Treehouse Story School: Preschool

I am obsessed with this curriculum! I was trying a different curriculum before buying this one, and I was finding my 4 year old was frequently becoming overwhelmed. One day he told me didn’t like school, and he was having more attitude with even simple things. This was the last thing I wanted, I knew there could be so much more joy in preK. I was hesitant to buy a new curriculum since I had already spent the money on the other. But I’m SO glad I did. My son has been so excited each morning, and he’s been getting really into dancing and singing the songs. We love the books and my 2 year old will often join in with the activities too. I’m so incredibly thankful for this curriculum and could not recommend it enough. If you’re looking for a joy-filled preK year, look no further.

I spent quite a bit of time researching preschool homeschool curricula before settling on Treehouse Schoolhouse’s Storybook curriculum at the end of last year. I was specifically looking for something play-based and literature-rich, and Storybook seemed to tick all the boxes. In many ways, it really is a lovely curriculum.

The weekly themes are thoughtfully put together, the stories are beautiful, and I love how the activities, additional reading, playlists, and other resources all tie in with the featured book. It’s well planned, easy to prepare for, and creates a wonderful opportunity to build learning around literature. There is so much to appreciate about the curriculum, and it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into it.

Unfortunately, my biggest challenge has been sourcing the books themselves.

As a homeschooling family in South Africa, finding some of the titles has proved surprisingly difficult and, in some cases, prohibitively expensive. Of the 32 weeks in the curriculum, I’ve struggled to source 11 of the books at a reasonable price. That’s roughly a third of the reading list.

I have no problem investing in quality children’s literature. I consider around $9–$14 per book to be a reasonable price to pay, and most of the books in the curriculum fall within a range that feels manageable. However, some of the more difficult-to-find titles are listed at prices equivalent to $36–$121 per book in South Africa. That’s a significant jump, particularly when these are required titles in a curriculum built around reading a different book each week.

I don’t know whether this is due to international shipping, limited availability, or certain titles being out of print, but it has become a genuine obstacle. Some books are only available in special anniversary editions or through second-hand sellers at inflated prices. I’ve tried thrifting and searching for library copies, but some aren’t stocked at our libraries and if it’s there availability is inconsistent, and I can’t always get hold of a book when we need it.

I’ve attached screenshots of the prices I’ve encountered to illustrate the challenge. While I understand that book availability and pricing will vary between countries, I wish I’d known before purchasing the curriculum that sourcing so many of its core books could be this difficult and expensive.

I know that read-aloud videos are another option, but one of the main reasons I chose a literature-rich curriculum was because I wanted my children to experience the actual books. I want us to sit together, turn the pages, revisit illustrations, pause to talk about what we’re seeing, and return to our favourite stories. Listening to a book online is not quite the same experience, and it’s not the approach I want to rely on throughout our homeschool year.

What’s particularly disappointing is that I had hoped to use this curriculum with both of my boys over the coming years. I invested in it with the intention of using it for more than one preschool year, so discovering just how difficult some of the books are to source has left me questioning whether I can realistically continue with it. I have already invested money, time, and energy into the curriculum, as well as purchasing many of the accompanying books, so potentially having to start again with a different curriculum is disheartening.

I would love to see Treehouse Schoolhouse revisit the book list and consider the accessibility of the titles, perhaps offering more readily available alternatives where necessary. For international families, particularly those outside the United States, book availability and cost can make a significant difference to whether an otherwise wonderful curriculum is actually usable.

Overall, I do think Storybook is a beautiful, well-designed curriculum, and I appreciate the care that has gone into creating it. My intention in sharing this feedback isn’t to discourage anyone from using it, but to highlight an important practical consideration that I wish I had been aware of before purchasing it.

If you’re considering Storybook from outside the US, I would strongly recommend checking the availability and local cost of the entire book list before committing. The curriculum itself is lovely, but having a book at the heart of every week only works if you can realistically get your hands on that book.

Excited to get started on this well layed out curricullum. I printed it by the instructions, but instead of hole punching to put in a binder, I placed them in individual file folders along with the book for each week. It was my daughter’s birthday so I made an amazon gift list post and received all but 4 books!! I plan only to use the curriculum 2-3 days a week. My daughter is 3 so I think she will really like the imaginary play, singing and cooking.

This curriculum is so open and imaginative that even though it is tailored for Preschool ages I can involve all of my kids into the activities! I recommend this curriculum 10/10. Feedback for the creators: The packaging of the physical copy needs more protection, we had a close call with some type of liquid the box was exposed to and the binding needed adjusting. The weekly materials list could be more thorough-example: week one should have sidewalk chalk and jars with lids listed in there for quick reference. This is a personal preference I suppose, I see time horizontally. Activities for each day are easier for me to read when the days run vertically but the daily activities run horizontally (the book is set up the exact opposite). Overall the whole family is enjoying the literature enrichment!! Great buy!

My husband loves it the most! If you have been on the fence about purchasing this curriculum, like I was, do it! It has brought joy and delight to our entire family. I’m using it for my five-year-old son who has no interest in school, and every day he is so excited to engage in what we are doing. My three-year-old is enchanted in her own three-year-old way, and my seven-year-old loves being a part of the lessons for her little siblings. It brings me so much peace to have someone take the guess work out of what I should do every day, but what I didn’t expect was how much my husband would love it! He is very skeptical of curriculum, but every day, I kid you not, he has said, “I LOVE what you are doing with the kids.” he is not a words of affirmation kind of guy, so believe me when I say that that is a big deal in our household! By purchasing this, I guarantee your family will grow closer and learn something new daily!

We've been using Story School with our 3rd child for preschool for a month now, and for our kids it's the best preschool option out there! We sit and read stories on the couch, do two short hands on activities together and then she plays with all of the story theme toys for the week that I put in a box just for school time so I can help my older two homeschool. If she'd been my first there would have been plenty to do for fun activities together too. The entire family reads the stories together which were mostly all favorites already! The library has had almost every book on the book list. The weekly themes keep everything fresh and exciting for her, she loves it. Since I have others to homeschool, some of the activities I added to her box, and she is able to do them on her own. I supplemented with the My First School Book from Handwriting without Tears because she wanted a workbook like the big kids, but I bought some of the tools cheap in a set. And I already had the pre-k program from My Father's World to use for Bible, and use that since it's not included. But if you didn't have that I'd just add a picture Bible of your choice daily. Picture is of A week: Arnold's Apple Tree, she's putting pollen on the flowers and the bees are pollination the apple tree, which she also changed to match the seasons ❤️❤️

I really wanted to find a gentle homeschool preschool curriculum that was not all about worksheets. This one has been perfect for my family! My 2.5 year old learns so much through reading books. All of the learning activities have been easy to do at home with little set up required and if we don’t have certain items we can easily modify them or we can get creative and add our own spin on things, some activities we have already done multiple times because my son loves them so much! The quality is amazing and I think it was worth purchasing the hard copy as I am planning on using it for years to come!

With 5 children at home my preschooler was kinda left out.. we really enjoy this curriculum because it helps me to be more intentional with preschool.

This is by far my favorite curriculum to use for a gentle and engaging preschool that is easy and fun to implement. It covers all the fundamentals and incorporates beautiful classic books but enhances them with fun story cut outs, music and movement, and simple to follow directions for math and phonic readiness. It doesn’t feel like an overwhelming to prepare for the lessons, it’s actually enjoyable and my preschooler, toddler and even older children enjoy the stories, songs and extra activities. This has brought a peaceful and joyful experience to our homeschool. Thank you!

This is an amazing curriculum and the people behind it are truly such kind people! They have been great with communication and working with us. I love treehouse schoolhouse!

The curriculum is beautiful, gentle and includes lovely ways to teach and keep little ones engaged and learning. It's a perfect start to our home education adventure and it gives me confidence as a very inexperienced mum. Customer service is also fantastic and I couldn't be happier with my experience. Thank you!

This beautiful curriculum is the perfect companion for my younger children!

What a sweet way to start our learning journey! My 2.5 year old loves all the books and is having so much fun with the activities! I wish I had this for my older two when they were younger!

We love this curriculum we affectionately call "Story School." Even the big kids like to join in when they see how much fun the littles are having. It's been a huge blessing for our family this year. I see how learning is made fun and inviting.

As a new homeschooling family we took a lot of trial and error to find what worked for us. This is EXACTLY what we needed. It is the perfect gentle introduction to school. The books, activities, and music are the fun components we needed to make school feel like home and to bring joyful moments into every day of school! The book choices are beautiful and by focusing on one book of the week I really feel like it’s encouraging deep and lasting understanding of reading comprehension and memory. It’s so easy to incorporate into family learning too which has made it easier to create beautiful moments with both of my kids instead of trying to wrangle a toddler while teaching my older one. I’m literally telling all of my friends about this curriculum!

I purchased for my 4 and 6 year old to do together along with some other curriculum and this is so sweet and fun! I have 5 older kids too so this is the little one’s very own school and they feel so special learning this own songs and engaging in their stories. I love it!

it's amazing!! the format is incredible. highly recommend

We are on our first week and my daughter has been enjoying the activities/lessons. She asks when we are going to learn each day! The only thing I would look at changing is the cover of the book is thin. I think a thicker cover would help this stay nice for a longer amount of time.

We are now in week two of the Treehouse Story School and we are loving it! My son enjoys the books and activities that we do together. The layout is easy to understand and use and the activities are great for my 4 year old son.
My only piece of feedback is that I bout the physical copy (since my printer doesn't work well at all). I would have hoped for the book to have a more substantial feeling cover and back. The paper used for the front and back cover feels a bit flimsy. Something thicker would be nice so that I have more confidence in the book holding up over time.

I have a 6, 4, and 2 year old. I love that this curriculum is something we can all enjoy together so no one feels left out. It's really sweet and adaptable. She did an amazing job choosing the stories. We have enjoyed them so much!