How do you homeschool a preschooler? 6 Ways Our Family Has Learned to Successfully Homeschool Preschoolers

Homeschooling my preschoolers and Kindergartner often feels like a mixture of herding cats and giving a speech in the middle of a hurricane all at once. As a former public school teacher turned homeschool mama, I asked myself how do you homeschool a preschooler? Now, I try to tackle our day with structure and purpose. But, at first the answer was pretty difficult to pinpoint.

So….how did I make preschool “work” for our homeschool? Simple, we embrace our quirky and eclectic approach and we do what works for us. 

As a mama of twin 3 year olds and a 5 year old, I change what I do frequently but below are the items that have survived my many adaptations and that I would strongly recommend to any homeschool mama with littles.

 

1. Stations

Having taught first grade for several years in a public school, I knew that movement was going to be an important component of the early years. One method I loved using in my classroom that translated well into our homeschool was stations. Though it looks VERY different than in my classroom, stations are something that my kiddos love and I think is helpful in creating a more engaging preschool. 

In our family, we are pretty relaxed about how much time each station takes and the order that my kiddos can complete the stations in. But each week, I have the same categories; early numeracy, early literacy, fine motor, sensory, and a free station that I sometimes include and sometimes don’t. Because our family’s homeschool approach is somewhat eclectic, but mostly unit study focused, our stations are often themed with our unit study.

 

2. Morning Basket

When I asked myself the question, how do you homeschool a preschooler? Morning Basket become the strongest answer I found. I am a HUGE fan of morning basket time. In fact, I can safely say that this is where a majority of instructional time is spent in our home. My littles love morning basket time also. They even ask for it on the weekends. How cool is that?! 

The thought of morning basket with littles often overwhelms mamas, but there are SO many incredible resources out there to help make creating this time easy and meaningful. Here are a few resources I have found to be helpful when designing my morning basket time for my preschoolers and kindergartner. 

• - My Morning Basket Blog Posts
• - Morning Basket Ideas
• - Morning Basket Planner
• - This Morning Basket Facebook Group (not mine)

3. Flexibility

Some days, my preschoolers are not feeling it. Goodness, some days I’m not feeling it! One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is that we have the flexibility to just say… “Nope. Not today.” Or choose to do something different. As long as we are meeting the requirements of our state, we can choose to be flexible and give that gift to our littles. 

Here are a few ways we often utilize flexibility with our littles to help them (and me) love learning and avoid burnout.

• - Fun workbook pages (Disney, Paw Patrol, etc.)
• - Field trips that teach the same ideas from our plans
• - Hiking and reading a book on our hike
• - Backyard classroom space
• - Changing our lessons to fit the needs of the day
• - Switching school on a weekday for a weekend 
• - Canceling school and adding another day later in the month or year
• - Singing a song or learning a new dance for a concept instead of a page
• - Listening to my kiddos wants and meeting them if possible
• - Exchange a video, movie, or podcast occasionally for a read aloud
• - Engage with nature as much as possible (Example, instead of tallying pictures on a page, go pick veggies in the garden and tally how many you find)

4. Helpful Tools

Navigating twin preschoolers and a Kindergartner overwhelms me sometimes. I love my kiddos and I am so glad that we get to spend time together. But sometimes I feel pulled in many directions and I find that I can’t give them my best. So, what is a mama to do?

Well, upon reflection at the end of a day that I feel is not a success I ask myself two main questions. Or rather I talk about two main things with my husband.

1. What could I have done differently?
2. What tools could have helped me be more successful?

Often, it is something that I need to adjust. As a person of faith, for me it is calming to stop and say a prayer. But often when I am overwhelmed I don’t take those moments, so this could be an area to work on most days that I feel overwhelmed. 

However, sometimes it is simply that I need a specific tool or that my kiddos could use a specific tool to help them be more successful. Instead of asking yourself how do you homeschool a preschooler, consider asking what tools do I need to homeschool a preschooler? Here is a list of tools that help our homeschool be more successful and run smoothly.

Helpful Tools for Homeschooling Preschoolers

• - Reflection Journal: Reflection journal prompts help me to focus on areas that I need to spend more time working or focusing on. Download a copy of my reflection journal here. 
• - Clipboards: great for holding papers in place outside or during stations
• - Station bins: I use these outside of stations too. They are great for holding materials
• - Toddler Pencils: These make writing so much easier for my preschoolers, who often just want to hold a pencil because their big sister is doing so
• - ColorWonder Markers: Lord bless the inventor of these incredible tools that allow me to focus on my kindergartner while boys color anywhere they wish
• - Magnifying Glasses and Flashlights: These are must have tools in our family. We use them in our home, during investigations, and on hikes
• - Bulletin Board: We use ours for the concepts for the week, our daily rhythm, morning basket, and more.
• - Speaker for Music: We love to make playlists for music for each of our units and day to day life
• - My planners: I have an incredible planner from Well Planned Gal that is my overall resource, but I use a morning basket planner and weekly planner to help me go deeper too
• - Labels: I label everything I can, so that my kiddos can find things easily. Most of the time, I include images with the labels so that my pre-readers can find what they need without me.

There are so many tools that you can use to make your preschool at home run smoother. Ask yourself at the end of a rough day, “If I could have a tool to help me with today, what would it have been and how could it have helped?”

 

5. Investigations

Experiments, inquiry projects, STEM challenges, and more! Investigations are some of our favorite preschool activities. We love to dig into the dirt looking for worms to study, plant seeds in different pots and see which grows taller, cut up a mushroom and look at it under a microscope, or complete a STEM challenge that goes with our Beatrix Potter unit.

There are so many different ways to plan investigations into your week. It definitely doesn’t have to be something complex. It could be as simple as cutting into an apple and using the 5 senses to observe it.

6. Adventures!

Field Trips, walks, playground visits, friends coming over and more qualify as an adventure in our home. My kiddos will frequently ask, “Are we going on an adventure today?”. Which P.S. is just about the cutest thing ever, coming out of a three year old’s mouth.

Adventure is important to littles. Exploring, observing, and visiting parts of the world they don’t interact with regularly is exciting and gives them background knowledge that aids in comprehension.

Here are a few adventures our family loves to do.

• - Museums
• - Parks
• - Hikes
• - Walks around town
• - Playgrounds
• - Visiting with family and friends
• - Stores
• - Unit themed field trips
• - Seasonal activities (pumpkin patch, berry picking, tree cutting, etc.)
• - Restaurants with unique foods

These are just a few of the ways we make homeschooling with preschoolers and littles work for our family. Truly, it is all about finding what works for yours and finding your own groove.

Do you already have a way to homeschool your preschooler that works for your family? Share your favorite tip below and answer the question how do you homeschool a preschooler?