I have been planning to home-school next year. I have been reading a lot of about it, comparing many different curricula and buying a lot of books and resources… I did not think I would need it for another 6 months but then Covid-19 came… and here I am, happy to have a full bookcase. 

It looks like kids are going to be home at least until the end of April – that is a lot of time. Luckily there is a lot to do and I thought I might share some of things I have gotten ready for our family and my preschool students. 

Preschoolers

Math: Preschoolers love to count, sort and compare. They love to make patterns and play simple games… There is so much you can do.

Let them count how many times they can jump on one foot or how many cheerios they have on a spoon. Let them measure how tall tower they can make or show them how to make patterns with Lego blocks.

If you want to play a board game – these are our favorites at preschool and at home: Rush hour Jr., Hoot Hoot owl, My Little Orchard and Snail Race.

Want to do more? You can look for free ideas on Eureka Math website: https://www.engageny.org/content/prekindergarten-mathematics

I also really like Singapore/Dimensions math (I would do kindergarten level for 4 year olds, preschool one is so easy). It is definitely worth checking out: https://www.singaporemath.com/

Reading/Writing: signing their name or sounding out simple words is more than enough at this age… and just read to them and ask them questions about the books. Ask them who was the main character, where does the story take place, what happened first… reading comprehension is very important.

If they want more, do more. We use Jolly Phonics at preschool. They have a fun app that is very helpful. This one is for iPad but I think you can get it for your phone as well: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jolly-phonics-letter-sounds/id897894552

Or just do a month or two of ABC mouse. It is screen time but kids usually really like it and learn a lot. 

I also use I’m adding Build Your Own Library kindergarten level Curriculum (teaching my daughter about the world). It doesn’t come with the books but buying the ‘spines’ that you use all the time and borrowing the others from a library works really good. It’s a fun and well done resource: https://buildyourlibrary.com/

Nature study is also really fun. We do Blossoms & Roots. It is little bit more expensive but really nicely done. My little one is loving it: https://blossomandroot.com/kindergarten-curriculum/

Free resource that we love is Mystery Science. You can pay to get all videos and lessons but there is a lot of them for free (including one on Coronavirus ;)) https://mysteryscience.com/lessons/seasonal/current-events

For older kids

Math: Eureka Math and Khan Academy is free. Starting 2nd grade, Beast Academy (later Art of Problem Solving) is awesome!!!  It’s for kids who like Math and is really amazing. You can do it monthly online $15/month and it includes comic book lessons, videos and practice.
https://beastacademy.com/

Reading/writing:I love Brave Writer (after reading her book I started thinking about homeschooling for real). The program is about nurturing the love of reading and writing, which I love… and you can buy her arrow (younger) or boomerang (older) lessons that take a book and analyze it, use it to teach grammar/spelling and writing… 
https://bravewriter.com/

She also added free writing tips now. Just click here.

I just add some grammar and spelling, like Spelling Workout on Amazon and Growing with Grammar https://jackrispublishing.com/collections/growing-with-grammar.

Science and history, logic:

I have a lot of resources but the company I love the most (and have all advanced stuff from) is Pandia Press. The great thing is, you can go on the website and download a sample – which is usually 2-3 lessons so it may be enough for you to keep busy, sampling it and not paying anything in advance: https://www.pandiapress.com/try-before-you-buy/

We use her History Odyssey and History Quest, Astronomy, Biology and more. There is even more for younger kids. It is well done and the teacher’s books have awesome resources. We just talked about cells today and watched this awesome BBC video 🙂 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6agslv (sorry, had to share) 

The Story of the World is a nice book with stories about life long ago for some basic history (and you can get it as an activity book as well which I love). 

Art

I have made all my art magazines available for free during this time. Just click here and login. 

Username: corona

password: virus 

All of those resources are secular and really high-quality, in my opinion. I hope you guys find something to keep yourself and your little ones occupied through these strange times.