We are two weeks into our homeschool year. I am loving our new preschool program – so much that I wanted to share it with you!!
Note: I have not been compensated by AOP for the following review, and I am not in any way affiliated with anyone or anything that is linked in the post. Feel free to click away on the links! Nothing is going into my pocket!!
I am sharing out of joy and excitement in the hopes that another family can benefit from this product.
We used the Horizon Preschool program for when our two older kiddos were 4 & 2 and loved it. They released a new program last year that was too young for Charger, so he also used the Horizon Preschool curriculum. This year, Otter is turning three, so we had a perfect candidate to take advantage of the new Preschool for Three’s program.
According to the Children’s Health Network, “a normal attention span is 3 to 5 minutes per year of a child’s age”. If we can keep Otter’s attention on a task for nine minutes, we call it a win.
Why I love Preschool for Threes:
- Otter has a chance to “do school” without being overwhelmed.
- She has a reader that is just for her.
- She practices school readiness skills every day.
- She is introduced to one letter concept and one number concept a week, and the worksheets provide an opportunity to reinforce both.
- The worksheets have delightful animals that carry through the theme every week.
She is so proud to be able to sit at the school table with her older siblings, and believe it or not, they want to do her work, too. They *love* her animal coloring pages and cannot believe that I do not have enough worksheets to go around for them to color their own animal. We are talking a nine-, seven- and five-year-old here. I guess my only complaint is that I have to get on-line to find them line drawings of animals to color so they don’t feel left out!!
Here is what you get with the program…along with my insight about why there is so much to love about the Preschool for Threes program:
Curriculum: Horizon Preschool for Threes by Alpha Omega Publishing
Teacher’s Manual:
Every week is themed around one bible lesson. The lesson plan offers a supply checklist plus additional activities to supplement the worksheets and the theme. I like having a checkbox, and we also start reasoning skills at the preschool level, so I created a spreadsheet that I can fill in for the week ahead on Sunday night, and then check off throughout the week. I get all of the supplemental material ready so all I have to do on the weekday is pull out a packet for that day, all ready to go. Total prep time on Sunday night: 1 hour.
Teacher’s Manual – Horizon Preschool for Threes by Alpha Omega Publishing
Student Workbook:
These are the worksheets for the program. You can tear them out as needed, or if you have other children to prep for, do it all at once and lay it out for the week. Horizon has the best illustrations and colors – as I said earlier, our older kiddos pine for pages like these although they are way beyond 3-year-old work.
Student Workbook – Horizon Preschool for Threes by Alpha Omega Publishing
Student Workbook Companion:
These pages are printed on heavier weight paper. They consist of games and activities that can be played throughout the school year. So far we have prepared a lacing card, a language arts aid, and now we have a memory game for next week. I am pasting them on card stock to make them last even longer, and as soon as I have a working laminator again, they will be laminated. I write the lesson theme on the back or the container so that I can remember to reinforce it as the school year stretches on and the themes aren’t at the tip of my tongue.
Since the language arts aid for this week was a child’s face, we have been talking about the vocabulary for different parts of the face in English and In Spanish. The theme of the week was “Sin” from the fall of the the garden of Eden. As we go forward to use this aid, we will use the song O Be Careful, Little Eyes to reinforce the vocabulary as well as the lesson.
I am thrilled to be able to fill a preschool box for Otter of just her own activities. At any point going forward in the school year, she can entertain herself with sturdy materials that can be used over and over.
Student Workbook Companion – Horizon Preschool for Threes by Alpha Omega Publishing
Bible Story Reader:
This is by far Otter’s favorite part of the program. She is delighted to have her very own book since we have bookshelves full of books for each of our other children’s school programs. She proudly pulls down her “God book” every day. We are not just reading the story for the week. The illustrations are fantastic, so as she finds an illustration that appeals to her, I “read” her the story. Not always the whole thing, maybe a sentence or two, or I ask her what she sees in the picture. As you may have noticed in some of the photos, although we are only two weeks into the program, the book is already well-loved. I have admonished all our other children to keep things well-taken care of since they have to be used four times over, and we don’t want Otter to get dog-eared hand-me-downs. This is going to be Otter’s very own book so I am patient in letting it be loved.
In practice:
All in all, I do “school” with her and Charger (5yo) for about an hour a day. She sits at the table to do her worksheet and her other supplemental activity, then I lose her for a little bit while she goes to play and I work with Charger, and then she comes back and we do the other supplemental activity for the day and/or re-play an activity she liked. We usually come back in the afternoon to finish whatever we didn’t cover in the morning, or do more re-play as well.
This program is just so perfect for a three year old, it seems like it was written by other three year olds for their peers to enjoy. Thank goodness that there are educational experts who have studied child development…I have a strong suspicion that they were consulted on this program.
Horizon has exceeded my expectations with this program. I have always enjoyed their colorful pages and activities. This is about to become my favorite Horizon program, and I am only going to get to use it once! At least we are going to get to use it and love it well for the next nine months – I can’t wait to see how our littlest Sweet Pea blossoms with this program.
One week of print materials – Horizon Preschool for Threes by Alpha Omega Publishing
Do you know about how much it cost to purchase the supplemental materials for the crafts? How much time do you spend preparing?
So far, the crafts have mostly required scissors and glue when they are from the workbook. Other than that, there are some suggested activities where we just use what we already have in the house. We ahve been homeschooling for 6 years, so we are stocked up 🙂 We shop at Lakeshore Learning/Michael’s/Joann Fabrics when we have a coupon, or we watch out for good items at the Dollar Store.
As far as preparing, it’s 30 minutes a week to read over the lesson plan, map out a schedule for the week, and pull together any materials we might need. I usually do it Sunday night or Monday morning before we start our school day…truly an amazing program that’s perfect for 3-year olds!
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how exactly do you write out your lesson plan for this? I am using this with my 3 year old this upcoming year and I am a “writer/planner”. I like to have something tangible to refer to. I see your lesson plan but not sure how you use it.
Hi! Thank you for stopping by!
I am a planner, too, which is why I wanted to have a daily picture of all the activities that are offered in the Parent Guide. I would sit down on Sunday night with the Parent Guide and my planning sheet, and then fit each one of the activities into one of the boxes. There were always worksheets for the day, so I would write in the worksheet number first. It also let me prep the Friday page – I knew that by the end of the year, I wanted an activity book for our preschooler. (We do have it and it turned out great! Whenever she is bored, she knows where to go for something to do.) So if something was not going to be cut, pasted, or crafted, then I would laminate it and cut it out so it was ready to go on Friday morning. The most commonly used subject titles are what I called “Core Subjects”, meaning that most weeks there was a designated activity for those in the Parent Guide. I would write out a brief note to remind me what it was and any materials I would need for the lesson. The last part was then finding a space for all the other “subjects” that varied throughout the week, and those would go under the “Elective” category. This was the best way for me to feel that we were using the program to it’s fullest. It let me spread out the content throughout the week, have some variety every day, and ensure that we weren’t trying to do too much. Ironically, about 3 activities a day is what seemed to work out the best. The second-to-last line on the page are supplemental books I used. If we got to them great, if we didn’t, I didn’t fret because the program is pretty comprehensive, and our youngest was learning some of the concepts by osmosis when she heard me teaching her older brother. I hope this helps! If you are a visual person, let me know if you want me to scan some copies of completed plans and I would be happy to email them to you.
Oh my goodness thank you,so much for all of the information! Completed copies would be great to look at if you dont mind sending them! I may have come up with a plan but would love to see what you did! Thanks again!