The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

My monsoon baby is 4 next week and wants to do homeschool like his brothers. Usually I don't put a lot of effort into preschool or kindergarten. We have so many toys, so many art supplies. He'll learn from what's around him. But he really wants to "do homeschool time" like his brothers and he does seem a bit bored and neglected (trapped inside so much and the big brothers being too crabby to play with him much). Still with all the crazy going on in our lives right now I just can't think of what to do with him that seems like homeschool. He already has daily art time (optional, he usually passes unless my middle son joins in) and reading time (3 books of his choice after breakfast cleanup, his favorite part of the day) and a bunch of pre-school apps.

So I'm looking for ideas for a tired mom who doesn't have access to a ton of resources or support. What did you love doing with your 4 yr old? Any good websites or programs you loved?

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

I pulled out coloring sheets that were connected to the history.

Or I would just assign certain play to my youngest.

Like when we were doing math with early bird. I would tell wiggle worm that her math was to take the beans and out them in to piles of these or what ever. It honestly drove me crazy to even have to think of something specific to do but she enjoyed being involved so so much

I am certain there are offical curriculum that would lay all of the preschool things out but I ofwn just invented specific tasks of making different groups. ( By number, color, type ( blocks vs dolls) things that start with a certain sound almost anything I could think of.

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Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

Art with or about letters. Letter of the Week books. A is for .......... (everything in the house you can find that starts with A)

Number recognition.

Endless sorting. :blush

"Go Find........ (4 blue things.....something yellow.......something that starts with the sound /b/)"

Calendar Notebook

Oops! That was free when I had a preschooler, but isn't any more. Sorry. This one is free; I used some of the pages with my last preschooler.

My kids all loved dot-to-dot. These go with a Letter of the Week curriculum. (If you poke around her site there are plenty of free preschool worksheets to download imbedded in the blog posts.)

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

My middle was like that. Mostly I'd write up a page of copywork for her (letters) when I wrote up a copywork page for her big sis, whenever she asked about "doing school". I also did a read-aloud time that everyone was a part of. And I had a lot of Cuisenaire rods, so I'd have her play with those while I did math with oldest. But mostly when she asked to "do school", I'd write her up a copywork page. (She's the only one of my kids that liked to copy things before she had the ability to read them - I ended up writing words and sentences from favorite books and hymns for her, all sorts of things.)

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

Some of these activities might be fun (I used the free versions when my oldest was 4 and they're still available on the website : https://weefolkart.com/homeschool-homepage/)

---------- Post added at 04:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ----------

The seasons might not correlate well with your location though.

https://weefolkart.com/homeschool-companion-guides/

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

I love the Good and the Beautiful primer level. It's a pretty inexpensive download you can print, or you can buy a hard copy. It starts with learning different letters (for example this is a A this is a T- which of the letters in the square are A? Which are T?). The pictures are really pretty, too, which is nice.

My 3yo will be doing our history coloring sheets along with us and participating in science whenever and however she wants to. That is Story of the World 1 (it has lots of coloring pages- one for each lesson) and the Good and the Beautiful science usually has ways I can include her, though her finished work looks different and if she doesn't want to, that is fine, too.

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

My youngest *loved* doing mazes and dot-to-dots. I’m trying to remember what else he enjoyed.... he liked playing with the MUS blocks (still does :giggle). He had some dry-wipe books for practising numbers and numbers. I’d sometimes set up a sand tray and hide plastic letters in it for him to find and sort through. Sometimes I’d give him a task to do like completing a jigsaw, threading beads or ‘sewing’ onto card (with pre-punched holes). Or I’d ask him to build a tower with a certain number of Duplo blocks, or I’d make a (simple) Duplo model for him to copy. Playdoh was always popular too, and good for fine motor skills.

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

With a 4yo some things I have done:
Letter of the week: tracing, coloring, painting, gluing things that start with that letter on big letters, finding things around the house that start with the letter
(This is what my current 4 yo did while older is doing writing/handwriting)
Rhyming and syllable games: Measured Mom website and This Reading Mama have free printables - some early 4yos are not going to be ready but some will
My 4 yo listens in on almost all read-alouds.
Hands on science - nature hunts, finding living v. non-living things, what things are made of, experiments with water, ice, etc.
Playdough
Cutting skills
Counting: counting small objects, putting # of stickers to match numbers, roll and move games
Sorting objects

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

we enjoyed Five In a Row with some of my preschoolers.

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

When my kids have wanted this, I've noticed that it feels special when they have things that look as much like the older kids' school stuff. Giving him the same kind of notebook/binder or whatever can go a long way.


Tracing and maze books, or pages that you print are fun. If you can put the pages in page protectors they can be used again and again with dry erase markers.


My little ones have liked to do the history pages with their siblings too. I even print maps for them if they want. ;)


Other things that have been popular here are pattern blocks with pattern pages, a bin of beans with scoops etc, magnets (ABC, animals etc), painting with water, playdough, any kind of fine motor lacing etc....

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

So many good ideas everyone!

I think this is what he really wants. I asked him yesterday what he would like to do for homeschool and he said draw things in a notebook like DS2.

Aerynne: Do you think TG&TB preschool will would print out ok in black and white? I know their 1st grade is very color dependent and some pages just don't come out in B&W (Color here is 50 cents a page).

Though I might just grab a blank notebook at the store and doodle a bunch of sorting/counting/coloring/tracing activities.

Re: The 4 yr old wants to do homeschool
 

My 4yo does Reading Eggs and Mathseeds on the iPad. They are game-based learning that progress through the programs, and by the time he's done with those he's ready to move on from school-y things and play. I help him with some of the games that are more difficult, and he brings it to me when it gets to the book at the end of each lesson so we can read it together, but other than that he can do it on his own. I did the same with little J at this age and it worked great for him. He learned to read entirely from Reading Eggs.