We’ve officially decided to keep our kids home from physical school this year. We have a 1st grader and two 3 year olds — they start kindergarten in 2022 so they have two years of preschool — more on that later. I hope this goes without saying, but I need to mention it anyway. This was a difficult decision for us and there is no judgment whatsoever what you choose for your children. There are 0 good options — we are all trying to do the best we can without much information and with completely different life circumstances.

Another disclaimer— I don’t think any of this is really necessary. When I am anxious, I feel better planning and organizing and preparing, but I think you’d be fine doing zero things to prepare as well! Kids really don’t need much to learn.

For now, we’ve decided to utilize the school district’s virtual learning option and plan to evaluate as we go along if that makes the most sense. If it consists of a lot of screen time, I will probably pull out my 6 year old and attempt to find an actual homeschool program. Ideally, his school district will provide a good mix of computer time, paper time, and creative time through the virtual learning.

I feel like I need to shout this from the rooftops: 3 year olds don’t need to be homeschooled! 3 year olds need: play, play, play & books, books, books!!! I know my kids and I know they will want to do something similar to big brother, so I am buying them similar things. But, aside from maybe 5 minutes a day of cutting or learning letters, they will not be homeschooled. I sent them to preschool for my sanity, not for “academics.”

I have been sharing some of this on Instagram, but I wanted to have a place for it here too. It’s where we are in the process now; I will plan on posting again when everything is complete (which may take awhile!).

Update— here is the completed table! We ended up cutting it again. It’s now 5.5’x3’ and is perfect for the boys. The top is so heavy and the base was wobbling so my husband had to add some bracing pieces.

On my immediate to-do list/what I’ve already done:

*Make a rekenrek — When my then kindergartener started virtual learning last year, I learned that they use something called a rekenrek for math. I had never heard of it, and am definitely not a math person myself, so if you want to read more about it, head HERE. From what I understand, they want kids to be able to visualize (“unitize”) numbers under 10. So 6 is 5 and 1 — not 1 six times. I’m sure there’s a thousand other things they do with it, but that’s what I know for now! They build upon these skills each year and now I know my youngest ones will use it in kindergarten, so I wanted to incorporate one into our homeschool room. I already have an IKEA abacus so I plan on spray painting the beads on the left red and the right white. It looks like they sell rekenreks on amazon already made. We also made a 10 frame one last year with beads on a pipe cleaner, so that’s an option too!

*Modify our current letter puzzles— I LOVE these letter puzzles (both uppercase and lowercase). They can be hard for little ones to orient which way they go when dumped out, so to increase their independence, I’m going to sharpie the back side so they can flip them to the colorful side. You can also put a dot or star on the top or bottom if they need more help with orientation. The puzzles are great for hide and seek, matching, several games, etc.

*Build a table — I was heavily inspired by homegrown traditions homemade desks. Currently we have a round, plastic table and stools from ikea. I wanted something taller and sturdier with more working space for all 3 boys at once. Homegrown traditions made smaller desks, but I loved her idea of using MDF board for the top and inexpensive furring strips for the square legs. I got a large (8’x4’) mdf board (it was about $30 at both home depot and lowes) and had it cut. I ordered it for curbside pickup and called the lumber department and asked VERY nicely for them to cut it to length for me. We decided on 4x5.5’. Ideally, I would have liked it cut down a bit for the width, but my husband said they like to only cut the board once and since they were already doing me a favor cutting for curbside, I didn’t have the heart to ask for more. So the table will be huge! For the legs, I ordered 7 furring strips and did the same thing with those, calling the lumber department very nicely to pick some straight and nice boards. Furring strips (less than $2 for a 2”x2”x8”) are known to be crooked and warped. They did a great job and we got some good pieces! Stay tuned for the final product, but we plan on priming the mdf with oil-based primer and painting it white outside. My husband will make the legs outside and we will stain them a natural color and he will have to assemble the table inside since it’s so big.

*Buy appropriate stools— As an OT, I really wanted something sturdier and more ergonomic than our IKEA stools (which were fine for short periods of time). I did a lot of research and decided on THESE. The have a slight degree of “wobble” and will encourage appropriate posture. I got 3 of the 15” ones in the seafoam color. The 12” would have been more appropriate for the 3 year olds (you should measure from the back of their heel to the back of their knee when seated to determine the correct height), but I couldn’t find any in stock. I may have to get creative if their feet don’t touch the ground (maybe putting blocks under their feet? Will keep you updated). They are a bit pricey, but I am justifying a lot of these purchases based on the money we will save from not paying preschool tuition this year.

*Pencil boxes — Totally not necessary, especially for the 3 year olds, but I wanted them to each have their own box with a set of crayons, chalk, pencil, and eraser to cut down on the fighting. I got a simple box for 98 cents and put in a box of 24 crayons, an eraser, a glue stick, a pair of spring loaded scissors, and one of my favorite thick, triangular pencils.

*Print name plates — Just something fun to feel more like school! I found ones I liked on Pinterest that were free and wrote their names (make sure to do uppercase first letter and lowercase the rest!!), and of course i had to use my trusty laminator. I used THIS for the 3 year olds and THIS for the 1st grader.

*Get a real pencil sharpener — A must. It’s already gotten so much use!!

*Buy tabletop easels — Another fun and not necessary thing, but something my kids are really looking forward to! I got 3 so they can each have their own. These have an adjustable incline, come with uppercase alphabet and 0-9 magnets, chalk, paper roll, dry erase marker, and eraser. The dry erase side is magnetic and the chalkboard side is not.

*Get alphabet and number posters — I was losing my mind going down a rabbit hole trying to find cute posters that I didn’t have to print myself. Etsy had a ton of adorable options, but I didn’t want to have to deal with printing them during a pandemic. I ended up randomly finding THIS pack of 6 for $10!! I will find another use for the other posters or give them away. I got a bunch of fine motor craft kits to get free shipping.

That’s it for now! Will keep you updated!

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