How to deal with home schooling children in several different grades is always a challenge. The challenge can become daunting when one or more of the children are preschoolers. Setting up a preschool learning area is one way to deal with preschoolers while you’re schooling your older children. An effective learning area will have a variety of things for your preschooler to do and will require little or no adult involvement.
We happen to have everything in one area, however, as long as everything is accessible to your preschooler, you can have things set up in different areas of the house.
Art Supplies:
To start, we took kids’ pages from old magazines, coloring pages from books and some printable activities from the internet and made wipe-off place mats by laminating them.
We used old sour cream containers (that my family was only too happy to help empty) for things like crayons, colored pencils, and glue sticks. We also have small plastic boxes for collage materials like buttons, pipe cleaner, and old magazines. In a small box we keep construction paper and scrap paper.
Science:
We happen to have a videoscope and if you’re willing to make the purchase it is a great tool. (A videoscope is like a microscope but instead of looking through a glass, your specimen shows up on the screen.) Our science area is also stocked with a magnifying glass, a prism, and a set of magnets. If you have the option to set something up outside, a sand/water table would be a great addition.
Math:
The tape measure happens to be the favorite tool of all the things in our center. Blocks, tangram pieces, linking cubes and teddy bear counters all add to the fun. We also have a small scale, and plastic coins in a cup. All of these things encourage what educators call, “number sense.” You can also consider including things for your child to sort like buttons.
Language:
We took mismatched socks and made a variety of puppets. You can take a box, cut a square hole in the back and make a t.v. or puppet stage for puppet shows. You could also include a dress-up center–ours happens to be in the girls’ bedroom complete with a full-length mirror.
Miscellaneous:
Our center is also stocked with a bean bag, a few oversized pillows, a small chalk board and chalk, a magna doodle, puzzles and other fun preschool toys that are quiet and can be done without help. We also have a table and chair that is just the right height for little people.
Our center took about 3 months to put together and collect all the materials. It took us about another month to teach our preschool children how to use the things, put them back where they go, etc. The result has been well worth the effort in my opinion: I now have a good portion of time to work with my older children uninterrupted. . .well, relatively speaking of course!