Congratulations to Sonbeams on today’s release of their new preschool curriculum! Don’t miss today’s great sale…

A few months we reviewed Sonbeam’s ABC Bible Memory Verse Songs and were impressed with them, so when Mrs. Candace of Sonbeams asked us if we’d like to review their new preschool curriculum, we were delighted.

The first thing that struck me when I opened the up the samples that Candace sent me was how clear and easy to use this program was. Really, the books do just what we’ve always done with our preschoolers to teach them the letters and numbers, colors and shapes, but it’s all ready for you to use – no creativity needed. And that’s important for me right now. We’re so busy that if it’s not easy to use, it tends to get put off.

The other thing I like about this program is that it is infused with a Christian perspective. The whole program is focused on the Word of God and uses Christian ideas as examples and as teaching opportunities. This is a joy in teaching our little ones, that we can use the time we have with them to point them to the most important things in life.

The series consists of several books to teach the ABCs, 123s, colors and shapes, telling time and the Bible. I took a look at the ABCs, 123s and Colors and Shapes and the online samples for the others. Each book has an appropriately brief lesson each day for a week focused on the topic you are studying. The lessons are well-designed, with hands-on activities and suggestions that will help children with a range of learning styles succeed. I particularly like that children are encouraged to color and decorate each letter as they learn it. Sounds like just fun, but we’ve learned from Dianne Craft that doing this can make a radical difference to a right-brained learner or a child who tends toward dyslexia.

The only caveats I have at all are pretty minor. I wish the letter practice pages were more the Getty-Dubay italic style that we use with our older children, but really, I’m not sure it matters much at this age, since we’re working more toward letter recognition. Also, my boys would not have been able to copy the color words, for example, at that age. Boys in general (there are exceptions) are not as ready to use fine motor skills in the preschool ages as girls are. It’s great that it’s available as a pdf download, though, because I can just choose not to print those few pages and my little guy’s not going to even know he wasn’t able to do something. I encourage parents of boys not to let their boys get discouraged if writing is too hard for them, just back off a little and do more oral teaching. Don’t worry – they’ll get it when they are ready!

I appreciate that the Let’s Learn! curriculum is not tied to a certain age. Some of mine were very ready to do these pre-reading and early learning activities at 3, while others weren’t ready until much later. The actual pages are appropriate for a wide range of ages (not silly), and the suggestions she gives for teaching each day are easily modified to suit your child’s age, gender, and interests. I really love the range of activities from cutting up a red apple and making an A out of the seeds for the week that you study A and red, to singing songs that suit the topics or to memorize facts. There’s a good balance there that ought to meet a range of needs.

Do you need a preschool curriculum? No, you could teach everything a child needs to start school yourself – it doesn’t take an expert.

Will a preschool curriculum like this make it easier and more likely to get done? Yes! I think this curriculum will be useful both to beginners who are unsure what they need to do to prepare their children for school and veterans like me who are simply so busy that it is a whole lot less stressful not to have to think it up yourself.

I believe we’ll give this program a try with little Katie as she gets ready. It’s well-organized, Christ-centered, and easy to use. I think she’ll like it a lot!

Let’s Learn Our ABCs!, Let’s Learn Our 123s!, Let’s Learn Our Colors and Shapes!, Let’s Learn Our Bible!, and Let’s Learn to Tell Time! by Sonbeams, released today!

And, to celebrate the release, Sonbeams is having a fantastic Back to School Bash today and offering this brand new preschool curriculum for 50% off!!! It’ll still be on sale for a few days after that, but the discount goes down each day, so you better hurry up and grab it!

We received free samples of this curriculum in return for our honest review.