Due to the high volume of emails, comments, and questions I’m getting about God’s Little Explorers, I have a few posts planned for the next few weeks! You may remember (if you were a subscriber at that point), I launched a free weekly preschool curriculum called God’s Little Explorers two years ago. I wrote the lesson plans each week and shared them with you so that you could use them if you would like.
What has happened since that time has been nothing short of amazing. So far, thousands of you have the curriculum and are using it in some way, shape, or form.
I am completely amazed. I never expected in a million years…
Anyway, today I wanted to share a weekly schedule you may want to use if you will be going through the curriculum. Please note I said MAY. Every family is different and unique–your schedule is not the same as mine, and I don’t expect anyone to use the exact same schedule. With that said, I have had tons of emails and questions, so I’m posting my sample weekly schedule here. Since my youngest daughter is now doing 1st grade work, I won’t be repeating the curriculum with her, but I will be reposting the lessons weekly. I plan to repost them on Thursday evening for those of you who want to follow along. I decided it would be a good idea to repost them a little early, so you can get supplies and whatever else you need ready for the following week.
Here is my proposed schedule for 2014-2015.
Week 1: Sept. 8-12 (I will always repost the lesson plan the week before on Thursday evening)
Week 2: Sept. 15-19
Week 3: Sept. 22-26
Week 4: Sept. 29 – Oct 3
Week 5: Oct. 6-10
Week 6: Oct 13-17
Week 7: Oct. 20-24
Week 8: Oct. 27-31
Week 9: Nov. 3-7
Week 10: Nov. 10-14
Week 11: Nov. 17-21
BREAK: Nov. 27
Week 12: Dec. 1-5
Week 13: Dec. 8-12
Week 14: Dec. 15-19
BREAK: December 20 – January 12
Week 15: Jan. 12-16
Week 16: Jan. 19-23
Week 17: Jan. 26-30
Week 18: Feb. 2-6
Week 19: Feb. 9-13
Week 20: Feb. 16 – 20
Week 21: Feb. 23-27
Week 22: Mar. 2-6
Week 23: Mar. 9-12
Week 24: Mar. 16-20
BREAK: Mar. 23-27
Week 25: Mar. 30 – Apr. 3
Week 26: Apr. 6 – 10
Week 27: Apr. 13-17
Week 28: Apr. 20-24
Again, this is just a basic schedule. No need to follow it, but I designed it for Christmas lessons to hit during December, the Valentine lesson to *fall* during the week of the 14th, and the Easter lessons to happen in April.
One thing I also thought would be really neat is to give you a chance to link up and be a resource for other moms! I know some of you have put together YouTube song lists, some of you have Pinterest boards specific to God’s Little Explorers, and some of you are even blogging about your journey. I would love for you to comments and share anything you have specific to God’s Little Explorers below!
I’m so excited about starting this! Just today, I created a week by week overview that helps me quickly glance to see when is what such as the letter and shape/number/color as well as themes and bible relation. It’s helpful to have a quick reference. Also, I made a template/worksheet for planning ahead where I can fill in which books and supplies I need to collect for each week. I kind of go overboard when it comes to organization. I plan to sit down each Friday and figure out what I need for the following week. Monday mornings we will take a field trip to the library and get the books for the week. It’s also helpful for me to look far ahead so I can see if there are any supplies that I don’t have and will need to order online or buy in store in advance 🙂 did I mention how excited I am about this?! My 4 year old is going to have a blast! And hopefully I can include my almost 1 year old daughter and 1.5 year old niece in some way as well!
I really excited about this as well. I have been planning all summer. I started with a calendar, almost exactly like your proposed plan. Then I started collecting supplies – some I had in my stash, some from garage sales and some from store sales. Now I have a diaper box full of random supplies that could be necessary and a diaper box of bagged supplies for each week labeled 1-28. Your curriculum was just what I had been looking for. I may end up doing it twice since my daughter is just 3 1/2 and my son just 2. I also started a Pintrest Board to help me remember great ideas that I could add or substitute because my children are younger. I am also using Pintrest to hopefully convince my niece to do this with her son. Thanks so much for sharing and letting God use your experience to help the rest of us out. Expecting a great year helping my kids learn more about God and the world they live in 🙂
Awesome! I hope you have a great memory-making time! Thanks for sharing these ideas!
Hi Stacie, I’m so glad I got this curriculum. I bought it with the intention of using it last year but that didn’t work out. Now I’m glad I waited. It is working out perfectly for more “formal” PreK with my 4 1/2-year-old daughter. I love it and she does too! We just finished week 2, but I’m behind on blogging. I just published our Week 1 blog review post. I am working on Week 2 now. 🙂 Thanks for writing this and sharing! Here’s the link: http://www.leapingin2learning.com/prek-with-lil-bit-week-1/
And here’s week 2 of GLE. My 4YO LOVED, LOVED, LOVED making her creation book. It will be a keepsake for years to come! I loved helping her with this. I am so thankful for this curriculum. I have 6 children, and this is just what I needed to make sure I’m doing purposeful activities with our 4YO this year at our homeschool. Thanks so much for creating this! 😀
Oops. Forgot to put the link in the comment above! Here it is: http://www.leapingin2learning.com/prek-with-lil-bit-week-2/
Do you happen to know if there is a Facebook group for “God’s Little Explorers” by any chance?
There is a group for those who have purchased the curriculum, but I don’t know if there are any others!
Stacie, how do we join the group? I purchased my curriculum from your site. Thanks! Leslie
Hey, Leslie! The link to the FB group is in the download email that went to your Paypal email address when you purchased the curriculum! Send me an email at motherhoodonadime at gmail . com if you need it resent!