An awesome thing about homeschool crafts is that no matter how you schedule out your homeschool year, you can plan out crafts during the off period as well. Although the kids may take breaks through the year, moms never get breaks. So, we could use a plan for crafts that will keep them occupied during the week while we get 'mom work' done. Use these 52 project ideas for your kids to do fun crafts throughout the homeschool year and during breaks. The FREE craft planner will be a great tool to use for the projects.
ALL ABOUT EARTH Get ready for a month filled with so many fun activities to teach your kiddos all about our planet Earth . I teach this unit in April so it coincides with Earth Day. I’ve loaded up this blog post post with read aloud book ideas, free videos you can share with your students,
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The Fall Preschool Unit is packed full of hands on math & literacy activities as well as no prep worksheets for easy lesson planning.
If you're looking for free printable worksheets for preschool & kindergarten, then look no further. Here are links to all of the printable worksheets that I've created for preschoolers and kindergartners. You'll find cutting and tracing, color by code, and of course everything in between.
A free kindergarten math packet for at home learning.
Are you new to Montessori?! Do you feel sometimes overwhelmed with the amount of new information you need to process? Would you like to hear advice from Montessori parents, bloggers, and teachers on common mistakes Montessori newbies make and how to avoid them!?
Clever ideas for teaching kids about Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph in your next sunday school lesson for Prek-2nd grade students.
Download Dolch sight words activities and worksheets for pre-primer level. Learn to recognise, read and write sight words with your pre-k or kindergarten class.
Waldorf education, sometimes also known as Steiner education was introduced in the 20th century by Austrian Rudolf Steiner. It's aim is to educate the whole…
Do you have any Minecraft fans in your homeschool? They'll love these Free Minecraft Multiplication Worksheets. There are 17 pages of multiplication
In our thirteen years of homeschooling, here are some things I have learned about how to homeschool with an infant.
I like simple. There are so many activities to do with our kids to practice and teach all about letters, even if you choose not to teach preschool.
This room grants me a lot of free time to work, be in the kitchen, and gives me lots of mental peace that its able to contain MOST of the toys. Keeping the surrounding rooms from being overrun by toys is definitely a challenge! I am happy that our home and layout allowed us to have a designated play space that is separate from other rooms. The main goal for every playroom is to provide lots of storage, playfulness and fun. Since I wanted the theme to be a mix of adventure, travel and planet Earth I still wanted the look to be somewhat cohesive with the rest of the house. Photos by: elzaphotographie For more info click HERE !
Free Dinosaur Letter Tracing Worksheets and pre writing worksheet pages, perfect for preschoolers just starting to write.
Bubbles by Sir John Everett Millais Art Appreciation Activity. Bubbles Art Project.
Looking for a preschool homeschool curriculum for 3 year olds? This is the one we are using for our family along with how we are organizing it to help keep us sane.
Do you suspect that your child has ADHD? Have you wondered what that means for your homeschool journey? Should you have him or her tested? Can you even do homeschooling properly with an ADHD child?
We've tried several homeschooling methods with our kids who have ADHD. Today, we're talking about the worst homeschooling method for ADHD kids!
Examining Canadian geography and looking at some ideas on how to teach our homeschool kids more about the country that they live in.
Considering homeschool this fall? Here are 5 Things To Do Before You Start Homeschooling from a homeschool graduate and homeschool mom.
If you're looking into how to teach multiplication, you're definitely going to want to look into the secrets behind memorizing multiplication facts.
Looking for an online homeschool planner app that has lots of great features? How do you find the best one for you? I've got you covered!
Simple tips for making your own homeschool schedule! Plus, get your hands on our free printable BLOCK schedule.
Two Points: This is MY method, and not necessarily right for you, your teaching or care philosophy, your set-up, or your students. Curriculum participation by my students is VOLUNTARY. I invite them to participate, but if they choose not to, then that is fine. I usually offer them a choice of a few of the activities and let them decide where we start and where we go. An engaged child learns, a dis-engaged child rebels. The 3-year rotating curriculum is theme based. Some times we stick to the plan, but usually I observe what they are interested in learning about, what they are asking questions about, and suggest up to three different themes they can choose from for us to study. I make my own 3-year rotating curriculum for many reasons: Packaged curriculum is often only one year. Since I teach for 3 years, this would be redundant. Most packaged curriculum focuses on skills my students master early. My 2s count to 20, know 11 colors, know most of their phonics, uppercase and lowercase letters, 10 shapes and some of their numbers and I still have 3 years of curriculum to teach them. They often are worksheet intensive. My students usually are cognitively advanced from their fine motor skills. I have 4 year olds that still can't write well. If I had relied on worksheets for the last 2 years, there is no way they would have the skill sets they have. Worksheets are also not considered Developmentally Appropriate Practice [DAP] for children under the age of 8. We use them here for writing practice starting at age 4. [Yes, worksheet-intensive public schools are not using DAP for kindy through 3rd grade!] They can be expensive. If you are purchasing worksheets, why would you spend even $1 a week/$52 a year when you can purchase a 400 page Scholastic preschool workbook from Sam's Club for $8 that covers probably more material, is most likely aligned with the public school expectations, and is colorful. Colored copies are NOT affordable to make from packaged curriculum. Most [ALL!] preschool learning should be interactive. Pinterest is a better source for ideas. My students change every time I do a theme. I have to be able to tweak it to the interests and capabilities of those currently in my care. Plus, I'll find more interesting activities on Pinterest, have an idea for a new game, etc. It's a constant evolution to keep my curriculum relevant to our current group, situation and resources. However, curriculum planning and creation is very time consuming. Even with older curriculum I spend several hours going over it prior to teaching - updating, creating new materials, purchasing and setting new classroom decorations. While I have had my 3 year curriculum, this year I found myself wanting a more specific schedule to focus on specific skill sets for this particular group of children. Most of these skills can be incorporated into our themed curriculum, or they take 5 minute sessions to pop into our day. I have two groups, the younger preschoolers are 2-3 years old and the older ones are 4-5 years old, all at the same developmental and skill set level within their group. This makes it easier, as I can tailor everything to just 2 groups. If I were to have additional levels of children, then it would be tailored to each level. Children here are taught at their developmental level, not age. Asychronastic development is normal, so I may be teaching a child at various levels depending upon the subject matter. For the younger preschoolers, I came up with this structure. For the older pre-k students, I came up with this one. For instance, both of them have Measurement & Comparison on Friday for Reasoning. However, for the younger students, this would be a more/less, longer/shorter, big/little, etc. activity, while the older students would be measuring with rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, measuring cups, unit blocks, foot steps or themed units, and graphing the measurements to compare. Same skill set, differentiated at vastly different levels. Even this needs conditional tweaking. All the pre-k's know how to spell their last names now, so that is no longer a relevant skill activity for music and will be changed out. In another post I'll get into the curriculum components and the importance of each. For instance, how counting on Friday teaches 1-to-1 correspondence and creating method processes for counting groups of objects. CLICK PICTURES TO VIEW LARGER I use this MS Word template, available for FREE on TPT, for curriculum planning. Often, the daily skill sets above are either already incorporated, or can easily be incorporated, into the theme planning. For an example of a completed curriculum unit, check out our Owls Theme. Each monthly theme is broken down into 4 sub-themes. For instance: SPACE Astronauts & Rockets The Universe Our Solar System Aliens & Robots We also have a musical component, often classical, and an art component, often a master, and Spanish vocabulary component that we incorporate. This planning form may not include all games, file folder games, manipulatives, room-set up, etc. that I utilize. For those of you trained in curriculum creation, I do NOT do a full curriculum development for each activity. With having these children usually from infant to school-age, I keep an internal evaluation of progression and plan out only weekly learning objectives. Since I am creating the activities for my personal use, I do not need to create written procedures and evaluations. My curriculum is stored currently in file folders in a large office bookcase unit. I would like to get it into boxes so that I could have EVERY theme-related item, including dress-up, room set-up, manipulatives, etc. together for an easy pull. File boxes will most likely be the easiest, but they do take up a lot of space. In each file some of the things I probably have: Completed planning sheets All the books I own for that theme Flannel board Sentence and word walls File folder games Samples of previous crafts DVDs CDs Coloring pages Mini-book(s) Build-a-[theme item] game Curriculum creation is one of my great joys. I love the research and compilation, the creativity and excitement of bringing something fun and educational to my students. Learning is rarely linear. Children take developmental leaps, sometimes in odd directions. As a teacher, it is important that I keep each one challenged without pushing or inhibiting their growth, and that takes constant evaluation and a good eye for when those leaps happen so that we can move on to a higher level of instruction. When we do an activity, I constantly question if they WANT to do another round, another activity, and I usually cut them off while they are still engaged. I want them wanting more, and they will usually ask if they can continue. One of the most important desires and abilities I can instill in them is that of self-directed learning. So as they choose to go off with their rulers after we've spent several minutes doing a measuring activity, conferring between themselves as to procedures and what to measure next, I step back and let them. They know I am here as a resource, rather than an intrusive director. It is my job to ensure that when I invite my students to learn, they glow with excitement and anticipation of a fun, interactive, playful time. The results, so far, have been astounding. A few of my complete curriculum units are available through my TPT store. Apples Dental Ice Cream Penguins Rainbows St. Patrick's Day Valentine's Follow Connie -'s board Classroom on Pinterest. Tags: preschool, child care, pre-k, curriculum, development, teaching, education, homeschooling, homeschool, home, school, preschool curriculum development, planning
Looking for fun Camping Theme preschool Activities for kids? Check out these 16 Hands-On Forest and camping Learning Activities and Crafts for Preschool or Kindergarten.
This perfectly simple preschool game about colors requires no prep, gets kids moving, and helps them practice colors and counting skills.
