Big Red Barn Sensory Small World

We created a fun farm themed sensory small world that would be perfect for a preschool farm unit theme. It includes animals as well as several interesting textures to explore during play.

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Play and Learn with Glitter

People seem to either love or hate glitter. Personally, I think everything is better with some sparkle! We're sharing the very best ideas for kids to learn and play with glitter.

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Heart to Heart Journals

I'm so excited to share this idea with you because it's been a beautiful part of my relationship with my daughter and a pinnacle part of our homeschool. We write letters back and forth to each other in the format of a journal. This authentic and meaningful writing practice is as emotional as it is educational. We both LOVE it!

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Homeschool Preschool Schedule

We learned right away when we started homeschooling for preschool that we needed a schedule that was flexible. Academics are important to us but they also need to fit well into our day to day family life. This check list has been the best of both worlds and adds responsibility for the kids, too!

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Super Hero Self Portrait

Super Hero Self Portraits are a creative way to allow kids to become familiar with design elements, technology, story telling, characters, and dialogue! We used an online program to alter our own photos and had so much fun in the process.

 

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Felt Apple Pie Making Toy Kit

Fall is in the air! Can you smell the apple pies baking? That was the inspiration for our latest autumn themed busy bag for kids! We made a toy felt apple pie kit.

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Playful Ways to Learn Alphabet Letters

We've already written about how we don't do letter of the week with our kids. A common question we hear often is then how do we teach the letters of the alphabet? How do our kids practice both letter identification and letter sound relationships in a playful way? We're sharing our favorite ways to play as we learn letters! 

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Reading Eggs and Mathseeds

One of the most common question we get asked as homeschoolers is what curriculum or programs we use to teach our kids. While we are still largely finding our way, piecing together what works as we create our own play based learning activities, we can't pass up a fantastic option when we find one. We have found an amazing resource for our kids that teaches both math and reading online in Reading Eggs and Mathseeds!

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Process Art for Kids with Clay and Beads

We are positively loving the process art challenge series! It is a fantastic reminder to me to simply present our kids with supplies and see what they create. I'm learning so much about how their minds work through their art. Last month we tried painting with funnels! This time we presented an invitation to create with clay and beads. 

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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Window Activity

Virtual Book Club is featuring Bill Martin Jr. books this month! We chose our favorite, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and worked on fine motor skills and literacy with a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Sticky Window Tree! 

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Helping Your Homeschooler Socialize

One of the biggest myths surrounding homeschooling is that children who don't attend public school won't have a chance to socialize with their peers. We've told you a bit about why we've decided to homeschool but now I'd also love to share with you how we are socializing our kids as they learn at home.

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Fine Motor Math Game with Bread Ties

We found the perfect way to incorporate math with fine motor skills! Inspired by our spelling with bread ties activity we created a dice game which is adaptable so both our toddler and preschooler can play together, too. 

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Interest Based Learning Projects

One of my biggest goals when homeschooling is to allow our children to have as much ownership over their learning as possible. Our oldest has endless ideas about what she'd like to study next so we are going to focus that drive into student planned interest based project learning this year.

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Traditional Preschool or Homeschool or Both?

We're about to start a fresh year of school. The questions I get most as a former teacher turned mom is, "What made you decide to homeschool?" and "Why are you sending one child to preschool while homeschooling the other?" Our choices are due to the unique strengths, needs, and values of our family but I would love to share them with you!

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Nursery Rhyme Retelling Slides on the Light Table

Nursery rhymes are a great way to practice story sequencing which is an important reading skill. We used recycled materials to create our own retelling slides for familiar nursery rhymes that we know and love. 

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Small Worlds from A to Z

Small worlds are one of our favorite ways to play! From dinosaur land to construction zones to a small world beach vacation, you can tailor the play to any theme your child is interested in! We've created this small world pretend play series to inspire you with play ideas for each letter of the alphabet!

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