So recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Olivia’s homeschooling after posting some pictures to my personal Facebook page. What is your schedule? What do you do? How do you keep Oakland busy? What materials do you use? How do you make a lesson plan?

Let’s start by saying that Olivia is in preschool, so it’s a very relaxed environment. I believe that children learn best through hands on, getting dirty, playtime. It is good for them to explore, get messy, make mistakes, and learn!! A lot of our “learning time” doesn’t come from a cute printable packet, or from textbooks (although some does!) Most of our learning comes from everyday life: measuring ingredients and baking with mom, counting blocks as she stacks them, learning to be fair when noticing her pile of goldfish is more than her brothers and how she can make them equal, setting the dinner table and learning one to one correspondence with forks and plates, sorting her laundry, working those fine motor skills with her play dough mats, and so on. I do like having worksheets just so I can see progress, but like every other kid, she learns from life. You see, learning is so much more than sitting a child down in a chair and drilling them on facts. It’s a time to have fun! To work together! To laugh and play and learn new things beside one another!

Our schedule looks a little different than what most people’s homeschool schedule looks like because we do our “official” days on Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday. Olivia goes to a half day Kindergarten readiness MMO program 3 days a week where she has a blast learning and playing with her friends. That is on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. Although she has a great time and we love her teacher, I know that Olivia already knows most of the things they are teaching, such as shapes, letters, letter sounds, writing her full name and simple math. This is all review for Olivia, so on the days she’s home, we’re learning different things. Our daily routine is pretty simple, and although I don’t follow a strict time schedule (because inevitably, the baby will need changing, someone will need a snack, a goat will get loose…you get the idea) we do follow a rhythm of how our morning is supposed to flow:

That’s it! That’s our week. It isn’t complicated at all, and if she isn’t feeling it that day, we don’t do it. It’s that simple. I want to create a love of learning in Olivia…in the end of it all, that’s really all that matters to me! You can teach facts, but you have to instill a love for learning. We keep Oakland right in the middle of everything with us, because really, he refuses to have it any other way. I give him worksheets and crayons to fill in. He gets paper to tear up and a glue stick. He does art with us…he’s right in the mix!

In the afternoons they usually play outside or we rotate structured table toys with free play. Sometimes we throw in art. One of their favorite activities is the sensory table and I just want to share it because its one of my favorite things to set up. We set ours up in the water table, but it has been filled with everything from water beads, to rice, to beans, to ice, to shaving cream. Be creative! This week our table is full of chicken feed, because it is full of seeds and great fall colors.

I put some leaves, pine cones and pumpkins in to add to the fall feel. The kids love to scoop and pour and dig their hands down into it. And the chickens love to come help clean up!

I think that coming up with a lesson plan is an entire post in itself, so look for it coming up soon! There were lots of activities not included in this post, like making our homemade, fall scented play dough, and our “What Do We Know Chart.” We also always get books on our theme from the library and from our own stash as well as search YouTube for videos that really help visually tie everything together. I also try to incorporate a field trip that relates to our theme, and all of that will be included in the follow up post on how I create our lesson plans.

If you’re interested in doing something like this with your kids, I suggest focusing on Reading and Math first and adding in other stuff later because it can get overwhelming fast! Pick a theme your kid likes and go from there. There’s a ton of free packet printables online as well as workbooks at places like Walmart, Target & Barnes & Noble.

What are some learning activities that you do with your kids? Please share them with us so we can join in the fun!