As homeschool parents we are always looking for a way to organize our school materials and keep the kids on track each day. And, we are looking for ways to encourage independent work for our younger kids.
Montessori’s idea of the prepared environment was that everything the child came in contact with would facilitate and maximize independent learning and exploration.
If you have spent some time preparing your environment, your kids will know exactly what they can (and should) do. It helps them stay on task if the kids’ core works is broken into smaller, more manageable chunks and they have a variety of engaging activities that sneak in other skills like critical thinking, small motor skills and problem solving.
My kids always loved that there were some fun, special activities added in along the way and often begged to play “just one more round” of a game like fast track! (Grab our free math game board here!)
Structure and Order
As homeschoolers we want to create a learning environment where the kids can explore, discover, and be creative. Yet, we also want a system that helps us plan out the day with relative ease.
We need a way to organize materials for the kids and a way for the kids to have ownership over their learning.
How can you build an environment that is inviting, warm, calm, exciting?
How can you create an environment that encourages your kids to explore, discover, and be creative? Do you have a space available to rotate activities regularly?
Do you have a room/space that is conducive to learning?
There are a number of ways we can set up learning spaces
- shelves
- cubbies
- small, child-size tables
- workboxes
- drawers
- bins
- or a combination of all of these!
I love visiting people’s blogs when they share a good overview of their daily activities (workboxers call it “What’s in the Box?”). You might spend some time googling workboxes and/or Montessori set-ups at home. Some people make some gorgeous spaces. (Ours was… well… practical with what we had available at the time!)
Before I share some of the things that we do regularly and some of the items we rotate in and out of our workboxes, I’ll share some the other aspects of our homeschool environment.
Encouraging Independent Work
Montessori talks a lot about having a prepared environment, one in which the children can choose from materials that are set up in such a way that fosters independent learning.
But it’s not simply having materials out, the environment is to be ordered and the materials should allow them to charge of their own learning. I’ve also heard the prepared environment described as calm, beautiful, accessible, and structured.
Personally, I also want an environment that encourages the kids to play creatively. We rotate in toys, games, activities, and natural materials along with some of their core subjects (math, reading, handwriting, etc.).
Now I’m not so sure our set-up is beautiful (we’re making due with what we have since we’ve just moved from furnished accommodations overseas to a new home. We’re having to acquire furniture for 5 including new beds, dining room stuff, etc. all at once!), but it is functional for us. I am impressed by how much the kids do on their own. I’ll set things up the night before and find that the kids find activities and do them on their own — often without me noticing.
Anyway, here are a few generic photos of our set-up. Much of this is geared for ED and DD. (This is in addition to what I’ve placed in LD and DD’s workboxes.) I’ll be sharing some of our fall theme related activities, crafts and experiments sometime soon; that’s been our big focus this past week or so.
There have been times when I set out theme tables, but lately I’ve just been going through the cupboards and rotating in various materials they haven’t used since our move. It’s been a joy in particular, watching ED (2 1/2) who now does so much on her own with little or no direction/help from me leaving me free to work with the other kids as they need it.
I’m always asking myself if I’ve set out things that
- pique the kids’ interest,
- are challenging enough,
- foster independent-learning in some way, allow them to feel a sense of accomplishment
and things like that!
Keeping Organized! What’s in the Box?
We used workboxes to help keep us organized. Each of the drawers were labeled.
Some homeschool families have the kids remove the label (as a visual to show them how much they’ve done and how much more they have left). One homeschool used green/red indicator slide to show whether the box was finished or not.
The workboxes are nice because all of the materials needed are in one place.
Workboxes help create a visual structure so kids understand and can see what is coming up next.
Work is divided into bite sized chunks and kids can see how much they have done and what is left.
Kids can work independently moving through boxes on their own because it is clearly organized.
The kids would go down through each box and do different activities for
- math
- reading (with Mom)
- independent reading
- phonics and/or spelling (We did a lot of word sorts and games along with our spelling curriculum — All About Spelling
- handwriting (or copywork)
- history and/or science (we often alternated) – we did a lot of science experiments/activities and for history we did a lot of crafts which didn’t necessarily fit in the workbox
- German (we added this in when the kids were in elementary… we made it fun and interactive!)
In between the core subjects, you can insert boxes with other activities for fun and review.
Here are some fun, educational activities that you probably have around to rotate in to your homeschool day!
By the way, one thing we did when the kids were little was borrow/share activities with friends. It helped add variety to our weeks/months! Just mentioning that because I have listed A LOT of ideas down below! Also, we made a lot of our own materials rather than purchasing things.
puzzles, coloring, mazes, letter writing practice
There are endless printable activities you can rotate in. You can laminate some of these or use plastic sleeves and dry erase markers to use them again later!
do-a-dot activities,
cutting
sorting & stacking activities,
matching eggs (shapes & color),
Montessori cards,
spooning/tweezing,
lacing – There are various lacing activities you can purchase. We just used a huge embroidery needle and yarn.
clothes pin activities – we used this for color matching, number/letter activities and even for CVC words matching!
Nature Station – I’ll try to remember to find a picture of some of the materials we brought in for the kids to examine/explore but we often took school outside! (Our free Nature Scavenger Hunt printable is always popular!) You can insert a note into the kids’ workbox to say “Nature Time!” or something like that!
dominoes
Writing in Sand (just monitor this one so you don’t wind up with a mess!)
Grab the free letters printable PDF here!
Building Activities such as
Legos, Kid K’Nex, Magna Tiles, bristle blocks, or marble run
Snap Beads or Pop beads My girls had a lot of fun with the Pop-Arty Beads!
pattern beads or pattern blocks (and patterns),
fishing/magnetic activities,
felt board, (we made our own felt board and the kids loved playing with this!)
board games,
learning clock
pin maps, (more ideas here: Hands-On Geography Activities for ages 4-10)
map puzzles,
human body puzzles (we especially loved the squishy human!),
snap circuits,
stem toys like robot building kits,
magnet kit for magnet activities,
microscope & slides
Preschool Activity List
A while back, I came up with a three-page list of things to do with my preschooler. Some things she is beginning to outgrow, but I included them since others might find them helpful. I included hyperlinks back to old blog posts. And if you find this list helpful please drop me a comment. I love sharing our activities and get a huge boost when I hear from others!
- A Huge List of things to do with Your Preschooler (Free Printable)
Tons of outdoor time!
One thing I really want to make clear is that activities like the ones above or the ones I’m going to show you in this series were just a small portion of our day… the other parts of the day we were likely to be found outside on a hike or playing at playgrounds, going to the zoo, going on a nature hunt, swimming, or biking … you know, just playing and doing kid-things by exploring the world around us! I consider that an important part of homeschooling too! We did things like kindermusic and kindergym, playdates and trips to places around town. Anyway, it felt important to share that with you! When I glance back through our older posts I was often talking about the cool cicada we saw hatching or the tadpoles we saw or the birds we watched. 🙂
So, while I may share a lot of “indoor” activities in this series, I want you to be aware that that was only a snippet of our homeschool life!!!
A blog just can’t really capture what life is “really” like. It captures the happy, fun moments of a family’s life. Keep that in mind when you’re having a rough day, the kids are crying, and the house winds up up in a giant mess that makes you want to pull your hair out! We all have moments in our day that are tough, tough, tough! Hang in there and keep your chin up! This homeschooling journey is worth it!! Honest!!
Other related posts you might be interested in:
- Preschool at Home
- Preschool at Home: Activities you can do with your 2-4 Year Olds, Fine Motor Skills
- Preschool at Home: Learning Letters
- Preschool at Home: Alphabet Activities
- Preschool at Home: Handwriting
- Preschool at Home: Science for 2-4 Year Olds
- Preschool Montessori: Vertebrate and Invertebrate Study and Free Cards
- Preschool at Home: A Few Math Ideas for the 2 1/2-3 year old crowd
- Preschool Math Activities (K4) Montessori Math and More
- Preschool at Home: Lapbooks
- You might also be interested in the post: Homeschool Preschool Year in Review which was a recap of many of our preschool activities this past year.
- Preschool Geography: Activities for learning about where we live in the world, Montessori world map work and more
- Preschool Geography: Maps and More
- The Seven Continents and World Landmarks
- If your child knows their letter sounds, they may be ready to learn to read. Visit this post, Teach Your Child to Read, for fun ideas that help your child learn to read!
Related Posts:
- Animals and their Characteristics
- Animals Around the World – Free Montessori 3-Part Cards
- Free Montessori World Pin Map
- Rainforest Plants (from around the world)
We did a TON of Montessori-Style Activities
Living-NonLiving Sorts and Activities
Vertebrate – Non-vertebrate Sorting Activities
Animal Unit: And we went on to study lots more about animals (shelters, above ground- below ground, nocturnal animals),
Farms (which also included a felt board set up I did of the Three Little Pigs. The kids spent time retelling the story and then playing with all the felt pieces. (I talk about how I made our own felt board here. I used to use this TONS!) I’m not necessarily the best artist as you can see by the felt critters I made above and below, but the kids thought I was brilliant! 🙂 This goes to show you that you don’t need to spend a lot of money… just a bit of creative effort for your kids to have fun and to be inspired!
Other THEME IDEAS: We also did theme time tables on space, the circus, flowers, doctors, the forest, deserts, pond life, apples, magnets, insects, spiders, butterflies, the five senses, natural disasters … not to mention all the celebrating and doing holidays on the various holidays throughout the year. Of course, by the time we did some units my oldest was in early elementary (but my girls were still in the toddler/preK range!
That’s about it for now!
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Happy Homeschooling! ~Liesl
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