Free Preschool Homeschool Curriculum for Ages 3–5. Research‑Based, Secular & Play‑Centered
Meet Your Homeschool Instructor, Vida Mercer ↓
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Vida Mercer is a second-generation homeschooler, wife, and mother of three daughters.
She is also a writer, writing instructor, homeschool consultant for families and corporations, and a passionate advocate for parents’ rights and the ability to teach their own children. As a parent herself, Vida understands the unique challenges and joys of homeschooling.
She has proudly served on the board of directors of C.O.R.E. Placer Charter School to support their strong independent home study model.
Vida has created and designed homeschool curricula and courses for preschool years and up.
Her work has been featured in countless publications on topics related to early childhood education and homeschooling in particular.
She was homeschooled back when it was rare and considered “hippie”…
And this experience made her an unapologetic home education advocate.
In addition to homeschooling her three daughters and completing many educational achievements along the way…
Since 2005, Vida has helped hundreds of everyday parents, including those homeschooling for the first time, in 1-on-1 settings to start homeschooling with ease and confidence…
Creating nurturing home education environments for their children to thrive in…
Academically, physically, and emotionally.
And now, she has turned all that experience into a self-paced preschool homeschool curriculum that any mom can follow.
"Ready For Kindergarten And Beyond" Preschool Curriculum Overview ↓
Natural And Gentle Approach
Our children are naturally hardwired for learning through play. Ready For Kindergarten and Beyond program helps you become the learning partner your child needs, supporting you in nurturing your child's interests through hands-on activities.
- Meet your child where they’re at
- Learn to recognize your child in the act of learning
- Develop a strong and lasting bond with your child that will benefit both of you for years to come
- Easily adjust the learning objectives to your child’s preferred learning style
Covers All Key Areas In Early Years
Your child will have a strong foundation in every key subject area for preschoolers:
- Cognitive skills
- Social-emotional skills
- Fine-motor skills (crucial for writing)
- Math skills
- Language and literacy skills, which introduce foundations such as phonics, letter recognition, and engagement with quality literature (crucial for reading)
During the early years of 3-5, you'll build a solid foundation for the time they enter school and begin their formal academic journey.
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Blend Learning Into Daily Life
You don’t need a ton of structured learning time. Preschoolers learn best through playful, hands-on activities. The idea is to foster a gentle, engaging environment where your child is interested and learning feels natural.
- Focus on what matters: real learning, and not busy work
- Choose from lots of activities that spark wonder and joy, like reading a story together or exploring nature
- Customize to your preference and your child’s learning style, paying attention to what keeps them interested and engaged
Education in the early years can be naturally blended into your daily lives. When we were planning our homeschool curriculum, we understood that every child is unique. That's why you will be able to choose from various resources, including recommendations for picture books, activities based on play, lots of reading, and hands-on projects that match your child’s interests and spark their creativity.
Life Skills And Daily Routines
Building a strong foundation for your child’s future starts with more than just recognizing letters or counting to a hundred: it’s about nurturing essential life skills, building good habits, and establishing daily routines that set the stage for lifelong learning.
In a preschool classroom, life skills like sharing, cooperating, and taking turns are woven into daily activities. At home, we've incorporated these skills into your homeschool curriculum by involving your little one in:
- Everyday routines like folding laundry, setting the table and cleaning
- Spending time outdoors: nature walks, gardening, or a field trip to a local park
- Playdates, park meetups, building friendships and building social skills and empathy
By focusing on life skills, daily routines, and hands-on learning, you’re giving your child the best possible start. These early experiences create a love of learning, build strong bonds, and prepare your preschooler for the challenges and joys of kindergarten and beyond.
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An Expert By Your Side
Being the primary teacher for your child's preschool journey can be a daunting task.
That's why you'll have guidance and support throughout the curriculum to help you with:
- Your WHY and vision
- Baseline assessment
- Progress check-ins
- Weekly mindset videos
- Weekly instructional videos
Your Weekly Schedule
We have made it incredibly easy for any mom to make this curriculum work with their schedule.
- Monday - Thursday: daily activities that cover all key areas, encouraging you and your child to spend time together reading stories, engaging in art projects, and building lasting memories.
- Friday: a fun science or art project that celebrates what has been learned during the week.
- Activities will take approximately 45 minutes per day, and most can be completed while going about your daily lives, making learning a natural and enjoyable part of your routine.
The idea behind this flexible schedule is to support both parents and kids, allowing for a gentle rhythm that adapts to your needs and helps you confidently teach through these precious early years.
Different By Design
Ready For Kindergarten And Beyond was created with the idea of supporting parents and kids on their homeschooling preschool journey. Designed as a complete course with playful, hands-on activities, crafts, and opportunities for kids to imagine, and explore.
Our lead curriculum designer Vida Mercer has consulted families on homeschooling for years and seen all that’s out there.
We decided to create a program that:
- Truly covers all key developmental areas for a solid foundation.
- Helps parents understand the methods and reasons behind the lessons.
- Allows children to explore the world and follow their creativity.
- Provides plenty of practice for young students to master the basics.
- Integrates learning into everyday lives through daily activities that can, with a little intention, be turned into powerful learning experiences.
And the result is a flexible preschool homeschool curriculum, that you can customize to fit your unique child while making sure that they are academically, socially, emotionally, and physically ready for school.
Optional Printable Bundles (for time‑saving convenience) ↓
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For busy moms who want ready-made materials, we offer premium printable packs and bundles that include crafts, activities, worksheets, flashcards, videos, and books. Each bundle is filled with resources designed to complement our free homeschool preschool curriculum.
Purchasing these packs saves prep time and gives your child beautiful, engaging materials.
Give Your Child The Best Possible Preschool Education, Straight From Home!
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions. If you don't find an answer to your question, please send us an email to support@kindergarten-prep.com and we'll make sure to send you a speedy response.
What ages is this curriculum best for?
It is best suited for your little one in preschool years, ages 3-5.
Lesson plans will have a wide variety of activities to choose from to match your child's learning style and development level.
Is this curriculum structured or flexible?
Our curriculum is designed to be flexible and does not require formal lessons. You can adapt it to fit your family's schedule and your child's unique learning style.
I want to homeschool, but I’m worried my kid will miss out on social engagement.
Multiple studies show that homeschoolers have healthy social development and are NOT disadvantaged when it comes to socialization.
According to the National Home Education Research Institute, homeschoolers do above average in social, emotional, and psychological development…
Including:
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Peer interaction
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Self-concept
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Leadership skills
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Family cohesion
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Participation in community service
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Self-esteem
How about social and emotional development, can I teach that at home?
The "Ready For Kindergarten And Beyond" curriculum has 1/6th of the materials dedicated to social and emotional development.
Our team put together objectives and key milestones preschoolers should reach for healthy social and emotional skills. You will be helping your child develop those skills on a weekly and daily basis via activities blended into your everyday lives.
How will this program prepare my child for school?
This program is largely aligned with Common Core for Kindergarten.
CC is a set of standards expected from each student in a kindergarten — a benchmark for what students should know and be able to do.
It’s not 100% aligned because this curriculum will get your child ready for CC standards…
But make sure they are already at this level by the time they complete the curriculum, putting them ahead of the curve.
Is it research-based?
We've followed the research-based methods for every aspect of putting the curriculum and its complementing materials together.
Starting from the understanding of how young children learn best, which is a lot of play, speaking, listening, reading, experimenting, etc, to all the objectives, milestones, activities, and teaching methods.
Furthermore, the program follows the CASEL framework for social-emotional development, phonics method as a primary focus on the reading (accompanied with the actual stories as well, not only learning the letters), and all our activities are aligned with kindergarten common core principles to make your child's transition to kindergarten smoother.
How are foundational concepts taught?
Foundational concepts are introduced gradually, using real-life experiences and hands-on activities to make learning engaging and relevant.
What type of activities does the course include?
The activities are mostly play-based and hands-on.
Activities will often guide you to involve your little one in everyday activities to intentionally take advantage of the learning opportunities that are around us everywhere.
Activities are often not confined to be done at your home, many of the activities you can do when walking at the park, going grocery shopping, visiting the doctor's office, etc.
What subjects are included?
Our homeschool program covers every key subject area, including early math, history, science, social studies, and language arts.
What literacy skills are covered?
The curriculum introduces phonics, letter recognition, introduction to reading, and literature as part of early literacy development.
Does your program provide reading recommendations?
Absolutely! Every week, under social-emotional objectives, you'll get a relevant list of books and videos to explore. We emphasize the importance of read-aloud time with your preschooler, whether it's classic literature or favorite picture books.
I work full-time. How much time is this program going to take?
The activities take about 45 minutes a day from Monday to Thursday.
The project is originally scheduled for Fridays, and it might take 1-2 hours - however, you can easily do the project on weekends.
And then over the weekend, we recommend moms look over the lesson plan and video instructions for the next week, which takes about 30-40 minutes.
We see that stay-at-home moms or busy moms who work part-time would be ideally suited to take on this task.
If you work full-time then you can still benefit from the program. You could also give access to the nanny or grandparents so they could have an educational structure for their daily routines as well.
Is the course suitable for supplementing the traditional preschool classroom experience?
Yes, absolutely. We created this course as a full-time homeschooling preschool program. However, if your child goes to daycare or preschool for a couple of days a week, you can use the curriculum to supplement the learning activities and add some fun projects to the mix at home.
Can I include Bible stories or faith-based learning?
Absolutely! Feel free to add a favorite Bible study to our curriculum to make it work for your family. Ready For Kindergarten And Beyond was designed to provide an early education that incorporates a variety of hands-on and play-based activities, covering all essential developmental areas, and is accessible to all families. Feel free to supplement our program by introducing God, Bible stories, and faith-based learning if you wish.
How long does the curriculum last?
The curriculum is structured over 26 weeks, allowing you to move at a pace that works best for your family. You can spread these 26 weeks over a year or two, taking breaks and adjusting to your child's development pace.
Can I use this curriculum in a preschool classroom?
Yes, you can absolutely use this curriculum in a preschool classroom.
The lesson plans, activities, and printables work well in both home and group settings, and many teachers use them with small groups of 3 to 5 year olds. If you're using it in a classroom, please make sure you have the proper classroom license, since individual purchases are for personal use only. This helps support our ability to keep creating high-quality resources.
I am not a teacher and I have never taught anybody, can I do it?
Yes! You can.
There's this myth that you need to have a degree in early education or have a background in teaching to teach your child at home.
In actuality, you're the best person equipped for this job. Because you're the person who's been teaching your child all along.
Teaching your child how to read is fundamentally no different from teaching them how to tie their shoes. You just need to have the proper set of techniques and best practices handy, and that's what this curriculum will give you: a structure and guidance to take this on.
What type of activities does the course include?
The activities are mostly play-based and hands-on.
Activities will often guide you to involve your little one in everyday activities to intentionally take advantage of the learning opportunities that are around us everywhere.
Activities are often not confined to be done at your home, many of the activities you can do when walking at the park, going grocery shopping, visiting the doctor's office, etc.
How is this curriculum different from others?
We love this question because we intentionally created this curriculum to be different from anything else out there.
Our biggest difference comes from "parent education". Most curricula will give you a PDF full of lesson plans for the whole year without explaining why and how behind them, leaving you with a rather strict curriculum to follow that might not serve exactly what you or your child would benefit the most. Our curriculum will equip you with the HOW and WHY behind everything, and provide you with plenty of activities to choose from so you will have knowledge and freedom to craft the unique preschool experience 100% tailored to your child.
And then of course, most curriculums out there focus on 1 or a maximum of 2 development areas, ours makes sure to help your child develop in all key areas without gaps. Even if you decide to combine many curricula to cover all the areas, they are not naturally working together with each other like the "Ready For Kindergarten And Beyond" curriculum is.
Our curriculum's activities are mostly created to be blended into your everyday life. That means very little time is spent on a traditional concept of "structured learning".
There are many other ways our curriculum is truly unique. We encourage you to take a look yourself.
Who designed this curriculum?
The curriculum came together with a joint effort of many consultants and educators.
However, the lead curriculum designer is Vida Mercer, a US-based 2nd generation homeschooler, seasoned homeschool consultant for families and corporations, curriculum designer for preschool years and up, board member of a charter school, and a strong advocate for parents' rights to educate their children at home.
She has homeschooled all her 3 children, all of whom have different learning styles and individual preferences. With the help of Vida, we made sure to create a curriculum that is truly a game changer in the space and helps parents craft a unique 100% tailored preschool experience for their children that is backed with the best practices of how young children learn.
How can I know this curriculum will match my parenting style and my idea of homeschooling?
With the "Ready For Kindergarten And Beyond" curriculum we are helping parents to focus on a very natural and gentle approach to help their children learn and grow, while still making sure that all the key development areas and necessary skills are covered for a holistic early education.
We've shifted the whole mindset of the traditional teacher-student dynamic on its head and encouraged parents to become learning partners instead.
This learning partnership is an underlying principle of the whole curriculum where you are helping your child to learn about themselves and the world around them while incorporating the core educational principles into this natural approach of learning.
When is the earliest I can start this course with my child?
The activities and milestones in this course are geared towards 3-5-year-olds.
You could start the program with a 2.5-year-old as well, but before that, in general, children are not developmentally ready yet to get the maximum benefits out of the program.
That being said, the principles taught in the curriculum and the book about creating a supportive learning environment at home can be implemented way earlier.
If you choose to dive into it before your child turns two and a half, you'd be setting yourself and your child up for success already in advance.
I am purposely delaying formal academics. Is this program right for me?
Absolutely. This program is a great fit even if you’re intentionally delaying formal academics.
The curriculum focuses on play, exploration, connection, and gentle skill-building rather than worksheets or early pressure. Your child will learn through hands-on activities, stories, movement, imagination, and real-life experiences. Everything is designed to support early development in a warm, natural way without pushing academics before your child is ready.
Many parents who prefer a slower, play-based approach use this curriculum because it strengthens foundations like curiosity, confidence, fine motor skills, and language in a relaxed, joyful environment. You can also skip or modify any activity at any time so it matches your family’s pace and philosophy.