I do preK/K curriculum design for a living so I can give you lots of info about what we do at our school -- with the understanding that every school is different.
As far as schedule -- here's our PreK one. We have a full day program, but a typical day at our school goes something like this. I'm adding the caveat that I don't think that homeschool needs to look exactly like school and that this structure probably makes no sense in your setting, but you asked what a day's like.
15 minutes -- "Morning work" -- kids either do an activity selected by the teacher, or choose from a couple of activities selected by the teacher. At the beginning of the year this is a way to introduce new materials, so that activity might be playdough or watercolor. Midyear there's a lot of "make this letter out of playdough", or "make a patterned necklace out of beads" kind of things. At the very end of the year this becomes journal time in preparation for Kindergarten.
15 minutes -- "Morning meeting" -- Kids usually do some kind of dance as a gathering -- we often use a CD for this and there's an emphasis on following directions. Then the kids greet each other (e.g. they sing a song with everyone's name, and then turn to their neighbor and give them a "Hug, handshake or high five"), then there's an activity (maybe a counting or rhyming game, or maybe a mini-lesson on using a new material), then they "read" a morning message that says something like "Good Morning Starfish (insert class name for Starfish). Today we have Art and Music. " Then the teacher introduces anything that's new for that day for centers. This sounds really long but each thing is super fast.
30-45 minutes -- Centers -- We have 11 centers in each room -- art, computer, library, reading, writing, blocks, table toys, carpet toys, science, housekeeping/dramatic play, sand. Kids move pretty freely between the centers -- we insert a fair amount of academic stuff into the centers (e.g. if we're working on rhyming, there are lots of rhyming books in the library, if we're focusing on certain letters we might hide the in the sandbox and give the kids sieves and magnifying glasses to hunt for them, if dramatic play is a restaurant we'll add menus for the kids to pretend to read, and paper and pencil to take orders) but we don't force the kids to use it.
30-45 minutes -- either outside play or P.E.
45 minutes -- Art, Music, Spanish, or Dance class.
30 minutes -- Lunch (this is crazy early, which is why morning choice is so short, and why snack is in the p.m.)
30 minutes -- "Literacy" The class has 1 book they read all week, and retell at the end of the week by acting it out with their bodies or props, and often read a second book that's related after so they can make connections. They might also do an extension activity -- so for example, they might read 2 versions of the 3 little pigs and then use hula hoops and pictures to make a Venn diagram comparing them. At the end of Literacy the teacher introduces the small group literacy activity.
60 minutes -- "Choice" Same as above, but the teachers pull small groups of 3 or 4 kids for about 10 - 15 minutes to work on literacy activities, such as playing a rhyming game, or book making etc . . . Every child is not pulled every day.
30 minutes -- outdoor play
30 minutes -- bathroom, snack, settle down for nap
20 minutes -- nap -- at this point everyone is on their cots resting quietly.
20 minutes -- book baskets -- the kids who are awake are allowed to move to tables and look at books quietly, draw, playdough etc . . .
50 minutes -- "quiet choice" a few centers are closed because kids are sleeping there, the lights are low, and kids are asked to be sort of quiet but it's definitely not silent. Kids gradually wake up and join their friends playing. During this time kids are pulled for small group math work. Math work is 100% manipulative -- they might learn measurement by cooking, or by sorting objects and making a collage. Kids who sleep through this time will get their math work at a different time -- maybe for morning work, maybe in afterschool. Again teachers do not work with every child every day -- the majority of math learning happens through the activities kids choose in centers, rather than in the small groups.
15 minutes -- closing meeting -- similar in structure to opening meeting, the kids sing a good bye song, they tell their favorite part of the day, they do the calendar, and then they listen to a story (usually a repeated favorite so kids aren't upset if they don't hear the end) while parents pick up.
My son wants the computer, so I'll come back and answer your question about what we expect them to learn, but in general I think that to be ready for Kindergarten kids need the following:
1) Immense experience with language, including some more "academic" language such as using math words, asking and answering questions, explaining their thinking.
2) Increasing opportunities to do things for themselves -- both so that they develop the actual skills and also so they develop self confidence and intiative.
3) Time to play with the same child(ren) repeatedly, to negotiate and solve problems, and to learn to sustain relationships.
4) Some time working on activities selected by an adult.
5) Lots of time working on activities they selected -- the ability to carve out a task, stick with it and see it to the end and then explain what they've done.
6) Lots of stories read aloud.
7) Lots of chances to work with making representations with various materials -- art, building, dramatic play.
8) Some specific work on math, reading, and writing concepts if they aren't developing naturally -- note I'm putting this last because I think many kids do fine without it, and even for kids who do need it it should be a minor part -- a few minutes here or there.
I'm also a big believer that all kids need lots of time outside and in active play -- I'm not sure I see that as "school readiness" as much as about "life readiness" which is why I haven't put a number on it, but I think it should be included -- a lot of the things above can be done just as easily outdoors or in the context of gross motor play (e.g. pretending the jungle gym is a space ship builds social skills, representational skills, language skills, etc . . . just as well as playing in a "housekeeping corner", plus it's building healthy bodies at the same time.
OK, that was a novel -- if you're still here, thanks for reading!
