Preschool Homeschool: Our Preschool Kit


Let's get real - I don't have enough time (as much as I would like to) to prepare lessons and activities for ALL of my kids EVERY SINGLE DAY. We have been incorporating lessons within play and every day cuddling and work. My kids learn because we communicate with them every fact or lesson we can incorporate in what they are currently doing. But as they grow and approach the age for school, we have to adjust and create ways to make formal lessons and activities. When I say formal, it means it is planned, intentional, and there's a goal for each activity. One example is for my daughter to learn how to write her name. We need to sit down and have a formal lesson on manuscript writing even if it takes only five minutes.

Most of the time, I spend my free time at night preparing lessons for our eldest who is in Third Grade. He is enrolled in a homeschool provider and we follow the school's calendar hence we need to have more structure in homeschooling him. In days when I am not able to prepare a formal lesson for four-year-old Z or our two-year-old Bunso, I turn to the Preschool Kit I created.

We still have our toddler sheves at home where some of our board books, Montessori materials, cloth books, and art materials are stored. The kids can get their materials anytime through these shelves. I use our Preschool Kit mainly for impromptu lessons and activities.

Storage

I wanted our kit to be readily available and portable. Instead of buying another storage bin for the materials in our Preschool Kit, I used a MEGABOX plastic box that was not being used at home. It has a cover and handle which makes it easier to bring from the living room to the bedroom and vice versa.
Our preschool kit storage



What's Inside the Preschool Kit?

Flashcards

For our preschoolers, I prefer using flashcards that are plain and just focuses on the letters or numbers. I have two plain flashcard sets for the alphabet, upper and lower cases. Another two sets of flashcards of alphabet with phonics samples. And a set of DIY felt numbers that has been with us for at least four years. These flashcards are usually held together by a ring that I got from the school supplies store.

I have other flash cards of alphabet and numbers with images included and those are stored in our toddler shelves.





Stamp

The teacher's stamp is one of the favorite materials of our two younger kids. They just love stamping these on paper and I just let them. Stamping helps them develop their hand and eye coordination and I also take the opportunity to review colors with these stamps.

It also gives me free time to work with my Grade 3 student while the two younger kids are stamping to their delight.

Popsicle Sticks with Velcro

Another favorite of our two-year old are the big popsicle sticks with velcro. I got the velcro stickers from Lazada and the popsicle sticks from another online store. Through these sticks, my child learns colors, practices sorting, and learns about shapes. Bunso loves creating triangles and squares with these.

Tip: Place your materials inside a ziplock for easier storage



Popsicle Sticks

I also have regular popsicle sticks in our kit. We use these primarily as counters and sorting. They also like making different shapes using these.


Colored Pencils or Extra Crayons

I don't know about you but my kids keep losing their crayons. You buy each a box and after a couple of weeks you find only a few pieces left, if not broken. So I make sure I have an extra box of crayons inside the kit or colored pencils for those emergencies where kids won't share their crayon boxes.

Tip: I buy wholesale prices for notebooks that my kids use for writing, doodling, and drawing. Instead of using loose papers, I prefer using notebooks because it is cheaper and it makes cleaning easier.

Ice Cream Felt

We use these DIY ice cream felt for color identification and matching activities.


Paper Cups

We use paper cups in a lot of activities. We can use these as containers when we do sorting activities, for fine motor skills practice with pompoms, and for imaginary play. We have a set of pompoms and tweezers we use. And the kids like using these cups for pretend play like tea parties (they prefer lemon juice).

Matching Cards

We have several sets of matching cards that we use not only for matching but for memory games. We have simple matching pictures, to butterfly puzzles, and memory games for the Grade 3 student (yeah he joins in some of the activities here)


Clothespins

If you are starting your preschool homeschool, one of the materials that I recommend you should have in your arsenal are clothespins. I use plastic (the one for laundry) and wooden clothespins. I observed with my kids that they prefer to use the smaller ones (for crafting) for things other than our intended activity. So lately I have been using the big wooden clothespins for fine motor and matching activities.




Watch here our video of our Preschool Kit!


Stickers

Oh kids love stickers! Just give them a set of stickers and a piece of paper and they are happy to spend quiet time working on their activity. I particularly like stickers because it helps them develop their fine motor skills and focus.

Lacing Materials

Aside from values, I mainly focus on developing the fine motor skills and life skills of my younger kids. Lacing is one of the activities they can do to develop the muscles in their hands, improve concentration, and follow directions. We use lacing shapes and big buttons (not a choking hazard since they are big!) for now as our lacing materials. We can also use these as materials for sorting and matching.

Tip: If you don't have any of these, you can easily punch holes on an index card and give your child a shoelace to lace in the card.



Face Towel

There had been many  instances when materials roll over the table and drop to the floor. To remedy this, I place a mat or a face towel on the table where my child is working.


Box of Manipulatives

Last year I purchased a plastic box with partitions and use these as the storage for our manipulatives. Here I place our wooden circle counters, plastic circle counters, a few of the Montessori beads left in our collection, magnetic numbers, wooden sticks, and wooden numerals. Prior to using a box each had a plastic bag. I reckon it is better to have just one storage for the counters we use. Our base ten counters has its own box and being used by our gradeschooler.



Box of DIY Montessori Movable Alphabet

This is the latest addition to our Preschool Kit. I can pull out these boxes and place them on the towel for phonics exercises.

Since these two boxes won't fit inside our kit anymore, I place these on top of the kit.



Use What You Have

When I was homeschooling Kuya V in the preschool years, we didn't have any kit. I just had to make use of what was available at home. I am thankful for online stores now because there are more sellers now (and more cheaper) than it was five years ago. You don't have to purchase everything at one time for your preschool homeschool materials. It took me at least five years to accumulate what we have right now. Look for second hand materials as well to save some bucks.



Happy homeschooling!


Comments

  1. I used to do some of this too when my daughter is still too young. It really did help me a lot on preparing her on entering school. I am going to have my 2nd child and this are helpful tips for me to do to teach him also. Thank you Petite Momma's World. ❤️

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  2. Scarlet Reyes AtheenaMarch 3, 2020 at 4:48 PM

    Hello @petitemomma.com
    Thanks for sharing this very helpful nagkaroon ako ng ibang ideas, actually may mga school kit narin po kami ng 4 years old bunso ko.. nirecycle ko lang po Yung mga dating school kit ng ate Niya. .maayos pa naman p0 kasi ito. Yung iba recreate ko nalang para lalong ganahang magpaturo si bunso.. thanks sa idea na ilagay Ito SA storage box ..mas organized at safe at less hassle sa paghahanap SA karton ko Lang po kasi nilalagay. ❤️��

    Mahirap po talaga magturo or maglaan ng oras para turuan Yung mga anak natin kasi for example busy SA house hold chores at working pa... Pero I see to eat na kada araw kahit 30 minutes to 1 hour eh turuan ko sila at my maadopt siya or matutunan kahit papano..❤️�� time management Lang talaga..��

    Fb:@Scarlet Reyes Atheena
    IG:@chinitamorena21
    Yt:@Atheena Reyes Scarlet

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  4. Thanks, ma! Looking forward to use these pag malaki na LO ko. . .

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  5. Thank you for sharing @petitemomma. May mga idea na po ako para sa baby ko ❤️

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  6. It takes a lot of effort to prepare these but worth it because it is so attractive. I love it Mommy.

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  7. Thank you for sharing mommy... try ko din ito sa bagets ko baka gumana,di kase effective ang way ko ng pagtuturo dahil boring siguro para sa kanya at masyado akong seryoso sa pagtuturo..di ko naisip bata ang tinuturuan ko bata na mahilig sa fun at colorful things. thanks sa tip!!!!

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  8. This is very helpful for busy parents like us. Thank you for the ideas

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  9. Mommy gusto ko matutunan yung sa stamps po. Thanks po sa pag share ng ideas kahit papaano meron akong babalik balikan basahin malapit na mag kinder anak ko.

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  10. Super helpful poh ng mga tips nio mommy at tlagang malaking tulong ito samen ng kids q!! Thank you so much poh s mga tips 🙏🙏🙏

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  11. Thanks for this blog.mamsh napakalaking tulong nito para magkaroon ng idea para makagawa ng ganyan. Nakakatuwang makita yung mga learning materials for kids. Sana magawa ko din yan..
    Ig acct: jeckabathan
    Yt acct: jessicabathan
    Fb:.jessicabathan

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  12. Since nasa house lang kami ng mga kids ko dahil sa situation natin now, super helpful ng mga ganitong activities to keep them entertained and at the same time natututo pa sila especially yung bunso ko na 3 years old at magstart na rin sya mag school next year.

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  13. good thing share mo ito mommy ito na gagawin namin ng mga kids ko habang nasa bahay at walang pasok ng di sila ma boring

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  14. Thanks for the tips momsh very helpful to especially ngayon na naka home quarantine lahat 👍
    Fb: han fua

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  15. Thanks sa info...pede na aq gumawa ng diy para sa 3yrs old ko😍

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  16. Thank you for this mommy. This is very useful for me.

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  17. Thank you for this mommy. Helpful sa tulad ko na planning na i-homeschool si LO.

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  18. Lovely Dianne D. VillanuevaMarch 17, 2020 at 11:52 PM

    A very big help Mommy Kat, thanks for sharing some ideas po ❤️

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  19. thank you po mommy for sharing your wonderful ideas and tips.

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