Preschool Homeschool Cards

My youngest son has only just turned four. We decided early on that he didn’t need to do any sort of “curriculum” for awhile. Instead, we would let him follow his interests and we would spend a lot of time talking to him about what was going on, which brings in colors, letters, shapes, vocabulary etc. This also allows us time to label items in English, French and Arabic for him and expose him to quality t.v. shows and iPad apps in all three of his languages. However, he has been very jealous of the fact that his brothers have “homework”. It gave them the “privilege” of mom’s attention, first dibs on technology, etc. etc. So to help the situation – and to stop the constant question of “What can I do mom?”, I created these “homework” cards for him.

We printed them, laminated them, put magnet tape on the back and hung them on the refrigerator. As the day goes on, if he starts acting bored, I ask him to “pick a card”. He chooses what he wants to do using the picture clues and moves it to the right hand side of the fridge. Then he does his activity. Sometimes he lasts 5 minutes at the activity. Other times he lasts 50 minutes. He has no time limits, but is required to clean up one activity before he can pick another card.

The difference in his behavior since we started this has been phenomenal! He is now rarely jealous of his brothers’ homework, because he has his own. He spends a lot less time wandering around annoying those people who are trying to work, which makes life so much easier for all of us. And he is much more willing to do things he might not usually want to do, like calendar, simply because he chose it and it wasn’t Mommy saying “Let’s do this now.”

If you’re interested in using these choice cards with your children, feel free to grab them from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. They are a free download.