History Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten

Exploring Art History with Preschoolers – Playground Parkbench

Explore art history, from Modernism in the late 19th century to Pop Art, popular in the 1960s.

Montessori Inspired European Unit Study – The Pinay Homeschooler

Study European history with flags, animals, and landmarks – great for all elementary school students.

The Legend of Horatius at the Bridge – Layers of Learning

Learn about the legend of Horatius with this stanza, coloring sheet, and free printable Roman helmets.

Picture Books for Black History Month – No Twiddle Twaddle

Study black history through literature! Here are 10 great picture books for bringing black history alive.

Ancient Rome Food and Feast – Highhill Homeschool

Fill your tummy with a feast, fit for Ancient Rome. There’s nothing too extravagant about the meal, but elementary kiddos will love this!

Famous Artist Crafts for Kids  – The Crafty Classroom

Recreate the works of famous artists with these tutorials! Learn about them in the process, from Monet to Pollock.

Popsicle Stick Teepees – Glued to My Crafts

Study Native American history by creating these teepees. They’re pretty simple to make, with popsicle sticks being the base.

President’s Day Freebie – Mrs. Ricca’s Kindergarten

Study George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in this freebie for President’s Day.

Roman Numeral Lessons – The Natural Homeschool

Roman numerals are still used today! Introduce your kiddos to Roman numerals with this free printable.

Jackie Robinson Craft – Cutting Tiny Bites

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson made history for breaking racial barriers and becoming the first African American to become a Major League Baseball player.

George Washington Lapbook – Lapbook Lessons

Use this lapbook to learn about our first president, George Washington!

Learn about Martin Luther King Jr – Teach Preschool

Martin Luther King Jr. made great advances for the Civil Rights movements. Learn about his amazing life!

Stonehenge Lesson for Preschool – Adventures in Mommydom

Get hands-on while learning about Stonehenge! It can be adapted for elementary and middle school, and is great for combining history and STEM.

Rosie the Riveter Coloring Page – Education.com

Rosie the Riveter was a classic icon during WWII, inspiring woman to help the war effort by taking up jobs.

Liberty Bell Craft – Mrs. Black’s Bees

Recreate the Liberty Bell while learning about early American history!

Pom-Pom American Flag Painting – Crafty Morning

Celebrate the 4th of July and Independence Day with this American flag painting! It’s simple and costs next to nothing.

Free Ancient Egypt Preschool Worksheets – 123 Homeschool for Me

Learn about ancient Egypt with this math and literacy pack. There are 17 printables, with history activities that can be adjusted for toddlers to 2nd grade.

Fun with Coloring Mixing: A Martin Luther King Jr. Day Craft – MPM Ideas

Learn about diversity and segregation with this bright coloring craft. It works best for large groups, but can be adjusted for smaller groups.

Ancient History: Roman Road – Preschool Powol Pockets

Learn about ancient history with this hands-on craft! Recreate a textured Roman road.

The post History Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten first appeared on True Aim.

Preschool Math Hands-on Activities

Preschool Activities: Color and Math with Pom Poms – True Aim Education

Practice math AND colors with this great activity! It can also help develop fine motor skills.

Counting Beads on Pipe Cleaners – Laughing Kids Learn

Use beads and pipe cleaners (both can be found at the Dollar Store) to practice counting!

Free Printable Roll It, Write It, Count It Mats – Frugal Fun 4 Boys

Learn all about numbers with this counting mat. You can practice seeing the number, the quantity, and spelling the number.

The Secret to Skip Counting in Kindergarten – Kinder Craze

Skip counting is a life skill that makes counting a large sum of things easier and faster. Practice skip counting with these free printables!

Snap Plus One Math Game – Kids Activities Blog

Practice counting, addition, and subtraction with this simple Snap One! game! All you need is a deck of cards.

Adding: Dollar Store Project – Mothering with Creativity

With foam cups and paper towel rolls, create this simple addition board!

Feed the Hungry Shape Monster – The Imagination Tree

Practice shapes by feeding the hungry shape monster!

Preschool Math: Straw Match up – Playdough to Plato

Practice comparing, width and length with straws!

Number Writing Activity: Salt Tray Game – Learn With Play at Home

Use sensory techniques by creating this easy salt tray game. Practice matching and number recognition.

Kindergarten Math Game: Bubbling Addition – Mess for Less

When it’s warm outside, try this bubbling addition game!

Counting Cookies Common Core Math Center – Happy Little Kindergarten

Create a math center with chocolate chip cookies! Practice counting and number recognition.

Bear Color Graph – Early Learning Ideas

Practice graphing with little bears! You can substitute the bears for LEGOs, or any other small toy you have on hand.

Money Math for Kindergarten – The Measured Mom

Money is one of the most practical ways to teach math. Use these free printables to teach basic math!

Smack the Number Counting Game – Mom Inspired Life

With only minutes for prep time, create this simple counting game that can be used for independent work, partner work, or center work.

Free Interactive Shape Pages – This Reading Mama

Explore the ways shapes are used in the real world with these interactive shape pages!

Graphing with Preschoolers – Stay at Home Educator

Practice graphing with simple unifix cubes in this preschool/kindergarten activity.

Gumdrop Pattern Printable – The Kindergarten Connection

Learn about patterns with delicious, edible gumdrops. It comes with a free printable!

The post Preschool Math Hands-on Activities first appeared on True Aim.

Welcome to Mom’s Library

This post is filled with parenting tips, activities for young children, crafts, devotionals, recipes, and more!

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next Library!

Click here to see all Mom’s Library Posts

Pre-K Activities for Kids

Beginning Sounds Activity – Growing Book by Book Although this ice melt activity requires a tad more prep (mostly just planning ahead) than most activities, it is definitely a memorable craft that involves a shoebox plastic container, small plastic toys, a water can, and a spoon/mallet. Toddler Dominoes – Crafty Journal Toddlers can make their own dominoes with craft foam and craft foam stickers.

Endangered Animals Tot Pack – In All You Do

Get this incredible pack for free. This site also has many other free worksheets with all kinds of different themes.

Cutting a Banana for Toddlers – Living Montessori Now Using knives and scissors for the first time can be a scary thing. However, introduce this life skill with a banana and a basic butter knife!

10 Musical Toys for Early Learning – Chirpy Chatterbox

Introduce a love of music with these 10 fun toys.

Frog Life Cycle Hopscotch – Tiny Tots Adventure

Mix biology with the classic children’s game of hopscotch. And, you could reproduce this game with other different animals.

Free CVC Word Building Apples – Life Over C’s

Phonics are the best way to teach reading. Build words with your own CVC – consonant, vowel, consonant.

Check out Even More PreK Ideas Below!

Would you like to participate?

Please follow me and support your fellow bloggers by visiting some links! Grab a button if you were featured!

* by linking up you give Mom’s Library Bloggers permission to use photos from your post with a link back.

The post PreK Activities and Mom’s Library #150 first appeared on True Aim.

Now you might be asking, what kind of goals and where do I start?

This post contains affiliate links. For more information read my full disclosure.

The first thing I like to do with my preschoolers is to establish a routine. This helps my children transition from one activity to the next and teaches them independence. It also allows us to cover the most material possible. My children know what to expect and that results in a more peaceful homeschool day.

As for goal setting, it all depends on your homeschool philosophy and teaching style, but you can see some of our goals for what to teach in preschool here.

The First Week

To introduce your new routine, you’ll want to start slow and gradually add more activities. Usually, I do one thing consistently for a week and then add 1 or 2 more the next week and so on.

Keep in mind that often, when it comes to learning, less is more. You could teach on the same thing for an hour but your children may tune out after the first half. Keep lessons short, simple, and review constantly. You may even want to break up your school day to 2 30 min – 1 hour sessions.

For more teaching tips, you can download our free How to Homeschool eBook

Simple Preschool Routine

I consider the most important subject to be Character Development and Biblical Studies, so I cover those everyday. After that, reading, writing and math are our focus. Everything else is extra and I like to vary those throughout the week so each day has an exciting element to it.

As you start working through your lessons, you’ll quickly learn what subjects your preschooler loves, and which ones they don’t. Schedule your routine accordingly. If they LOVE story time, save that for the end. If they struggle with writing, do that first. Whatever you teach first is usually what your children will retain the most.

Here’s what a typical day of preschool looks like for us:

8:00 – 9:00 am – Getting Ready, Breakfast

9:00 – 9:30 am – Bible Reading, Bible Memory and/or Character Development Activity

9:30 – 10:00 am – Phonics, Writing, Sometimes Vocabulary (4 Days a Week)

10:00 – 10:30 am – Math, Sometimes Geography & History (4 Days a Week)

10:30 – 11:00 am – Computer, Sometimes Science, Art or Stations (3 Days a Week)

11:00 am – noon – Free time, Show time, Play Outside

12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch

1:00 – 2:30 pm – Review if needed, Free time, Play Outside, Walks, Park

2:30 – 4:30 pm – Quiet time, nap time (coloring, puzzles, reading, outside)

4:30 – 6:30 pm – Chore time, dinner time

6:30 – 8:00 pm – Finish any work needed, Free time, Bed time

This is how most days go and it works really well for our family. If your children fight the routine, you may need to back off and give them more free time at first or use a kitchen timer.

The kitchen timer helps take the command of transition and staying on task off of you and onto the timer. Don’t forget to reward your children for their work and keeping their routine. This could mean rewarding them after every subject, day, or goal accomplished.

Even if you are taking an ‘unschooling’ approach, you may still want to have a simple routine with bigger blocks and more freedom or have your children make up their own routine. All children will benefit from some sort of organization to their day so when they become adults they have skills in time management, planning and goal setting.

Preschool Lesson Planning

I plan my lessons each month because I like my children to set the pace. Sometimes they will be determined to finish certain projects and books. Other times, they only want to do the minimum, or need extra time on a certain subject. We also homeschool year round and take extra long breaks for sickness, holidays, and family visits.

To help me plan my lessons and keep track of what we need to cover and what we’ve accomplished, I use Lessontrek. It is so simple to use and has a great layout for printing. Instead of spending days or weeks, with my simple routine and this lesson planning tool, I can create all my lesson plans for the month in about 15 minutes!

Lessontrek goes perfectly with my Christian Preschool Curriculum. You can match the colors of our eBooks to the colors in the Lessontrek online planner. Watch the video below to see how I plan out my whole month.

I’d love to hear how you plan your preschool days. Do you use a curriculum or just play it by ear?

For more posts in this series, click the image below!

The post How to Homeschool Preschool: Routines and Lesson Planning first appeared on True Aim.

Ever heard of a brain dumping? That’s what happens most of the time on more traditional educational tracks. We load children up with thousands of detailed, disconnected facts in the name of educational experience, but nothing sticks.

You’ve probably experienced this when you were a child. Going deep into a topic like the Pilgrims and Indians, you learned everything about them. What they ate; what they wore, making paper Pilgrim hats and belts, coloring in the Mayflower and drawing lots of Maize (corn) but the focus of what the Pilgrims did that was so important was lost in all of that. We like to do crafts and units studies too, but those things are not essential and can distract from the more valuable information that you want your children to remember.

So how do you balance fun, your children’s interests, and provide an excelled education that makes the essential facts stick?

First, you have to decide what is essential. What do you want your children to learn that will bring them success in the future? I already talked about what I think the 2 most important subjects are in my how to Homeschool Preschool introduction. Those were Character and Curiosity.

So what does that look like?

It’s all about priorities. At the top of my list is to teach my children God’s Word and how to apply it to their lives. This drastically effects character, but can also cover history, reading, and writing in an exciting way. After that, in addition to the traditional basics, like reading, writing, and math, needed for kindergarten, we want our children to have a beginning knowledge in geography, art, science, and life skills.

We couldn’t find anything close to what we wanted in a curriculum so we made our own.  Blue Manor Christian Preschool Curriculum comes in a 23 eBook set and includes Character, Bible, Manners, Money, Numbers, Shapes, Phonics, Letters, Art, Anatomy, Weather, Vocabulary and more.  The Parent Guide talks about our educational philosophy and how to use the curriculum, but I’ll give you some more ideas in my next post about How to Teach.

Inside Our Preschool Curriculum

Our curriculum was designed to give your child a big head start.  Everything we have included is essential to the understanding of the world and also to lay a foundation on which it is easy to build upon.  Although it may seem simple, children love it and retain more of the information.

To give you an idea of what the books look like inside, I’ve included some screenshots of my favorite books. If you aren’t looking for a full curriculum, individual books are also available in our individual eBook store. Or join our monthly eBook club to get one unique Blue Manor eBook for free!

Character Development

Nothing beats reading the Bible and discussing what it means with your children for character development.  That’s usually how we start our day.

Our books on Character gives a few suggestions on how to build character in your children with everyday activities in addition to reading the Bible.  The Manners eBook covers basic rules of social etiquette to help children develop a respect and concern for others that resembles Christ-likeness.

Our character series of posts also include valuable resources for some of the most popular character traits.  

I also recommend these games, books, and movies to aid you in instilling values in your children. 

Phonics Reading

Our phonics system uses a combination of phonics and sight words.  Level 1(preschool) teaches the alphabet letter names, basic sounds, a few sight words, and how to read their first 100 words.  This prepares them to read our Level 1 Phonics Readers and for Level 2 where they will learn all the letter sounds not covered in Level 1, more sight words, and basic vowel combinations.

Our phonics system has children reading words right away.  This motivates them and encourages them.  They see the importance of learning the sounds right away and sometimes laugh when they read their first word because it is so easy.  I’ve taught more than 10 children to read this way and can’t wait to start with my 2-yr-old.

Although all the books are PDFs, you can print any page you would like. Also, all of our phonics books have audio attached when you use them on your computer. If you don’t like eBooks, you can buy the Print Version of the books too!

I like to print off a word that my child struggles with and post it in obvious places so they practice it throughout the day.  Big letters help my child blend from left to right easily and see each letter distinctly.  The words are in capital letters so children can’t memorize the shape of the word.

We reinforce the curriculum with fun activities and lots of reading time.  Here are some of our favorite games to play for phonics!  While you might think flash cards are boring, they are a cheap and easy way to get kids excited about learning.  Many of these games are active and have links to FREE flash cards.

Basic Preschool Handwriting Worksheets

These basic worksheets help beginners develop fine motor skills, tracing skills and writing in the lines.  Forming the letters with come easily after they develop the strength and coordination.

Our How to Draw Worksheets have simple step by step pictures that any preschooler can draw on their own with a little practice while at the same time teaching shape recognition and basic art concepts.  You can see more about these pages in my post about Preschool Handwriting and Drawing.

To save money on ink, we use this Crayola Dry Erase Board.  I also use sheet protectors with dry erase markers in a binder like the one pictured above.

Preschool Math

At the basic level, math is all about counting and learning number values vs symbols.  We cover counting to 10 with value recognition so children can visualize what the numbers look like.  Numbers up to 100 are also listed.  The basics of money recognition are featured in a beautiful book with lots of examples.

Vocabulary

Our curriculum is jam packed full of useful vocabulary for young children.  Often overlooked, vocabulary isn’t to make children seem smart, it helps them relate and communicate about their world.  The more vocabulary you teach young children, the easier it is to teach more complex subjects later on.  Instead of having to stop and explain what something is, they will already know so you can have a deeper more detailed conversation.

Big Book of Homeschooling Ideas

Everyone is different and even if you don’t choose Blue Manor Curriculum, you can homeschool preschool!  If you haven’t already, make sure you check out this amazing book written by many seasoned homeschool moms.  There are Tons of ideas for how to homeschool preschool that I know you will love including:

• Keeping Babies and Toddlers Occupied while Homeschooling
• Homeschooling Tots
• Bible Activities for Preschoolers
• Music and Art for Preschoolers
• Literacy for Preschoolers
• Fine Motor Activities for Preschoolers
• Science for Preschoolers
• Math for Preschoolers
• Making Play Your Child’s Preschool
• And More!

Free Resources

Although these eBooks are all you need to homeschool preschool, there are a lot of free resources available to help you reinforce the concepts in new ways.  Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to get a new free eBook each month and articles about faith, family, and finances!

The post How to Homeschool Preschool: What to Teach first appeared on True Aim.

There are an infinite amount of facts you could teach your children. You might be the type who likes to fill their heads with lots of amazing facts that most of your adult friends don’t know and you can succeed at making a lot of them stick.  But the two most important things that you can instill in your preschooler are character and curiosity.

Character is the ability to do what is right no matter what others are doing and curiosity has to do motivation, passion, and confidence.

Of course your children won’t fully grasp the concepts of good character for years to come, but now is the time to start loading them up. The sooner the better.

Habits take root quickly and aren’t easily removed. If you are diligent to train up your children in the way they should go right now when they are still small, it will be hard for them to forget. Maybe one day they will stray, but most likely they’ll come back too their roots.

While healthy habits instill character, curiosity is what drives people to accomplish great things. It is the will to learn more than what is necessary, to explore the unknown, and to do it with vigor. It was sucked out of me in public school and I am diligently learning not to do the same to my children because with it, they’ll have the ability to educate themselves.

To give you a few pointers, in the next week I will cover how we Homeschool Preschool. Topics include:

• What to Teach – Subject knowledge, Curriculum choices, and Lots of Free Resources.
• How to Teach – Simple Teaching Tips and the Biggest Mistake Parents Make
• How to Teach – Learning Stations, Hands-on Activities
• Easy Routines and Lesson Plans

For now, please take this free printable and post it somewhere to motivate and inspire you for the coming year. While homeschooling preschool can be a lot of fun, you might second guess yourself or lose focus of what’s really important. When that happens, remember these words:

These are just previews. To download the printable without the watermark, just click on the image you like and save it to your computer. These can be printed up to 11 x 14. Please do not share without linking back to this page.  Pinning is appreciated!

The post How to Homeschool Preschool first appeared on True Aim.

This post contains an awesome giveaway.  For more information, please read my full disclosure.

Welcome to Mom’s Library!

Filled with parenting tips, activities for young children, crafts, devotionals, recipes, and more!

Be sure to subscribe so don’t miss the next Library!
Follow the Mom’s Library Pinterest Board to see all of our featured posts.
Make sure you check out last week’s Mom’s Library for 6 Rainy Day Activities!

This Week’s Giveaway!

$100 Preschool Learning Giveaway

I’m celebrating my new Homeschooling topic with a big giveaway!  This prize pack includes everything you need to do Preschool at Home!  My Preschool Curriculum eBook set, M is for Mouse Board Game, and a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This Week’s Featured Posts…

Hands on Math Activities

With this simple DIY number line, your preschooler will be counting forward and back in no time.  Don’t forget skip counting!

Themed Learning

Pick your child’s favorites and revolve the learning around that!

Art

Your child’s creative abilities are one of the most valuable things they can cultivate.  Craft projects are great, but other kinds of art will stretch their minds.  This project is awesome because kids love wearing something they’ve made!

Simple Science

Experiments don’t have to be done with fancy test tubes or chemicals.  There’s amazing things taking place all around us, we just need to point them out to our children and they will soak up the knowledge.

Teach Phonics

It’s never to early to teach children the connection between letter sounds and words.  Here are some great tips for teaching children to read.

Play Board Games

There are tons of educational board games out there, but most games have preschool learning built right in.  Counting, reading, color recognition; most of these things are built right into the game.  But you can teach your child anything by changing up the rules a bit.

Sing Songs!

Songs can be fun learning tools, but they also bring joy to your home!

Printables

These are great for independent work time to develop study skills, focus, and writing skills.

Rewards

Come up with a reward system to motivate and reinforce good work ethic.

Have Fun!

Host a learning party just for fun.  Be spontaneous.  Go outside a lot.  But whatever you do, don’t forget to laugh and play because this time we have with our children is gone too soon!

Other posts about doing preschool at home!

How to Choose the Best Preschool Curriculum

Simple Handwriting Worksheets for Preschool

Preschool or College?

Would you like to participate?

If you were featured please grab a button.

  

Linking up Here

The post 10 Things to do for Preschool at Home and Mom’s Library #84 first appeared on True Aim.