RKW Preschool Year 1, Weeks 1-2
It has been several years since I created the Raising Kingdom Warriors Montessori Christian Homeschool Preschool Curriculum. I created it to use with my oldest who was three and four at the time. Now that my second and third children are 4.5 and 2.5ish, we are starting it again this school year!
Since we are starting back at the beginning, I will be able to document our shelf setups for each two-week period and hopefully answer any questions you may have as you use the curriculum (or look into using the curriculum) for your own homeschool or preschool!
If you don’t know about the Curriculum, check it out here and then come back!
Before you start:
Before getting started with the RKW Curriculum, you definitely want to read all of the introductory pages! These will help you know why you are doing what you are doing and how to go about it!
The Curriculum is designed to be as parent-friendly as possible, but with anything hands-on, it will require setup!
You will want to check out the Shopping Lists and the Monthly Setup. Check off what you accomplish as you go.
I found I took a full day (off and on, working in my spare moments) to prepare our shelves, print and laminate materials, and gather supplies FOR THE WHOLE MONTH. I did have to add a couple things to my Walmart Pickup order, but I could have just as easily dropped by the Dollar Store.
About the “extras”:
You won’t see to much “extra” on our shelf, and that is intentional. I am stripping down the extras this year and sticking to the curriculum to keep things simple and focused!
You will see one big extra for us, though, and that is our Betty Lukens Feltboard (the Deluxe Bible Set). We purchased this as basically our very first “homeschool” supply when my first daughter was only one year old! We love it, and every child plays with the felt scene when we have it on our learning shelf.
A Video of our learning shelves:
If you want to see these simple shelves in action, check out this video tour of our shelves this week!
Our current daily schedule:
So, as we begin the 2022-2023 school year, my daughters are ages 7, 4.5, 2.5, and 10 months.
My oldest is doing a Charlotte Mason/Classical curriculum with mostly Montessori math and some Montessori language work.
The middle two are doing the RKW Year 1 curriculum (which we are talking about now!), and my youngest is doing her best to explore off-limits shelf work. lol. I will be starting our One Year Old Montessori Christian Homeschool Curriculum with Dalia in October!
Our daily schedule changes so frequently with the ever-changing needs of the growing children, but I’ll give you a basic overview:
7:00-8:30 Morning Time: Breakfast, Bible, Memory Work, Read Aloud, and 1-2 “Extra” Activities (like science, art, history, or geography)
The whole family (minus the youngest who is usually still sleeping) participates in our Morning Time. The only one required to stay for the full time is the oldest. The middle two come and go, and they have free choice of shelf work or play.
8:30-9:30 Montessori Time: Bible story with felt, Memory Verse, Bible Learning Tray, Color or Shape, Math, Language/Reading, and Sensorial
My oldest starts her independent subjects (math and language arts), and the middle two follow me to sit on the rug in front of our shelves. We start by telling the Bible story and taking turns helping or retelling the story. (5 minutes)
Then, we do a Bible Learning Tray and talk about its connection to the story. (Note: If I have presented all of the Bible Learning Trays already, I may just mention that they are there to choose after “group” time, or I may take the time to invite my oldest to copy the memory verse.) (5 minutes)
Next, we do either a color or shape activity. (I am currently rotating the color and shape activities so only one is available at a time. This saves space on the shelf!) (5-10 minutes)
After some fun with colors or shapes, we do math with our physical shelf materials. (This is great, because my 4.5 year old loves the Montessori Math Workbook, but I know that working with the materials is impactful. Since we have them, I am so glad to have her using them! It’s also been wonderful for my 2.5 year old, because she is eager to learn but nowhere near ready for “workbook” style work!) (5-10 minutes)
After putting away our math work for the day, we move into language/reading work. I have found that my 4.5 year old is breezing through the shelf work, and my 2.5 year old is learning a ton of new vocabulary but may have to repeat the beginning sound sequence next year, too (which is fine and fun, and I will have all the materials prepped and ready for her!) My 4.5 year old is starting to build words for the first time, and it’s so fun to watch! She’s also super into the games. (5-20 minutes)
Before wrapping up our hour focused on the littles, we finish with a Sensorial presentation. Since we are focusing on only one work at a time, I find that we get really creative with the extensions, and my kids are really excited to do the extensions. Who wouldn’t get excited about a new game?? (10 minutes)
9:30-11:00 Free Work Choices + Extras with My Oldest
BONUS: Kids keep working (somewhat independently), choose any of the works off the shelves to do or re-do, and I go finish up with my oldest and tend to my youngest.
Sometimes we don’t get to all of our fun planned activities with my oldest - like an art project or science experiment. We also have a lengthy list of read-aloud books that correlate with our studies each week. So, I help my oldest finish up her math and language arts (or at least check over her work), we finish up projects (and are often interrupted as the middle two need help or re-direction), and we snuggle and read!
Note: I do include all of the children in our activities if they want to be included. I don’t force them to choose shelf work when they would rather be doing the activity with their older sister. For example, we did a chalk pastel project of a crown today, so my oldest was using chalk pastels, my second was using oil pastels (and then switched to chalk - and was super messy), and my third daughter used actual chalk on construction paper.
Parent-led versus child-led:
I know some of you may be reading the above schedule and gasping at the non-Montessori nature of it, and that’s okay! I have transitioned from fully child-led to fully parent-led and landed in a place that works for me and my family in this season of life.
In Montessori classrooms, there is “Circle Time,” there are often group presentations, and there are many, many children with the positive peer pressure to choose varying work. In a homeschool environment, we have to get creative.
My kids have been trained to look forward to this time together, and I don’t have to coax them to come to sit for a presentation (well, most of the time I don’t!) I do have to set high expectations of my children and follow through with a set schedule.
The more consistent Mom is, the better behaved the kids are.
Getting my heart right:
It’s easy to fall out of “line” with my ideals. I find the world to be quite distracting - and opinionated - and I really just want to do right by God, my husband, and my kids. But often I look in the wrong places - like Instagram, parenting books, homeschooling books, or even other moms.
I find the only place I truly find peace is in God’s Word: the Bible.
So, if you are doing all the things to prepare for your first couple of weeks of your homeschool, make sure reading your Bible and praying gets placed at the top of your list where it belongs!
For weeks 1-2 of the curriculum, you can use the Mom-Devotional included in your downloads. Use the free download of Adobe Acrobat to print the Mom-Devotional as a “Booklet” and keep it inside your Bible.
Some highlights from Week 1:
Sadie (4.5) and Evelyn (2.5) worked together to do all 4 cylinder blocks at once.
Evelyn (2.5) was our shelf organizer - she is fully in the sensitive period for order (and has been since birth, actually.)
Sadie willingly completed several extensions with the number rods, even though it was really review for her!
Evelyn enjoyed sorting day/night activity cards.
Evelyn is also exploding in her speaking abilities and really loved naming all of the picture cards in all of the
The doll puzzle was the favorite shelf work!
