I’m excited to share with you what I believe to be excellent preschool curriculum. If you’ve noticed on the left sidebar of my blog, there is an ad for “Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve.” Laura Coppinger, who blogs over at Heavenly Homemakers, is a mother to four boys. She wrote the curriculum after “winging it” with her second son, out of a desire to have a more purposed approach to educating her children.
I will be using this curriculum with Tara this fall. I am so excited because after working on my own curriculum plan, I came across Laura’s material. I was thrilled to find that she has already done exactly what I began doing! So, I thought “Self, no need to re-invent the wheel, use her material!
Written for 2-7 year olds, there is certainly enough to keep us busy for a long time. In the 240+ page book, there are plans for each letter of the alphabet. Here’s a glimpse of what each lesson includes:
- 159 Page Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve Book of ideas, instructions, recipes, tutorials and service planners (the majority of this book can be left paperless, unless you choose to print it and bind it)
- Alphabet Practice Packet (26 pages of printable letter writing practice)
- Alphabet Project Packet (printable projects that go along with various lessons)
- Memory Verse Packet (26 printable memory verses to decorate and place on the wall or in a binder)
- Parent Planning Packet (planning pages, teaching suggestions, scheduling ideas)
You can view a sample lesson here!
Here’s why I like it so much.
I love that the approach is from a Biblical perspective. Education is extremely important, but Scripture teaches us that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). So, I’m most interested in a Biblical education.
There are a plethora of ideas and resources to implement for each letter of the alphabet including books to read, ideas on how to serve, songs to help learn the sound of the letter, handwriting sheets (we might not use these until later), questions for discussion that begin with the letter of the week but have great depth (on C week – “What does it mean to be a Christian?”), crafts to make, recipes, and Bible characters and verses pertaining to the letter.
It is a very well-rounded curriculum, but not overwhelming. Laura makes it clear that there are more things than we’ll be able to do, but the goal is to give us plenty of options. The activities included are valuable for teaching several different skills and character traits at the same time.
I am really excited to become more intentional about teaching Tara what it means to walk humbly with one another and live a life of service in addition to the ABCs. The ideas that Laura has for serving others with the letter of the week are very creative and fun. For example, when learning the letter C, the suggestion given to serve someone is to make sugar cookie cutouts for some whose name begins with the letter C, calling someone whose name begins with C to let them know you care, along with other ideas.
The great part about it is this curriculum is on sale for 20% off the original price until this Thursday, August 12 when you type BACK2SCHOOL in the coupon code box. That’s a $9 discount! I have mine in hand and have enjoyed reviewing the content already. If you’ve not visited Heavenly Homemakers, I’d encourage you to do so, it’s one of my favorite blogs!
Stay tuned for another post about what all is encompassed in our teaching times at home!
Because I am like-minded and enjoy their products, I have become an affiliate for Heavenly Homemakers.. When you purchase a product from them, you’ll be supporting my blog and blessing our family. Thank you!
Would you be willing to share your thoughts on the Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve curriculum now that you have had a chance to use it?
Sure. It’s interesting, b/c I was trained about 7 years ago through PhonoGraphix, which is a program that teaches reading through phonics. They do not teach the alphabet, but rather sounds for the “sound pictures” (letters). This way of teaching makes so much more sense to me. I am currently looking into and probably pursuing Spell to Read and Write which seems to be an even better program that cuts out even more unnecessary clutter than PhonoGraphix does. So, in one respect, this curriculum goes against, if you will, the method in which I am and want to teach my children to read.
Because it is nearly impossible to avoid teaching children letters – if I don’t, someone will- I think that Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve curriculum is good for a basic day to day structured program for a preschooler. My personal opinion for our family is that I don’t need to plan oodles of structured teaching activities. I strive throughout my day to make the most of impromptu teaching opportunities–which means that without planning to or really thinking about it, math, science, history, reading, spelling, etc. does get taught.
What I love the best about this curriculum is the emphasis on serving. It makes it more tangible and helps mom actually carry out good intentions. By boiling it down to picking someone with the next letter in the alphabet to serve, and providing practical age-appropriate ideas on how do it, I think it’s helpful. If I ONLY do that from this curriculum, I’m okay with that.
All of that said, I have not used it as much as I thought it would. The Lord has given me a bit of a different direction to go. But, I think that if you are looking for direction, it would be a great place to go. Laura has really done an excellent, comprehensive job in putting it together!
I hope this helps!
Just stopped over from a comment on my blog..was glad to see you were popping in! I agree completely with everything you said about Laura’s program. (Not surprisingly!) I also do not use it the way I thought I would, but I do value it as a resource for project ideas to serve…sometimes my mind can get a bit stagnant with everything else going on! She really did do an excellent job for those who are interested in a set teaching routine. For a while, I was making it work for us by emphasizing the phonetic sound rather than the letter name, but soon found it easier to go in a different direction. Would love to see a link for the program you just mentioned! (It’s late and I’m feeling lazy..lol). Blessings
Another interesting reading program I recently came across:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/delightful-reading/