We are in our seventh year of homeschooling and truthfully…I thought it would get easier. I mean, I’ve taught three kids their numbers, letters, sounds and how to read. So why was our fourth child so hard to teach? She loves to color, draw and has the imagination of a Disney writer.
When we began Kindergarten with her last year, I realized very quickly she was struggling. The curriculum we used for the others is wonderful, but she just wasn’t grasping it. She just wanted to have fun. And it was fun…for a while. Until I saw she wasn’t retaining any of the information we had covered in previous weeks or even just days before.
That’s when I knew we needed a change. Maybe a different approach would work? So, we tried more hands-on activities like our playdough mats to help her with more tactile learning of letters and numbers.
It went well…for about 2 weeks. Then I realized once again, it just wasn’t clicking with her.
I was at a loss.
I had no idea what to do.
She loved learning and could remember the words to songs she’d only heard once, but not the names of letters or numbers. I had to think quickly. She was falling further and further behind and was surely going to graduate without knowing how to write her name if we didn’t get this figured out.
After all, she was FIVE and ready for Kindergarten, or so I thought.
So, what if Your 5 Year Old Isn’t Ready for Kindergarten?
As homeschoolers we pride ourselves on teaching each child at their level, not pushing them into a mold created by society. And here I was pushing her in to the “public school mold” just because she had turned five. However, as I thought about it more and more, I realized that had she gone to public school and started that year, she would have turned 5 after school started!
That’s when I told my husband, we were waiting another year to officially start her Kindergarten lessons.
So what do we do in the meantime? I had a plan!
I knew we couldn’t just keep on “playing to learn” and not help push her along a little, yet I didn’t want to frustrate her either. I had been working on my next eBook and thought it would be the perfect solution. It was a fun combination of short lessons, fun activities that all led to learning letters. We could do as much or as little as she wanted combined with other activities to make them fun and hopefully help set the foundation for next year.
Apples to Zebras
I printed out the first letter in the book and was thrilled with her excitement. She loved working on her letters and doing papers like her brothers and sister. At this point, school was fun and she was now included.
Apples to Zebras is designed for a 3-day week schedule, so we chose to do Tues-Wed-Thurs, as Mondays are usually very busy getting the older three kids settled back in to our school routine and Fridays my husband was off. However, you could easily expand the lessons to be a 4- or 5-day schedule.
The lesson plans are flexible to fit a variety of learning styles while reinforcing the letters of the week. Every 4th week there is a review lesson to help them remember the previously learned letters. There are hands-on activities for every letter, plus some bonus printables at the end of the workbook – from puzzles to flashcards and more!
This 680+ page digital download is the perfect way to get kids started learning their letters while working on their handwriting and beginning sounds. My daughter has done well this year working through the book and enjoyed hands-on activities as well as the relaxed lessons.
As we move in to Kindergarten this year, we will go back through these lessons and add in even more activities and learning opportunities, because I feel she is ready. We may still struggle, so I like that we can finish the “workbook” in 3 days, but do more or less depending on her comprehension of the letters.
BUY NOW
Simply add the product to your cart and at checkout, you will automatically be added to my subscriber list.
**I have had several inquires about why this is not available in a printed and bound version. I am sorry for the inconvenience. As much as I would like to, at this time this is just a digital product. This is a DIGITAL product, no physical product will be shipped.**
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Annette lived many years as an exhausted wife of 1 and mother of 6. Grab your fuzzy blanket, pour your favorite drink, and browse through our encouraging tips, printables, and curriculum options. Read more about me and the ministry here at In All You Do 
This Post Has 83 Comments
Janna
24 Jul 2017Legos
Annette Breedlove
24 Jul 2017My kids still play with all their LEGO!!
M. Chaplauske
25 Jul 2017My preschoolers are little artists! They love to draw and color 🙂
Deana
24 Jul 2017We love to read! My kids have also always loved dot markers. Thanks for the great giveaway!
Annette Breedlove
24 Jul 2017My kids love those dot markers too!
Hannah
24 Jul 2017My pre-schooler (3yo boy) likes to use the computers and tablets for learning games (abcya.com, starfall.com, pbskids.org)
Annette Breedlove
24 Jul 2017We have used all of those too! They are great sites!
Michelle Urdak
24 Jul 2017THis looks perfect for my 5-year-old daughter! 🙂
Michelle Urdak
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves to color and pay with play-doh!
Annette Breedlove
24 Jul 2017Those are a favorite in our house too!
Magda Miller
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves to “design outfits” more than anything on earth.
Ashley
24 Jul 2017My kids LOVE anything messy. We live in the country, so we spend a lot of time outside. They like writing in mud and using sticks to make letters. Fun and educational!
Beckie
24 Jul 2017Coloring!
Jacquie
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves her workbooks! She will do several pages at s time! She also loves to play with play dough almost daily.
Caroline @ The Modest Mom
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves to color, and cut out paper!
Elizabeth
24 Jul 2017Reading
Annie
24 Jul 2017Does yelling count? I kid, but singing and dancing are a favorite.
Alisa
24 Jul 2017Osmo
Cynthia Hebert
24 Jul 2017I had a five year old who wasn’t ready for kindergarten either. He loves learning videos (especially musical ones), learning apps and computer games. Reading Eggs was worth the subscription!
Sabrina Houck
24 Jul 2017My preschoolers love to sit down and practice their letters, it makes them feel like they are doing “real school” like the big kids!
Olivia
24 Jul 2017Playing outside and playing with her younger sister!
Laura Kaczmarek
24 Jul 2017She has so many favorites! She loves pretending to be a vet or play restaurant.
Jessica Winkler
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves art! I plan on including coloring and painting in as many lessons as I can for him!
Renee Rayder
24 Jul 2017Coloring is his favorite!
Nikki Howell
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves to help me cook.
Nikki
24 Jul 2017Read and play learning games on a tablet.
Jessica Thompson
24 Jul 2017Playing outside
Jennie
24 Jul 2017Books and coloring
Jordan Boss
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves to color with markers!
Jessica Medina
24 Jul 2017Coloring!
Jamie
24 Jul 2017Reading
Crystal
24 Jul 2017He LOVES to color. 🙂
BrendaF
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves play dough. And dancing!
Brenda
24 Jul 2017My preschooler loves play dough. And dancing!
Julie
24 Jul 2017This looks so fun! When my current 1st grader was 4, I gave her a pre-K workbook with two rules: do all the pages in order, and follow the instructions (no coloring everything purple or whatever). She set her own pace, sometimes ignoring it for weeks and sometimes doing ten pages a day. When she finished it, she and I both knew she was ready for kindergarten, and we started the next week. I’m so glad we did it that way.
Julie
24 Jul 2017Playing pretend.
Rachel B.
24 Jul 2017My pre-schooler loves anything that has to do with a glue stick or markers or scissors – basically anything her big sister uses, she wants too.
Chassidy
24 Jul 2017Storytime
Hannah R.
24 Jul 2017I have a preschooler who learns through hands-on activities. We use Legos to help him learn!
EliseO
24 Jul 2017My daughter loves to build and design things just like her engineer daddy!
Melanie Gerstorff
24 Jul 2017Magnetic letters on the fridge
Diana
24 Jul 2017Our favorite preschool activity is coloring. Great for hand-eye and learning colors and shapes.
LeAnn Harbert
24 Jul 2017We like walking in the woods and looking for animal tracks
Rachel Janssen
24 Jul 2017Playing outside!
Jen ODell
24 Jul 2017Building tracks and playdoh.
Charlotte
24 Jul 2017Coloring with markers.
Pam N.
25 Jul 2017Painting.
Cheryl C
25 Jul 2017Reading and bird watching.
Kayla Rowden
25 Jul 2017My preschooler enjoys play dough mats and math manipulative games!
Lynn
25 Jul 2017My preschoolers love arts and crafts. Thank you!
Dina
25 Jul 2017Dinosaurs are a huge thing right now, he’s been watching Dino Dan, Dino Dana and Dinosaur Train on Amazon Freetime. It cracks me up to hear him spout off these 5-6+ syllable dinosaur names as easily as he says “cat” or “dog”.
He was also given a Frisbee last weekend so that is a bit of an addiction right now! 😉
Jayne Yang
25 Jul 2017Our children (4.5 and 2) love reading! We read to them almost everywhere (at their request!). It’s our special time together.
nicole deardorf
25 Jul 2017Little man loves anything to do with crayons, markers or paints lol. Rare occasions he likes to just cuddle up and let me read to him. Those are my favorite days.
Afton
25 Jul 2017My preschooler loves anything hands on and is a great little artist!
Kristi E.
25 Jul 2017My kids love paint!
Katie
25 Jul 2017My kids like playing Legos and drawing.
Darcy Carmichael
25 Jul 2017All of my preschoolers love to color and draw!
Tracy
25 Jul 2017My kids love coloring and Megablocks!
Ashley
25 Jul 2017She loves to color and play Legos
Lindsay lewis
25 Jul 2017Swimming!
Tara J
25 Jul 2017Outside! Mud, dirt, water…
Ruth Utz
25 Jul 2017Digging in the dirt, pretending to drive tractors, … Anything and everything outside.
Kelli
25 Jul 2017Waterpaints!
Sheila
25 Jul 2017My Littles love to color.
Brooke
25 Jul 2017Drawing and painting is wildly popular at our house!
Gretchen
25 Jul 2017Using tools with Daddy…especially screwdrivers!
Cassandra
25 Jul 2017My son loves to sing and dance!
Joni McPike
25 Jul 2017My preschoolers new favorite activity is to “write notes” and put them in envelopes then he brings them to momma and daddy and reads them to us. He just turned 4 and can’t write so they are scribbles but I love the energy and imagination he puts into them!
Emily
26 Jul 2017Drawing what the see and reading together.
Katie L.
26 Jul 2017his favorite activity is swimming… but as far as school stuff goes he loves to paint or use stickers.
Sonja Rea
26 Jul 2017My preschooler loves playing outside and trying to keep up with siblings. Her favorite activity is anything involving arts and crafts.
Blanca Lomas
26 Jul 2017My preschooler loves to color!!
April Schuman
26 Jul 2017Very nice giveaway.
Diana
26 Jul 2017Playing with sand and play dough
Laura Brown
26 Jul 2017She loves to do schoolwork, because her siblings do it. I put that as my comment entry.. oops!
Jessica
26 Jul 2017My preschooler loves to build different things with Legos, but I would say his absolute favorite activity is coloring… On himself.
Allison S
26 Jul 2017I am loving your blig snd tips for preschool moms! Great giveaway as well 🙂
Mindy
26 Jul 2017She loves to play dolls for hours!
Karyn Ashley-Smith
26 Jul 2017Mud
Anne
26 Jul 2017My daughter loves games, puzzles and drawing.
Julia Cosgrove
26 Jul 2017I would definitely have to say drawing.
cenewhard
5 Aug 2017I just found tor site roday, and sas I missed the discount on this. I don’t see a purchase link. How do you buy it?
Annette Breedlove
5 Aug 2017I am sorry about that! I have updated the post to add in the product you can purchase!