One of the biggest downfalls to teaching is the thinking that my child has to sit all day while she does worksheet after worksheet to learn the alphabet. I know that the curriculum I suggested is a workbook but I can guarantee that my children did NOT do every worksheet in the book. And I can also guarantee that every worksheet that was done was rarely finished. Curriculum is a tool to help you organize your teaching it is not the end all for learning. Preschoolers especially should not be made to finish their worksheet or project that you are working on. In fact, you only spend 5 to 10 minutes on any one concept. In one week you should teach one of each: letter and sound, number, shape, color, size, and direction. You should give them plenty of movement activities to develop their large (gross) motor skills and plenty of opportunity to handle play dough, blocks, crayons, etc. to develop their small (fine) motor skills.

One days worth of lesson plans for my preschoolers might look something like this:
- sing the alphabet song, say and hand over hand (place your hand over theirs as you GENTLY guide their hand)trace the letter "A" capital and lower case. Say the 3 sounds of the letter A.
- put one block in your hand and have them count the block. On a piece of paper hand over hand write the number 1 -starting at the top of the page and going down (or use a worksheet from the workbook you happen to have for that purpose)
- hold up a circle, say circle. Ask your child if they can find something that is the same shape as a circle. Go on a circle hunt.
- Give your child a cup with various colored blocks. Ask them to give you all the red blocks.
- have your child say what is above them and below them.

All of these lessons total would take between 30-45 minutes from start to end. You kept your child interested and moved quickly through each activity. If you wanted to add Bible - buy a children's preschool bible and read a story together daily. Talk to them about what you read to make sure they understand the story. Pray with them by having them repeat after you during a short (1 or 2 sentence) prayer.

I also suggest reading to your children at least 30 minutes a day. It can be before nap and bedtime or split up during the day but it is one of the most important learning tools you have. The more you read aloud to them you teach them that reading is enjoyable and they learn vocabulary, sentence structure and how to tell stories. It is not enough to read to them you need to be reading something for yourself that you are interested in either for information purposes or simply for the fun of it. We are our children's examples. If we don't read they will not either.