Homeschool Ideas for Young Kids

Homeschooling young children is an exciting and rewarding journey. By learning at home, parents have the opportunity to shape their child’s education in a personalized and hands-on way. Here are some practical tips and creative homeschool ideas for young kids.

Over the years, I’ve done fun things to encourage my kids to learn and to make school feel like an adventure. For young kids in preschool and kindergarten, I think that hands-on learning is especially fun and enriching. I often planned simple interactive school activities for my kids. We colored on activity sheets, traced letters, and learned the alphabet sounds. My kids also learned about the days of the week, the months of the year, and the seasons. Furthermore, I created fun diversions such as this taste test activity with snacks to teach my kids about the 5 senses. Last but not least, I bought some preschool and kindergarten workbooks from Costco. Each of these activities combined created great homeschool days for my young kids.

Here are just a few ideas to keep young kids busy during a homeschool day.

Pom Poms Activity

At age 3, my son loved playing with colorful pom poms. I made him a sensory bin by placing a handful of pom poms and foam shapes in a small plastic bin. To make one yourself, you can use any small cardboard box or plastic container. Add tongs or a big spoon so kids can scoop up the soft balls. Kids can sort pom poms by color, line them up, and scoop them into a muffin tin. Additionally, kids can practice counting the pom poms. Warning for very young kids: pom poms and any small items can be a choking hazard.

Read Picture Books

Of course, reading is a classic kids school activity. Board books, I-Spy books, and Where’s Waldo? are great for kids who can’t yet read. Furthermore, look and find books are very fun activities and come in many themes, including Disney Princess, Mandalorian, bakery, jungle, or zoo animals topics.

Often while my older girls work in their school workbooks, my younger son looks at a I-Spy book. These books help kids enjoy independent reading time. If a child has a short attention span, you could set a timer for 10-15 minutes at a time. Encourage your child to sit still and look at their book. I’ve experienced if kids practice sitting at home, they will be able to sit much better in public settings.

Explore a Sensory Bin

During our homeschool years, my young kids often played with sensory bins. We made a dinosaur sensory bin using kinetic play sand, miniature palm trees, tiny plastic dinosaurs, colorful gems, and a plastic scoop. My son enjoyed lots of playtime practicing his finer motor skills. Another day, we made homemade sugar sand using ingredients from our kitchen. Ultimately, you can use any plastic box and assortment of small toys and textured items to make a sensory bin.

Fizzy Color Mixing Science Activity

This next homeschool activity demonstrates the cause and effect of mixing vinegar with baking soda. Fizzy color mixing is a low-key preschool and kindergarten science project! Kids can pick their favorite colors and experiment with making bubbly designs.

Project Materials:

• baking soda
• vinegar
• food coloring
• small spoons
• 8 small containers

Set up fizzy color mixing for your kids by gathering the supplies.

Fill 4 of the small containers 1/2 inch full with baking soda.

Fill 4 containers with white vinegar mixed with a few drops of food coloring.

And that’s it! Step back and allow your kids to see what happens when they drip small amounts of vinegar into the baking soda.

Instruct your kids to use small spoons to drip the colored vinegar into the containers of baking soda. The colored vinegar will cause the baking soda to fizz and mixing colors will create bright bubbly designs.

Observe with your kids how the reaction between baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (diluted acetic acid) generates carbon dioxide gas which creates the bubbles.

This fizzy color mixing project is a very easy and simple science project for young kids. A bonus for mom is that cleanup is minimal!

Design & Drill Activity

Another fun way to engage kids is through hands-on activities. Design & Drill playsets by Educational Insights encourage kids to practice creative thinking and finer hand movements. Kids learn how to drill colorful, child-size bolts into the activity board. In preschool, my girls loved creating their own designs or following the 12 pattern ideas included in this set. This particular set includes glow-in-the-dark bolts that screw into a light-up activity board. Design & Drill activities make learning feel a lot like playtime!

Walkie Talkies for Kids

My kids love going on adventures, even if they are just exploring the house. They enjoyed talking to each other with GeoSafari Jr. Walkie Talkies by Educational Insights. Furthermore, my kids often sent secret messages to each other from opposite ends of the house. Kids can press the leaf shaped button to “make a call”, which makes a sound on the other walkie talkie. Once the other child presses the leaf shaped button to receive the call, the kids can speak to each other continually using the speakerphone feature. Kids can use these walkie talkies within a range of 300+ feet (90+ meters). The simple design includes speakerphone action, no-slip rubber grip, and fun sound effects. Overall, this toy is definitely worth trying out on our list of homeschool ideas for young kids.

Creative Snacks

After a busy morning, kids always appreciate snack time! My kids like eating fresh fruit, kettle chips, and popcorn. Alternately, when they were young my kids loved Ella’s Kitchen food pouches. These pureed pouches of fruit and veggie blends come in many different favors. They are convenient to take on the go and they don’t need to be refrigerated. Tasty food pouches are helpful for turning picky eaters into little foodies!

As mentioned above, my young kids also loved doing a 5 senses taste test. I often used a mini muffin tin to hold a variety of snacks. Once filled, my kids tried each of the snacks and we talked about whether the flavor was sweet, salty, spicy, or sour. Of course, I suspect my kids mostly loved enjoying the yummy collection of snacks!

That’s it for my list of homeschool ideas for young kids! Which of these ideas would you try? I hope you feel informed and encouraged to make learning fun for your family!