8 Items We Use in our Preschool Homeschool
I’m a firm believer that you don’t need to use a curriculum for preschool or even kindergarten in your homeschool. Children, especially at this age, learn best through playing. Explore the outdoors, bake some cookies, finger paint, read books, and give them lots of free play time. They will learn what they need to know. Throughout this post I will say “preschool” but I am referring to a child’s age around the preschool age. So “preschool” here also includes toddler through kindergarten age. Here are 8 items we use in our preschool homeschool. I also write a brief description about how we use each item.
Window Crayons – $9
Window crayons by Crayola are amazing! I use these with my kids from toddlers all the way up to junior high. The only negative about them is that they can’t be wiped off with a towel like dry erase markers. I usually use a baby wipe or window cleaner. But you can’t beat the boldness of color on the window! We use them for screen-free entertainment a lot. This is a great activity for younger kids to do while older siblings are doing school work. Kindergarten math can be fun and engaging when done on a window with these crayons. Vertical play like drawing on the window or glass front door is a great fine motor activity. Your child works different small muscles when drawing while standing than they do while sitting at a table.
Adaptive Scissors – $7
Adaptive scissors are such a great tool for young children just learning how to cut paper with scissors. They don’t have loops that the child has to fit the right fingers into. These scissors spring back open automatically which helps to keep little fingers safe. Another safety feature is the short length of the scissor blades. My daughter loves to practice her scissor skills with these scissors.
Nerf Guns – $16
I know, Nerf guns are a toy, but hear me out. Combine a nerf gun with the window crayons and you have a unique and engaging activity. You can make big dots on a window then have your child shoot a nerf bullet at the dots. When they hit one they have to say what color the dot is. Do this same activity but instead of dots you can write letters or numbers. If your child is beginning to read, write short sight words or CVC words on the window. Kids love being able to shoot a nerf gun and using it in a school lesson will make them love the lesson!
Painter’s Tape – $8
We have gone through so much painter’s tape in our 10+ years of homeschooling. It allows us to temporarily and safely do activities on our walls or floors. You can take almost any writing, matching, sorting, or drawing activity you would do on a table to the wall with some painter’s tape. I tape small cards with letters or colors on it to the wall and then have my daughter match a second card to the ones on the wall. Sometimes I will tape large pieces of paper to the wall and let her paint while standing.
Random “Trash” – $0
I have been able to able to make so many things for learning activities because I have saved a few pieces of “trash”. I have created an elephant nose and colored rings out of paper towel tubes in which my daughter worked on colors and the fine motor skill of putting a ring on a post. An empty formula container made for a great lion’s head to catch letters that my daughter would feed it while working on letter sounds. I try to always have a few basic things like paper towel tubes, small pizza boxes, empty water bottles, etc on hand. But some unique pieces of “trash”, like a tootsie roll container, are great to save also.
Dot Markers – $18
Dot markers are great for fine motor skills. You can also work on colors, counting, adding, and art with your preschoolers using these dot markers. There are lots of worksheets you can find with letters, numbers, CVC words, etc in circles that your child can use a dot marker to fill in what they are looking for…a quick search of “dot marker printables” in Pinterest and the options are endless.
Counting Montessori Toy – $9
This counting montessori toy is so versatile. We have used this toy in so many ways including, the obvious, learning colors, matching or sorting colors, counting, and fine motor skills. It is also a great resource for kindergarten math by learning patterns or doing basic addition and subtraction with the pieces.
Library Card – $0
You will probably get your biggest bang for your buck with a library card! Most library cards are free and instantly give you access to hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of books. You not only get access to the books in your local library, but most libraries are part of much larger group that you can access items from too. In addition to books, you can typically get audio books, music CDs, and educational DVDs. Did you also know that some libraries have themed educational kits like a food kit or color learning kit?
Recap of 8 Items We Use in Our Preschool Homeschool
These items are fairly typical items to find in a house. My hope with this post is that you see a different way to use them for your homeschool. Maybe you will even begin to look at other items around your house and find ways to use them to make your homeschool even more fun. If you start with these 8 items we use in our preschool homeschool you will be well on your way to giving your child a different but fun way to learn.