DIY Homeschool Supplies to Save You Money!

Homeschooling can be really expensive.  We're also a single income family so money can be pretty tight sometimes.  Over the years I've learned a few tricks for making our pennies last.

  My favourite is making things myself.  I loooove the whole DIY movement and with Pinterest, the ideas are endless.  I've pulled together some of my favourite money-saving, homeschool related DIY projects to help YOU save some money!

How to Make Glitter Paint from Simple Fun for Kids
Homemade Self- Hardening Clay from Redfly Creations
Homemade Stamp Pads from Paging Fun Mums
Homemade Glue from Paging Fun Mums
Easy Homemade Water Colours from Growing a Jeweled Rose

DIY Rustic Art Display Hanger from Making It In the Mountains
Pringles Can Turned Paint Brush Holder from Mod Podge Rocks
How to Make a DIY Supply Board from Should I Be Mopping the Floor
DIY File Folder Box from Mothering with Creativity
Goodwill Mirror to Chalkboard Tutorial from Our Southern Home
How to Make a Homemade Globe from Bright Hub Education
Make Your Own Whiteboard from Modern Mrs. Darcy
DIY Bulletin Board from Fun Cheap or Free

DIY Wooden Base Ten Blocks from And Next Comes L
DIY: Number cards, hundred squares, teens and tens from Walk Beside Me
DIY Skip Counting Boards from Classical Conversations at Home
Make Your Own Abacus from education.com

Toddler Fine Motor with Objects Around the Home from Pink Oatmeal
Homemade Light Table from Learn Create Love
The $30, 30-Minute, Do-It-Yourself Sensory Table from A Teaching Mommy
Feed the Alphabet Monster Game from I Can Teach My Child
DIY Salt Tray and Alphabet Cards from This Mummas Life

What projects would you add to the list?

This Week in Preschool: Thanksgiving Theme

This week was our Thanksgiving Theme in Preschool.  It's a little early for you American readers but us Canadians are celebrating this weekend.  I'll enjoy some turkey and stuffing for you. ;)

Thanksgiving is... - Gail Gibbons

A Pioneer Thanksgiving- Barbara Greenwood

One is a Feast for a Mouse- Judy Cox

An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving- Louisa May Alcott

                                       

Using cinnamon play dough, we made turkeys.  Along with the play dough I set out card stock beaks, feathers, googly eyes and pipe cleaners.  

It was a short week for us this week because we spent two amazing days at a friends' farm.

Baking: That will be happening this weekend as the kids and I help grandma prepare for our Sunday dinner.  

Painting/ Drawing: I printed out this how to draw a turkey page for the kids.  They traced the steps in the boxes and then attempted their own.  

Craft: The kids have been very interested in plasticine illustrations since seeing it in a book last week so we tried our hands at that this week.  We made Thanksgiving turkeys. 

The worksheets I used for this week all came from this Thanksgiving Printable Pack.  We used the pre-writing, shape tracing and cutting practice pages from the tot pack. We also did a Turkey Do a Dot page. 

Don't forget to check out my Thanksgiving Theme Pinterest board for more great ideas!

Follow Kalista // When We're at Home's board Pre-K: Thanksgiving Theme on Pinterest.

Preschool: Apple Week

Here's an overview of our Preschool Apple Week. If you're looking for more apple-y ideas, check out my Apple Theme Pinterest Board.

This week we read:
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins
An Apple Pie for Dinner retold by Susan VanHecke
The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson
Our Apple Tree by Gorel Naslund
Apples for Everyone by Jill Esbaum
One Green Apple by Eve Bunting

We don't do an actual circle time right now because I spend too much of it chasing a rogue baby.  I try to incorporate songs and fingerplays into the natural pauses in our day instead.  I like to use songs for transition periods (coming inside after our walk, for example) and fingerplays are great for diaper changes or while cuddling on the couch. 

Apple Circle Time Song and Action Rhyme

Apple Tree Fingerplay

Monday: bake an apple pie

We started our week off with an apple pie.  Grandma even got in on the action (which is good because I despise peeling apples and we couldn't find the peeler). 

Tuesday: wet-on-wet watercolour apples

We are big fans of the Waldorfy wet-on-wet watercolour painting.  It's such a forgiving medium and it always produces such beautiful results.  I set out green, red and yellow (apple colours). 

Wednesday: make apple pies with play dough (rolling pin, pie plate, crimp cutter)

We didn't actually get to do play dough this week, sadly.  If we had it would have looked something like this.  I love incorporating things I have lying around the house (especially things from outside) into their play and the cinnamon adds and extra sensory experience with that lovely scent!

Thursday: Button Apple Craft

Whenever possible, I like to tie projects from different days into each other. It's especially nice to use paint projects in crafts because, well, you can only hang up so many paintings before you get overrun.  I had the kids cut apple shapes out of their water colour paintings from Tuesday.  They glued them onto construction paper along with a stem and leaf.  Then they traced the outline with white glue and added buttons. 

The kids really enjoyed the worksheets this week.  Every morning A would ask when we get to start school.  She took it all very seriously and actually cried when I told her we were taking Friday off!  It's been nice to have them working on something instead of destroying things while I work with B.  

You can find the worksheets we used below:

Number Apples

Apple Prewriting Sheet
Apple Do-a- Dot
Apple Counting Book
Another Apple Prewriting Sheet


So that was my week with the preschoolers!  Overall, it went very well.  We're still working out some scheduling kinks but I am confident that this year is going to be awesome!

Preschool Planning {plus free printables!}

I will admit that up to now, I have never planned for preschool.  I am a huge believer in play based learning and letting them learn through everyday life.

HOWEVER.

I have four children. One of them is doing grade work.  Two of them are in preschool.  One of them just likes to destroy things.

I tried doing the same laid back, unplanned, let it happen style preschool that we did last year and the wee ones were not amused.  They took their education into their own hands.  They learned about buoyancy by dropping things in the toilet.  They experimented with gravity by throwing things down the stairs.  They played sorting games with clean, freshly folded laundry.  You get the idea, right?  It wasn't working.

So this year I am a planning her preschool mama!

I'm still keeping it laid back and play based.  I have activities that they can do with minimal supervision and I  have some mommy led activities (ie. "work" like big sister).  There are some work sheets because they have asked for them but no pressure to finish them.

I plan by the month because I don't have time to plan weekly and I could never sit still long enough to plan the whole year!

I'm continuing with our monthly play doughs and sensory bins (though they often end up staying longer than a month) and I will also rotate the tot trays out monthly.  I only have shelves for four trays but I plan eight so I can switch them around if the kids start getting bored.

Our themes change weekly.  I try to have a worksheet for each day so the kids can work on that while I work with B.  I try to keep a variety on hand: colouring, tracing, cutting, do-a-dot, play dough mats, etc.  I try to tie  our daily activities into the theme as well (baking, painting & drawing, modelling, crafts and handwork).

W and A are quite happy with our new set up and R isn't crying (much) so I can only assume she likes it too!

I've put together some planning sheets that I thought I would share.  There are three: one for the monthly planning, one for weekly planning and one to record everything you need to do, make, buy, etc.

***Terms of  Use: Before you download the pages, please agree that you will not share these files directly via social media, email, blog posts, etc. If you would like to share them (and I hope you will!) please link directly to this post with this link address:

http://whenwereathome.blogspot.ca/2014/09/preschool-planning-plus-free-printables.html

Please do not sell or change these files in any way. 

Thank you!***



Monthly Preschool Planning Sheet

Preschool Monthly To Do List

Weekly Preschool Planning Sheet