When my daughter, Little Miss, was preschool aged, she attended a university model school that used Sonlight for the base of her preschool. I fell in love with Sonlight because her preschool was so hands-on and engaging. When I received an opportunity to review Sonlight’s all new Montessori Style preschool curriculum, I immediately thought of a friend of mine and her son, Little Man. He was in a co-op class I assisted in this past year, and I adored watching him learn from the stories read in class and the projects we did. He’s definitely an on the go kid that learns best by doing.
Montessori Style Preschool Curriculum from Sonlight
The Montessori style preschool curriculum from Sonlight is chock full of picture books and Montessori-type materials that Little Man and his Mom can enjoy for years to come. Some of the picture books included in this package were well loved favorites in our home. And this curriculum includes plenty of space for play and tactile activities.
The Sonlight Preschool Package
Here’s a look at what the Sonlight preschool curriculum includes:
An Instructor’s Guide
This guide includes a schedule for 30 weeks of 3 days a week with complete lesson plans and teaching tips. Also included are age-appropriate hands-on activities to extend learning with play. It is loose leaf and 3 hole punched, so it will fit into a 1 inch binder. The teacher’s guide will also guide you in exploring various styles of music: praise and worship, classic preschool songs, the phonetic alphabet song, and songs that make you move!
Classic Children’s Literature
This literature-based preschool curriculum package contains a collection of twenty classic children’s books. These books will introduce your child to the Bible, literature, nursery rhymes, fairy tails, factual and fictional stories through picture books. This collection will help you spark that love of learning in your little one. Just a few of these amazing books include:
- The Bee Tree
- Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales
- Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?
- A Big Quiet House
Little Man sat on my table and cracked open the included copy of Go, Dog, Go. He has a dog of his own, and loved this book! The collection of preschool picture books will introduce science and social studies by exploring a farm with animals, how food is digested, our five senses, how we grow, and what people do for work in the community.
Montessori Style Materials
This preschool supply kit includes an assortment of hands-on learning supplies needed to complete the activities in the preschool Instructor’s Guide, including a nylon knife, sensory numbers, sensory lowercase letters, and more!
When Little Man saw the included preschool supply kit, his face lit up. He grabbed the nylon knife and asked, “is this knife for me? I can use it?” Then he saw the child safety scissors and promptly tested them out on the top of the colored pencils box. As we played with the geometric shapes, I pointed to various ones and asked what they were. When I pointed to the flower shaped one and asked what it was, he said, “Popcorn!” Both his Mom and I got a chuckle out of that.
Why Literature is paired with Montessori style materials
This preschool supply kit will also help build fine motor skills by tracing shapes and letters, using scissors, and sorting. Most preschoolers would be classified as kinesthetic learners. They absorb information by touching, feeling, and doing. Providing Montessori style materials helps to build independence and self confidence by allowing kiddos to be hands-on with learning. These materials also reinforce pre-writing, pre-reading, and pre-math skills without your little one’s even being aware that they are learning. In other words… it makes learning fun!
Little Man could hardly believe that he got to take that big box of preschool goodness home with him. When it was time for him to get in his carseat, he asked his Mom, “did you get my box?” She said yes, it’s in the back. He asked, “in the way back?” (she drives a huge truck). She said, “yes.” He asked her to move it closer to him. It was such a blessing to me to see how excited he was to know that the preschool package was his to keep.
When my oldest daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia, I learned how important symbol imagery is to reading. Combining the introduction of lowercase letters and their sounds with the included sensory lower case print letters with textured surface is a great way to cement symbol imagery. We used a similar item to help my daughter overcome b,d,p,q confusion. Using the sensory numbers (0-10) with textured surface will help build an understanding of numerals and quanities.
Sonlight Preschool Program Giveaway
Sonlight is going to give three (3) lucky winners the entire Sonlight Preschool Program! Check out this giveaway, and be sure to enter to win!
I really don’t want you to miss the opportunity to enter this giveaway, so just in case, if the giveaway widget doesn’t populate, click the pink button to go enter it!
Check out these Sonlight Books for Your Homeschool Nature Center Corner while you’re here!
