Reading Time: 6 minutes

homeschoolingSo like it or not, we’re all homeschooling now, right?

I personally was World’s Most Reluctant Homeschooler…until surprisingly, I ended up loving it. I even learned some things about my own strengths and passions I wouldn’t have known.  (My kids eventually transferred with relative smoothness to public school.)

That very well may not be you. You might just be looking for ideas so your child, the walls, and the permanent markers stay socially distanced.

But homeschooling your preschooler with some fun and creativity might be easier than you think. Grab these easy ideas!

  1. Use a paintbrush with water on sidewalk to paint numbers and letters together.

  2. Give him a number and a bucket. He needs to collect that number of rocks/stuffies/objects/socks in his bucket.
  3. Virtually check out Let’s Read and Find Out Science books from library.
  4. Search Pinterest for Montessori activities you can easily create yourself (use search terms “Montessori”, “Montessori homeschool”, “DIY Montessori”, or “Montessori activities”). Tip: Grab Montessori apps on the app store!
  5. Create a sidewalk chalk maze to find letters–or use the chalk to draw the word that they read on an index card (C-A-T).
  6. Learn the five oceans, sung to “Have You ever Seen a Lassie?” Let’s sing/the five oceans! Five oceans! Five oceans! Let’s sing/the five oceans! God made them all. There’s Atlantic/and Pacific/and Indian/and Arctic. And the last one is South-ern. God made them all!
  7. Learn the seven continents, sung to “Oh my darling, Clementine”: North America! South America! Europe, Asia; Africa! Antarctica and Australia! These are seven continents! Tip: Draw the continents in sidewalk chalk on a driveway–or use a contintents floor puzzle–and jump or point to the right continent as you sing!
  8. Sing to “Do You Know the Muffin Man?” Shine and mine are rhyming words, are rhyming words, are rhyming words. Shine and mine are rhyming words! They sound a lot alike!

  9. Draw in cornmeal or sand on a cookie sheet to write letters.

  10. Cut out letters from sandpaper, so you can spell in tactile ways. (You can buy these.)
  11. Attach magnets to index cards with letters. “Fish” for letters using a ruler and string, with a magnet on the end.
  12. Match halves of Easter eggs, marked on each half: big A and small a, square and square, One and 1, long and short (i.e. opposites).
  13. To teach finger dexterity for future writing skills, use spring clothespins as “birds”, to catch “worms” of string.
  14. Go on an imaginary hunt with a bow and arrow for things that start with your letter of the day.
  15. Gather items from around the house that begin with your letter of the day, and put them in a box labeled with that letter: “Oh, look! Crayons and cups go in our letter C box!”

  16. Use a toy truck to pick up a certain number of blocks.

  17. Mickey Mouse math: Draw two small circles and one large circle (ahem, arranged to look like Mickey) to teach addition and subtraction. Place cereal, raisins, Goldfish, or other small foods in each ear (2 in this ear, 4 in this ear…) writing out a math problem (2 + 4), then collecting them in Mickey’s “face” (the large circle) to count out the answer (“Look! 2 + 4 = 6! Will it still work if we have 4 in one ear, 2 in the other? What happens if he has 6 on his face, and we put 4 on his ear? How many are left? You can eat your answer!”)
  18. Practice sorting skills: Combine various breakfast cereals into a cup, then have your child separate them by type. She can eat them when she’s finished sorting.
  19. Use playdoh balls for addition or subtraction.
  20. Draw a calculator on an old shower curtain or in sidewalk chalk, or use masking tape on a hard floor. Have your child jump to various numbers–or as she improves, add the numbers she jumps on.

  21. Use page protectors & dry erase markers to create reusable worksheets.

  22. Have a grandparent read a story one night a week via FaceTime. (Create a special memory by allowing your child to make a “reading nest” of blankets and pillows, or having a special treat–like hot chocolate–for storytime night.)
  23. Let kids fall asleep to audiobooks at bedtime or while playing with a building toy like Legos. They’re able to understand far ahead of what they can read! You could begin with picture books, and progress to early chapter books like The Boxcar Children or Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series. Our kids also liked listening to Story of the World–the history of the world read like a storybook for kids via storyteller Jim Weiss.
  24. Purchase blank postcards to send to a relative: this is my letter of the day! And here’s a picture of something I drew that starts with this letter.
  25. Finger paint. Make your own with a recipe like this one.

  26. Catch balloons with numbers on them. Say or add the numbers.

  27. Trying to figure out how to make flashcards exciting–especially for active kids? Use them in the yard. Have the child read the card, then race to a tree and back.
  28. Another idea for using flashcards: Start your child reading the first card at the bottom of a staircase. For each correctly-read card, they get to jump one step. Celebrate when they reach the top!
  29. Use fridge letter magnets to make words, switching out one letter to change the sound of the word.
  30. Paint on your windows (tip: make it washable paint, m’kay?).

  31. Use washable dry erase markers to draw or write on mirrors.

  32. Use Legos to create letters, or to make stacks for addition (Lots of Pinterest activities and printouts are available using Legos for learning! Search for “homeschool Legos”).
  33. Use uniformly-sized Legos to measure. (“How many bricks long is the coffee table?”)
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  34. Assemble floor puzzles like Melissa & Doug’s U.S.A. or solar system puzzles, or this continent puzzle.
  35. Let kids shop in a “store“ of pantry items on your table (use stickers to label with simple prices) and use coins to pay for items.

  36. Cut playdoh “pizzas” into fractions.

  37. Make a playdoh “bakery”, selling you priced items for play money and giving you change.
  38. Ask your child to use a toy or imaginary helicopter, truck, or airplane to pick up foam or magnetic letters or numbers you ask for.
  39. Form a “train” using either your bodies as you carry a paper with a letter on it, or a train drawn and labeled with penciled letters on pieces of paper. Sound out the letters, and then say them faster and faster: your train is leaving the station! Then, pretend you’ve arrived at the “depot.” Switch out one letter, and see how it changes the sound of the train.
  40. Have your child pretend to “stretch out” a word along their arm (hand: “R”…. elbow: “A”…. shoulder: “T”) to delineate each sound.
  41. Make (or print) and color your own historical paper dolls (there are some for boys, too). Don’t miss CHILD’S PLAY: 65 NON-SCREEN IDEAS
  42. Periodically look up the best educational apps for preschoolers. Just don’t let screens be your child’s primary teacher for now…!
  43. Play Lakeshore Learning’s The Allowance Game board game.

  44. Use cookie cutters to make letters in playdoh or bread.

  45. Draw letters, numbers, shapes, words,  or anything for fun in shaving cream or whipped cream with a finger.
  46. String beads with letters on them into words.
  47. Create basic one-person “board games” in a file folder using the free printables at a filefolderfun.com and https://fromabcstoacts.com/75-free-printable-file-folder-games-for-kids/ (These take prep beforehand; I used to cut them out while talking to friends or watching TV!)
  48. Allow your child to bake with you, talking about numbers, fractions, quantities, etc.
  49. Explore educational sites using the search terms “best educational sites for preschoolers.”
  50. Educational DVDs (some available on streaming services:
  • Sid the Science kid
  • Carmen San Diego
  • What’s in the Bible with Buck Denver
  • Liberty’s Kids (American Revolution history as a cartoon)
  • Popular Mechanics for Kids
  • Disney Imagineering
  • Disney presidents

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Add your homeschooling ideas to the comment section below.

(And if you like these ideas–I’d be honored if you’d share them!)