After teaching preschool for ten years, I have settled into a simple but highly effective plan for that last year before Kindergarten. A simple plan does more than make it easy on me. And it also ensures that the preschooler has enough time to play!
I plan four areas for preschool. Each area or activity should take about 5 minutes with you each day. (But try not to plan these activities back-to-back. Your child may want to spend more time on the activity after you finish working with them.)
Reading Aloud
Let your preschooler pick the book. Read it to them and talk about the pictures. Make sure to have books available that match their interests. Your biggest goal here is to help your child develop a love for books! (But if you want to sneak in a little prereading skill here, let your finger underline the words as you read them. This will help your child connect the idea that a written word equals a spoken word.)
Prewriting Skills
Prewriting skills are also known as fine-motor skills. Most preschoolers are not ready to write numbers or letters yet. But they need to be working on building their hand strength. (It's hard for kindergarteners when they want to write, but their hands start hurting after just a few letters! So start strengthening those muscles now.) Try a few different fine-motor skills activities until you find the ones your child loves, and rotate them! Over the years, the all-time favorites of the preschoolers I have had are scribbling, playdough, coloring books, drawing, and snipping paper with scissors.
Math
Start with pointing to a number as you count to ten, then move objects as you count to ten; after your child has mastered that, move on to numbers to 20. (If your child has got that and wants to go farther, check out Simple Beginning Math. In that book, I have outlined all the main math concepts through a kindergarten level!)
Letter Names
I usually start working on letter names with children during their last year of preschool. Start by introducing just 3 letters at a time. Pick letters with a similar shape. Instead of starting with A, B, and C, you might begin with C, O, and Q. This will help the child to pay close attention to the exact of the letter instead of associating a round shape with "C" and being confused later when "O" is added. After your child has memorized all the names of the letters, you could move on to a phonics-based reading program. But that's optional! It's okay to wait until Kindergarten to start learning letter sounds and reading.
