writing all of his uppercase and lowercase letters in them. He also has practiced writing some numbers in them.

It’s up to my kids when and how they decide to work on any writing skills, but entering Kindergarten this year, my child knows all of his upper and lowercase letters, knows the sounds they make, can write all of them, can write his own name, and can even read a few sight words. Unschool preschool works for us.

Math

Counting items all day is the biggest way I have incorporated math so far into our everyday routines. I started doing this as soon as my kids began to be verbal. When we play, I just constantly point out things that I observe.

This looks like this: 

• “I see you have some cars there. Let’s count them.”
• “Wow, you’re holding two dinosaurs.”
• “How many books do you have there?”

It’s really easy to just stay plugged in to what my kids are doing and talk about it. Just pay attention and play with them and talk. This boosts their language and learning more than you could imagine. I’m still shocked by how much they have absorbed from me just talking to them about anything and everything that we are doing.

Netflix has a show called Number Blocks. It teaches some basic concepts of math like counting, place value, and other simple concepts. I like that the episodes are only a few minutes long, and they explain concepts thoroughly, but still in a way that my kids can understand.

I’m also constantly scouring Pinterest for fun ideas on other ways I can incorporate math into our day. I don’t follow a curriculum, so I am constantly trying to make sure that we are hitting criteria for preschool, and also just making sure that the kids have a variety of educational tools surrounding them to enhance their learning experience.

My entering Kindergartener can count to 100, knows the concept of bigger and smaller, knows how a number represents objects, knows addition, can even do some multiplication, can sometimes subtract…. all because of fostering his curiosity throughout the day and without any curriculum. I keep telling you his education level because I want to show you how unschool preschool is not educational neglect, and it can be very very effective if you do it correctly. Kids WILL learn.

Colors

Color is one of the first concepts I taught my children intentionally. I used the same methods for colors as I did with counting. We just talked about the colors of everything until the kids caught on.

I’m not sure where or how, but my oldest somehow learned the rainbow color order around two. He’s sorted all of his toys in rainbow color order ever since. It’s so cool to see how he applies his knowledge of the world around him in different scenarios throughout the day.

Art

Unfortunately, art is pretty difficult for me. Fibromyalgia makes energy pretty hard to come by most days. I have had to look for ways to let my boys create without it being a huge mess to clean up most days. 

There are days that we do some crazy messy projects like making slime, but most days I just need to do something really simple. I feel some mom guilt for this because I want them to be able to get messy and have fun more often. I’m still working on making peace with this; it’s a work in progress.

Our extremely simple art looks like coloring with crayons, colored pencils, or markers. We also use dry erase boards. Sometimes I cut up squares of construction paper, and then the boys glue them down. We also practice cutting out shapes with scissors that I draw in advance.

I like creating art next to them. I think it’s a fun way for us to create together, and they can see how art is whatever you want it to be.

As a recent unschool preschool example: my three-year-old saw a project in a magazine subscription. He asked if we could make it, so I gathered all the materials and we made it together. It’s a very small example of child-led learning.

Science 

Science has the potential for some crazy and messy experiments. Pinterest has so many amazing ideas for fun and messy science projects. I don’t do too many messy projects, so we watch Emily’s Wonder Lab on Netflix. It’s the cutest science show. Every episode has a fun and messy science experiment. We also watch Sid the Science Kid, Magic Schoolbus, and their personal favorite: The Octonauts. My kids have absorbed a lot of knowledge on how the world works from these shows.

We also watch YouTube to answer questions. My 5-year-old saw some condensation on our window this winter and asked what it was. We looked up a video on condensation and why it occurs. When he wanted to understand how our body heals wounds, we looked that up as well. He retains this information better than any that I present to him to learn because he is genuinely curious and interested and wants to understand. That’s the power of unschooling.

Outside of watching some shows, we talk about anything and everything. If my kids ask why the sky is blue, we talk about the science behind it. When I don’t know the answer, we look up the information together. This way we are both learning, and they are gaining the skills to navigate the world and get answers that they are seeking in the process.

Social Skills

Right now this is kind of on the back burner due to the pandemic. Before the pandemic, we did play dates with peers. We will continue to do so once it is safe again.

I also have every intention of putting the kids into sports and clubs that they choose. This will keep them around peers, and also give them a chance to listen to adults that aren’t family. I know in the near future I plan to have them take swimming lessons. If it goes well, maybe they’ll want to pursue competitive swimming. There’s also a new rock climbing gym nearby that I think they could like. These activities will teach them a lot of important life lessons.

I incorporate learning how to participate as a member of society in my homeschool. It’s important to me that I keep my eyes on a long-term parenting plan. I’m raising individual humans who will leave my house someday and be expected to function in society. It’s my job to make sure they have the tools to handle that responsibility when it comes. I reinforce lessons such as sharing with others and respecting the boundaries of both living beings and objects.

See this article on long-term parenting for more

Bible

Religion is very important in our household, so it is incorporated into our everyday life and therefore our unschool preschool.

We have board books and devotional books written for kids or families that we go through. I think it’s really important to make it a habit to spend time with God as a family as our children are growing up.

I also try as hard as I can to make conversations about God whenever it seems natural. We talk about how pretty God made the sky today; about how creative God is for making the oceans. We also talk about how God made us, and we talk about Jesus and his role in creation and salvation. Hopefully, this will teach my kids growing up to think about God from day to day, and it will be natural for them to praise Him.

Chores

I put chores on this post because it is a skill that I want to make sure my kids learn before they leave the house. I don’t want them to show up to a dorm or their first apartment and call me asking how to start the dishwasher. 

A few examples of chores my 3 and 5-year-old do around the house:

• Load the dishwasher with their own dishes
• Unload their dishes and put them away
• Clean tables, counters, and other surfaces
• Pick up toys and put them in their homes
• Throw away trash
• Let the dog outside to use the bathroom
• Put their clothes into the laundry
• Match socks
• Fold towels (not perfectly, we’re still working on it)
• Holding the dust pan when I am sweeping
• Cook (mostly dumping ingredients into a pan or bowl)
• Put their laundry away (including hanging shirts)

Other skills we focus on in our unschool preschool

I use other things around our house to continue teaching relevant things that are age-appropriate. If you look out through your day, there is usually a way to use whatever you are doing as a teaching moment. Life experience has a lot to offer if you pay close attention.

Legos are a really creative outlet. Kids can play and have fun with them for hours and be none the wiser that they’re actually learning through play. Legos teach spatial awareness, creativity, STEM skills, and even how to read and follow directions.

I already mentioned cooking, but it’s such a useful skill. Not only for survival but also for learning. We talk a lot about safety. The boys have to be conscious of where they are, where hot or sharp things are, and where other people are to stay safe. They are also learning math and science in the process.

Board games are a great teaching tool. Our family collects them. There are so many things to learn from playing board games. You have to be patient and wait your turn, follow the rules of the game, and learn how to win and lose gracefully. They’re pretty big lessons for how to thrive in society.

We got these tangent tiles as a gift from a grandparent. They’re great for building motor skills and spatial awareness. They have these sheets of patterns to build, or you can just be creative and make your own.

It’s extremely important to teach my children about their emotional and mental health. It’s more important to me than their schooling, to be perfectly honest. I want them to grow up with the skills to manage their emotions, and knowing what is and is not toxic behavior or thoughts. They will learn how to combat those thoughts in a healthy way.

We love our unschool preschool

Everything I do is to intentionally foster creativity, curiosity, and any kind of support my kids need. My kids will grow up loving to learn and to be unafraid to ask questions. I’ll show my kids by example how to dream, and then understand how to take actionable steps to those dreams. 

I want them to see that I am a lover of learning and that I haven’t stopped trying to learn or grow. School is not something I want them to have negative feelings toward, because I don’t want them to ever stop learning. Hopefully, by my example, they will understand the benefits of staying curious for life. 

My kids are thriving so far in our unschool preschool. Both are advanced for their age. My kids are already showing me that they love to learn, and they get excited by new information. I am planning to continue this foundation for them, and pray that it lasts. 

I wanted to share all of this about our unschool preschool to show that it doesn’t need to be anything extremely elaborate or expensive. You can homeschool just using things around you. There are a lot of free resources on Pinterest for curriculum if you want something a little more structured. 

I intend to continue teaching my kids without a curriculum. I understand that there could come a year in which a curriculum would make more sense for my family. I’m not opposed to using a curriculum. Do what is best for your family. I just want to unschool my kids as frugally as possible for as long as possible. If any parent out there is looking for a real-life example of how it looks to school young kids without an expensive curriculum or feeling overwhelmed by the amount of time it takes – I’m here to show you that it is simpler than you’re probably thinking. You got this! 

If your kids are receiving an education in any manner – homeschool or not – take your participation trophy. It’s important that as parents we foster their education. You’re doing great!

I hope you can take something away from this post that helps you. Do you plan on homeschooling? Are you looking for a curriculum, or do you want to try to go without it? Let me know if you have any more questions. Reach out, and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can. I’m here to help!