I put a question box on my Instagram<\/a><\/span> stories asking what would be most helpful to those finding themselves suddenly homeschooling and wrote down the most common responses. The age range seemed to focus on kids from a toddler age through roughly age 8 or 9, so that’s the age range focus for this homeschool resource breakdown. I’ll be addressing the following most popular concerns:<\/p>\n Obviously these answers are going to differ slightly depending on the number of children you have and their ages. For reference, I have two girls, ages 8 (second grade) and 5 (kindergarten) and have been homeschooling for three years. I understand the struggles of keeping a younger child entertained while doing a math lesson with the older one (though may I recommend taking advantage of nap time is the absolute best way to handle that situation). Ok, let’s go!<\/p>\n Homeschool is not recreating school at home.<\/strong> Take advantage of the perks- a little extra sleep, doing work in pajamas on the couch, and breaking for a snack or bathroom break anytime you want! When I first started, I was so nervous (read about our first homeschool day of kindergarten<\/a><\/span> where where I relinquished to the power of hot chocolate before 10:00 AM), but soon learned that homeschooling is not school at home. It has its own wonderful, unique flow. It’s baking, reading, researching personal interests, and building things with paper towel rolls.<\/p>\n A homeschool day works best with a little structure.<\/strong> While you don’t need a set-in-stone start time (unless that’s your thing), a general routine so that both you and the kids know what to expect does help the day run more smoothly. With younger children, you may be surprised that homeschooling lessons can be done in less than two hours a day<\/a><\/span>. Personally, we like to break that time up throughout the day. While we don’t follow this time table below strictly (except for the wake up time), this is an example of the general flow for our homeschooling days:<\/p>\n ***A note on a schedule or routine: Expect things to take longer than you allotted time for and get comfortable with minor adjustments to your schedule and\/or pushing a scheduled lesson to the next day. Sometimes things are messier than you expect or one child runs off or has a tantrum or maybe they are asking a lot of questions. It’s best to go in expecting the multiple interruptions that are sure to come. Some of the best lessons, though, are those we all learn together when we take one of the kid’s random questions and dive deep into researching it!<\/p>\n Have a morning meeting.<\/strong> In school this is often done as circle time, but at home it can be done over pancakes at the breakfast table. Here it’s important to go over what the day’s schedule looks like and any other relevant information. My girls do so much better when they know what to expect from the day.<\/p>\n Some lessons can be taught to multiple ages at once. <\/strong>This is such a gift. Science, history, social studies, reading aloud, and more can be done as a group. I even teach language arts all together because I find Kaitlyn enjoys the challenge of listening and learning to what Hailey is working on. Not only does that mean everyone is learning, it also keeps the younger child occupied and involved. You can expect the older child to retain more, of course, and perhaps answer questions, or do a project that the younger child can skip.<\/p>\n You are not their cruise director.<\/strong> It can be great to have a whole day mapped out with engaging lessons and crafts, but in my experience it leads to burn out pretty quickly. One of the gifts of homeschooling is more time to let them stretch their imagination and increase their ability to self-entertain. I believe it’s important to both you and them to have unscheduled time for free play. They can get dirty outside, build forts, play in a pasta bin, play hide and seek, make up dances, etc. Nervous to send them out of your sight? Buy this<\/a><\/span>. We use ours ALL the time from biking around the neighborhood to when we go on nature walks away from home.<\/p>\n The heart of homeschool is the home<\/em>. <\/strong>Kids are always learning from us. Some of my favorite things my kids have learned through homeschooling aren’t the math equations, but the life skills. This piggybacks off the idea of not being their cruise director (they aren’t on vacation; they are contributing family members). And it’s fun! It’s like a giant, on-going home economics class! They help me meal plan, fold laundry, make tea, bake bread, pay a bill, address a letter, fill out the calendar, etc. Don’t underestimate how valuable it is to include them in these things, and yes, they most definitely count towards the learning quota for the day.<\/p>\n I feel like I should first admit that for young children, I’m not personally the biggest fan of worksheets. I think they learn best through hands-on play. However, sometimes worksheets are necessary, like when the younger sibling wants to join their older sibling at the table and do real “homework.” Plus, they can be helpful for extra practice on certain concepts. If your school didn’t send you home with worksheets and you are looking for some good ones, I recommend the following:<\/p>\n I can’t play Candyland, y’all. It makes me want to rip my hair out. And while my kids absolutely love Sorry<\/a><\/span> and Guess Who<\/a><\/span>, I can’t play them more than once or twice. This list below though is full of games we all enjoy playing together! That’s honestly all the purchases I’d recommend. Well, maybe this handheld vacuum<\/a><\/span> too, since we use ours daily (perfect for toddlers helping out with chores, too!). Are there a lot of cute and flashy things you could get? Absolutely. But they aren’t necessary and in my experience, we don’t use them for long. We use dried beans as manipulatives, we use blankets to build forts, we use Spotify to play music. You don’t really need much to homeschool besides some paper and writing utensils and access to the internet.<\/p>\n\n
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<\/p>\nGeneral Tips for creating a Thriving Homeschool Environment<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe Best Online Resources for Print-At-Home Worksheets<\/h2>\n
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FREE Online Resources for Making Learning Fun and Engaging<\/h2>\n
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\nCheck out this <\/em>list of 8 awesome authors for kids ages 4-6<\/span>!<\/em><\/a><\/li>\nInteractive Educational Sites, Apps and Online Games for Kids<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nEducational Board Games Your Kids Will Love (and You Won’t Mind Playing!)<\/h2>\n
\nInterested in games that will help enforce math concepts in a really fun way? This list is a must read<\/a><\/span>!<\/em><\/p>\n\n
What to Buy on Amazon to Help With Homeschooling Young Kids<\/h2>\n
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Frequently Asked Questions About Homeschooling<\/h2>\n