Using Your Favorite Activities to Plan for Preschool at Home

Now that you’ve thought a little about your own teaching style and the ways your child enjoys learning, we’re going to take some time to brainstorm some of your favorite activities to do together. I know many of you are concerned about being able to fit home preschool into an already busy family routine. The goal here is to see how learning can be incorporated into what you already enjoy doing together. Here are some tips for using your favorite activities to help plan for preschool at home.

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Using Favorite Activities to Plan for Preschool at Home

Step 1: Brainstorm Things You Already Do Together

In the Unit 1 Toolbox, you’ll see a page that asks you to think of the things you most enjoy doing with your kids. Take some time to brainstorm.

There is also a section that asks you to outline the things your child most enjoys doing with you. You could list these yourself, but I’d recommend having an informal chat with each child and getting their real thoughts on this topic.

Step 2: Identify Learning that Takes Part Naturally as You Do These Activities

After you outline the activities you’ll probably notice that many of these activities can have a positive impact on your child’s learning.

The goal of this exercise is to get you to think of learning activities you can already easily incorporate into the things you enjoy doing together in the first place. Home preschool does not have to be “one more thing” you add to your busy schedule. In many ways, it can be as simple as enhancing some of the current activities you are doing already by incorporating specific learning goals.

What does that mean?  Basically in step 2 of this exercise I want you to match some skills with your favorite activities.  Here are some examples:

• If you love gardening, incorporate math by counting seeds that you plant and measuring the height of sprouts. Add in literacy by labeling the plants in the garden and helping your child learn some of the letters or words.
• If your child loves puzzles like my youngest daughter, use puzzles as a teaching tool by selecting alphabet puzzles, shape puzzles, and other puzzles that focus on preschool skills.
• If you like to play games together, choose games that have an educational focus.
• If you like to watch tv (nobody’s judging!), find some great videos to use as teaching tools.

I could go on and on. But I hope you see that no matter what it is you enjoy doing together, we could find a preschool learning skill that relates to it. If you aren’t yet comfortable with exactly which skills a preschooler should be working on, don’t worry! We’ll be learning more about that in Unit 2 of this How to Teach Preschool at Home email series.

Click Here to Get the Free Unit 1 Toolbox Printable

This is Unit 1, Lesson 1 of the Guide to Getting Started with Home Preschool. Return to the main How to Teach Homeschool Preschool page or proceed to Unit 2, Lesson 1: What Do Preschoolers Need to Know (coming soon).