Should You Buy Gather Round Preschool Letters and Numbers?

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Gather Round Preschool Letters and Numbers is new to the homeschool curriculum world. It can be hard to know whether it’s worth spending your money on something when there aren’t all that many reviews out there about it.

Well, I’ve done the work for you and have gone through this preschool homeschool curriculum with my own daughter and I’m here to let you know what I think about it.

Of course, every family is different, so while I’ll share my opinion, you also need to keep your own child in mind and how they learn best.

Gather Round Preschool Letters and Numbers Review

There is a plethora of preschool curriculums available now. They span every kind of learning style and budget.

It can easily feel overwhelming trying to sift through them all so I hope that this review gives you a kind of synopsis so that you can decide whether this curriculum might be a good fit for your child.

Before we get into things, I want to let you know that I used this curriculum with my 4-year old daughter. She knew a handful of letter sounds and names before we began.

She’s very artistically-minded and has always enjoyed doing worksheets for school. She will literally draw the answers to questions before she thinks to verbalise them.

With that said, let’s talk about the curriculum itself.

What Is Letters and Numbers?

Letters and Numbers is one of the newest additions to the Gather Round Homeschool Curriculum.

If you’re new to Gather Round entirely then you should know that it is a curriculum that is unit-study based and is intended to be used for all of your kids.

It covers every subject from language arts to social studies. The exception is math. However, it takes away the need to have different books for separate subjects.

They offer many different units that cover all kinds of topics.

Each of their units comes with a student book to cover all the grade levels. However, they did not have a strict preschool program.

This is where Letters and Numbers comes in.

Letters and Numbers is made up of 4 units. They are:

In the Forest – unit 1
On the Farm – unit 2
In the Jungle – unit 3
In the Air – unit 4

The first two units cover the alphabet and the second two units goes over the alphabet but at a more advanced level.

gather round preschool units three and four

Each unit is set up to be done 4 days per week and last 13 weeks each. So, in total it will take 26 weeks to get through the entire alphabet.

The first two units don’t require any formal handwriting, but the second two units do encourage and teach letter and number formation.

You can buy the units in either hard copy or digital format and each unit comes with two workbooks and a teachers guide.

There is also a Letters and Numbers expansion pack that comes with beautiful flashcards and other great resources. You’ll also find an In the Jungle coloring book available for purchase.

How Letters and Numbers Works

Each lesson has a small amount of reading that you will read from the teacher’s guide. The story includes focusing on letters sounds and is always engaging. There are questions to ask your child at the end to help encourage comprehension.

There is also a short Bible section where you are directed to read a passage and discuss the lesson with your child.

Once you’ve gone through the reading, there are 3 work pages for your child to complete.

This is an open-and-go curriculum and requires little to no outside supples. You can easily make do with a pencil, coloring supplies, scissors, and glue.

Watch the video below for a flip through of Letters & Numbers Unit 2…

gather round preschool letters and numbers

Where to Place Your Child

It can be a little confusing trying to understand where best to place your child. A lot is going to be based on your understanding of how much your child already knows.

If your child knows little to nothing about the alphabet then I would start with unit one. If they know some of their letters and numbers then you could probably move straight to unit 3.

Another thing to consider is whether or not they struggle to write. If this is a difficult thing for them then units 1&2 might be better to begin with.

We’ve sped through the first 2 units by doing 2 lessons a day and will then slow down and complete the second 2 units at a regular pace.

I plan to use the first two units with my 3-year old next year and then units 3&4 with her when she’s 4.

Is Gather Round Homeschool Secular?

No, it is not. There is always a Bible portion with every lesson. However, you can definitely just omit that and you’ll find that there’s very little mention of anything faith-based.

Pros of Gather Round Letters and Numbers

Short lessons
Thoughtful stories
Worksheets cater to all learning styles and aren’t too repetitive
Very open-and-go
Available in digital form so you can print more than once
The unit study approach gives lots of room for going on learning rabbit trails
Stunning illustrations

Cons of Gather Round Letters and Numbers

Pricey for what it is
The stories are disjointed to the worksheets (this isn’t really a big deal but would make it better if they were connected)
It’s a stretch to get through all 4 units in a school year
No free sample available

Should You Buy This Preschool Curriculum?

So, here’s the part where I share my opinion and then leave it up to you to decide what you think is best for your family.

We have really enjoyed using this preschool curriculum and I do recommend it. It was fun moving to a different topic every few weeks.

One of the cons is that it is pricey and so if budget is an issue, I might suggest looking elsewhere. However, if you have multiple kids you can use it with and can print from home (I use an Epson Ecotank which is incredibly efficient!), it will definitely be worth it.

I like the repetition and gentle way that it teaches the alphabet. It definitely uses a spiral approach.

There’s also a nod to Charlotte Mason in the story format and short lessons.

This curriclum has worked beautifully for my 4-year old daughter who loves to sit and focus on a lesson. I’m not sure it would have beens so successful with my son, who is a more kinaesthetic learner.

There are extension activity suggestions that could make it work better for hands-on learners.

I recommend at least looking into it. We’ve enjoyed it so much that I actually went ahead and purchased their Ready to Read curriculum for my daughter’s kindergarten year.

We will not be using that as her main phonics program, but it will bring beautiful enrichment into her lessons. I feel as though the unit studies are perfect for budding and early readers.

I think that homeschool families with several children will appreciate the ease of use that this curriculum offers.

Do You Even Need a Preschool Curriculum?

The short answer is no. In fact, Gather Round only brought Letters and Numbers into their curriculum after many requests because they focused on delaying academics (as per Charlotte Mason’s recommendation).

Children can learn in so many other ways than sitting down and working in a school book. You can teach letters and numbers as a part of your every day life.

However, many parents (myself included) like to have the peace of mind that comes as a result of having a curriculum lay everything out for you.

If that’s how you feel then it is totally fine to look for a curriculum. If you don’t wish to use a curriculum then that is totally fine too! Preschoolers learn best through play.

Provide plenty of that, read to them abundantly and they will be very well prepared for when it is time to start focusing on academics.