When my son was in preschool, there was a parent conference in the middle and at the end of the year. At both of those conferences, the teachers showed parents how the kid was doing on a preschool curriculum checklist. This list focused mostly on academic skills like “sequences 3 items by size” and “develops process writing skills”. Many of the phrases left a lot open to interpretation.
Of course, there was also the developmental checklist at the pediatrician’s office at check-up visits. When my son was really young, I was often blindsided by the things that list asked. I didn’t know if my kid could copy a plus sign shape, we had never thought to try that. So, by Kid #2, I knew to look up the checklist before every appointment and try out the skills.
Since my daughter has never attended daycare or preschool, I was looking for a comprehensive list that included both developmental and academic skills usually expected of kids entering kindergarten to work towards in the preschool years at home. I read several books about preschool, as detailed in this post, and oh, so many websites. The goal was to have physical and social skills, as well as some actual knowledge skills.
I ended up creating the list posted below (click here for the PDF to print). I am using it with a neurotypical 4-year old. For the three date columns, I checked through the list once at the beginning of our preschool year as a baseline. Then, about halfway through the year, I looked at her progress by checking through again. Just before she turns 5, I will do the final check and make an new list for the next year.
Secular Home Education 