Katie Thompson

Our third week of home preschool has arrived and things are looking great! And so messy, my goodness, the mess.

I already have a hard time physically with cleaning up, especially when it involves bending over or picking up something up off of the floor. Well, in case you didn’t know, three and four-year-olds are small people that are close to the floor, and they tend to drop things. ALL the things!

Have a can of tomatoes to be poured into a pot for a soup-making activity? Rest assured no matter how careful you are, some WILL end up on the floor. Making necklaces? Know that every last bead will have to be picked out from under tables and couches at lease three times, minimum. Other items include plopping a sealed food coloring bottle into a jar of vegetable oil, that will then somehow splatter oil into your coffee mug but whatever so you drink it anyway.

Think you’re safe using paint daubers? Think again. You better believe one of those is ending up on the floor tip-down, for sure. And don’t forget poor Owen the action figure from Jurassic World who was somehow dropped perfectly between the potty training seat and the toilet seat rims…while in use. 

Honestly, I’m more impressed with their accuracy than anything else at this point.

It’s safe to say the biggest lesson I learned in week two was to be prepared to make a mess and clean it up no matter what activity you’re doing, every day. Make it a part of your own little routine. Keep paper towels, a broom, a little bit of patience, and some back-up coffee ready in case you somehow get more vegetable oil in it again.

Week two was also a good exercise in being flexible and adapting accordingly when plans need to change. For instance the weather was not great last week, so we ended up not going outside the entire week after I mentioned in previous posts about how nice it was to have our outdoor adventures to learn from! 

I did find ways to burn some physical energy despite being cooped up indoors. We played some fun music, had dance parties, played “freeze dance” games and sang songs.

While we are slowly developing our daily routine, I did notice that if someone oversleeps, I’m moving slow or not feeling well, or something just plain pops up, it’s nice to not be tied to a hard and fast schedule, which is perfect for me working with chronic illness!

We also moved Monday’s lessons up to Sunday afternoon so the kids could have all day Monday with their grandparents. It was neat to be able to reschedule instead of having them anxiously ignoring their lessons on Monday morning. I never imagined being able to reschedule school, but now, we can!

Tuesday was Maddie Meltdown day, but we ended up having a good lesson after trying different foods and snacks that started with the letter of the day, G.

By Wednesday Ham said he needed a break and wanted to go back to Mimi’s. You can guess who threw the tantrums that day (it wasn’t me, I promise!)

And just when I thought I was done for and couldn’t scrape by on yet another homemade activity using what I had, the reinforcements arrived, school supplies!

I was finally able to set up our little homeschool corner in our living area. We hung the calendar and turned the old changing table into a supply cart. It also puts up nicely when we’re done for the day.

One of the first items to arrive that kids absolutely love and I cannot recommend enough are these geometric blocks. They are great for independent free play, and for our lesson we made different shapes together, such as flowers, in our own designs. I also made quick worksheets by tracing the different blocks on construction paper and letting the kids figure out which pieces went where.

By Thursday, new workbooks and craft supplies came in and we got to feel a little but of the back-to-school excitement unpacking and organizing all the new learning tools and activities.

I thought I’d slipped up on Amazon – again – and ordered too much baby oil, but I guess there was a reason why the 4-pack of large bottles came up when I searched “homeschool supplies.” We used almost an entire bottle in one activity, so it’s worth stocking up! Which brings us to Friday, when we made our own lava lamps as our science activity and learned about color, oil, and water.

Overall, our initial goals for the months ahead are to work through the alphabet and then numbers 1 -10. We cover a new letter or number each day of the week with a review on Fridays. This helps structure the weeks ahead, and also the individual days, which starts off with a review of the date and weather, and usually ends with ABC Mouse or outdoor lessons.

From there I build activities, crafts and games around the letter of the day, and try to balance out activities between sensory play, fine-motor activities, crafts, etc. I’ve also been really happy with the workbooks we’ve selected so far, I’ll share more on those another time.

Thank you as always for your continued support, I received even more wonderful messages last week so please keep them coming if you have questions or just want to share ideas! If you enjoyed this please share with your social media networks so we can help other homeschooling and disabled parents out there. Have another great week as we learn this life together one day at a time!