Easy and Cheap preschool at home

I have been blessed with a wonderful preschool for my kids, but not everyone has the means, time, or ability to send their kids to preschool. Many of you are working parents who already are stretched paying for preschool and adding a layer of schooling would be prohibitive. You want to make sure your kids aren't behind, but you don't have the time or money for an elaborate homeschool plan between work, your other kids' school schedule, and all the running around you have to do just as a mom. I hear you. You are doing fine. Here are a few easy ways that you can get your kids a little extra background knowledge before they start school without stretching your budget or your very limited mom time and energy.

First, youtube, which you can watch at night, over breakfast, or while you are out running errands.



One of my kids' favorite youtube channels is Olive and the Rhyme Rescue Crew. Each video focuses on a letter as Olive visits a land where everything starts with that letter and tries to fix a nursery rhyme that one of her well meaning friends has messed up by changing the words to ones with that letter. It's a great fun way to practice alphabet sounds.




I love going to the library, but when we can't, I often put on this Rhyme Time video from the main library here in Pittsburgh.


My kids have been playing on the website Learn with Homer for a while. There's a web version and an ipad app. It teaches a variety of valuable preschool skills and has cute sections for story time and brain games. Within the next few weeks, a new version will come out with even more capabilities to customize it. I signed up to be a Homer ambassador and got a code for a Learn with Homer 3 month trial to share with all of you.

If you're looking for a more structured curriculum, my absolute favorites are from This Reading Mama. Becky has completely free curricula on Learning the alphabet and early reading with Reading the alphabet. For each week, she has a variety of printables that can be done in just a few minutes each and that address a variety of skills. You can just print them all and do them as you have time (while big brother is at baseball practice?) or you can pick and choose ones you like as you go through.

Some great examples of free printable packets that you can just print and go and that practice a wide variety of school skills like identifying letters, one to one correspondence and counting, matching, and fine motor skills like tracing and cutting. (Some of these may change throughout the year, and I'll try to post lists of new good ones when I can):

Fall leaves early learning printable

Color the alphabet packet

Romping roaring ABCs

ABC, 1-2-3, and shape busy bags (These may take a little longer to put together but should be reusable and can be toted around for car rides or waiting for sibling time)

Alphabet Do a dot pages



That's it for now, but I almost certainly have more to come on this topic!