I told my girls yesterday school would be closed for several weeks but we would most definitely be doing some sort of “homeschool”. This morning, I had a chair and little area set up for me when I came downstairs to start teaching😭. Children love structure. However..I quickly told them momma’s not workin’ weekends and to go play.😅 I spent the majority of my morning organizing for the next two weeks. Would part of me like to stay in jammies and have a free-for-all? Yes. However, I’d give it two days (and that’s being generous) and they’d be ready to kill each other. Let’s be honest here. Also, having absolutely no structure would just set them up for failure when returning to school. I put together a little schedule for us to follow. They will not have a completely structured day and I will not be entertaining them all day. Children need to be bored from time to time, it’s when their creativity sparks. If it’s nice out… they are going outside. Dig in dirt, jump on the trampoline, blow bubbles, make an obstacle course, arts and crafts.. I don’t care, but go outside. If it rains, they can choose from our creative play bin for inside on the table or go play in the playroom. My kids don’t use the iPad at home, that’s just my personal decision. I haven’t decided yet if Teaghan will use it a little for her programs she uses at school. I’m not a fan, but I don’t want her to fall behind in the programs. At max she’ll do 20 min a day, or maybe just rainy days? Idk. 🤷🏻♀️
If you plan on working with your children, I highly suggest a schedule and a designated place to work. You’ll go crazy cleaning up every part of your house. We have a finished third floor that I have recently made solely into our Play Room.. so that’s where we will be doing our “school work”. Keep in mind I ammm a teacher.. most ALL of this stuff I’m about to share, I already had filed away or pre-made. It was not that much prep work for me, so just pick 1 or 2 things that you like and want to try! Don’t feel overwhelmed. ❤️
Set a few Goals
I thought about a few things I personally saw my girls struggling with or things they are working on at school. Teaghan stilllll can’t tie her shoes great, so there’s one thing we will spend some time on. Also, putting her own hair in a pony tail. Academically, she’s working on writing skills, reading comprehension, and coins/skip counting in school so I based her activities around those things. Rowan is writing her name but it’s “ROMAN” so I’ll be working with teaching her how to write a W. She’s also still working on number recognition, especially 6-10, letter formation and sounds.
Teaghan’s K work
Reading comprehension– I use Bob Books at home and she came home with some high frequency word books sent from school. After she reads one, she’ll roll a die and that will tell her how she’ll respond to the story.. I’m not doing the writing portion, just using it as a discussion template. This makes it a game, and I guarantee she’ll want to do more than one.. because that’s just her.Writing practice– T loves to write and create books. Her teacher sent home the blank pink booklets so we will definitely be utilizing those. The others are prompts with St. Patrick’s Day coming up and birthday cards to create. Vocabulary/Word work ideas. Word searches and word scrambles are amazing brain development tools and help improve mental acuity. Some of these are from workbooks I had, but Google is your friend. Soo many free activities out there!! (After she rainbow traces the alphabet, she can see how many words she can make.)Sight words– I’m going to use this Bananagram game for us to play using her sight words. She will have her flash cards as a reference! Counting coins and skip counting– I’m going to encourage her to play “grocery store”. She can price items in her kitchen set and “ring” them up.. or create some sort of menu with prices. She has Post-it notes to write on and coins to sort/count. She jump-started “home school” today bc she was soo excited and wanted to color the skip counting chart by 2s. I plan to print more for her to color by 5s and 10s. She can then use these charts to help her count her nickels and dimes. Some of the coins are fake and some are real.
Rowan’s preschool activities!
Encouraging writing– I have a bin of stickers, stencils, markers, pencils, and crayons for her to create really anything she wants on construction or computer paper. (Teaghan can obviously use these too during her writing)Putting magnetic ABCs in order. If you have magnetic letters, put them in a basket and grab a cookie sheet. It’s always a plus if they can self-check.. so I put Chicka Chicka Boom Boom out since the alphabet is in the back. Sing the ABC song to help too!Writing practice: Dry Erase markers. I own a little laminator so these sheets can be reusable. If you don’t, they sell slots at the dollar store pictured above with the “W” practice sheet inside.. you can slip any paper in and use it again and again.Counting and number recognition– These are pre-made, but you can easily make them. They have self-check on them too, flip over the card and have your child count the dots to see if they were right with the number identified! I plan to use those shamrock shapes and hide them around the playroom for Rowan to find. I’ll help her line them up once she finds them all and practice counting (there’s 20 total). She can rote count to 30 but skips 15 so we will be working on that with one-to-one counting. Magnetic numbers can be used as well to put in order. The Number Wheel as mentioned before in my blog is also a really great tool!! Rowan LOVES these Poke-a-Dot books!! They are great tools for counting and fine motor, they make a popping noise when each button is pushed! I’ll have this puzzle for her to work on as well. It’s also a great tool for self-check since the number and picture will only fit together if correct. I took the number words out of the box since she’s not ready.. but that’s where Teaghan can chime in and finish the puzzle!
Quiet Time 🤫
They can choose from anything in here after they complete their puzzles of the week. Teaghan has a bunch of 100 pc puzzles to choose from and Rowan can work her way up with amount of pieces. This is a time for me to prep our next activity..whether it is a “special craft”, science experiment, or board game. I may even get one or two house chores/projects done. Orrrrr start a million things I’ll never finish. 😆
Creativity Bins-
We have a whole closet full of arts and crafts stuff. I pulled a few containers out for them to easily chose from independently and take outside or to the table so they aren’t constantlyyy needing my help.
Hope you found this helpful, and could use some of these ideas with your children over the next few weeks. Or send to caregiver and they can benefit from it. Remember one day at a time! We are all in this together. You can do it. 😘💪🏼
Hi!!! I’m Karrah. A preschool teacher in Norfolk. I have a Master’s in Elem. Education and certified PreK-6. I have two daughters, Teaghan and Rowan. I love to come up with fun, hands-on learning that will hopefully instill a love of learning for young children!
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