Start with your child’s age

Not sure which fits? Go by what your child is doing rather than their birthday — and see homeschool by grade if you’d like help placing them.

What’s actually worth owning

The honest answer is: less than the internet suggests, and a few things really are worth it. Here’s what earns its shelf space, roughly in the order you’d want it.

Ages 2.5–4

• Duplo — the highest hours-per-pound of anything you’ll buy. Building, sorting, counting, storytelling.
• Wooden knob puzzles — the knob is a pincer-grip trainer disguised as a toy.
• Playdough (make it, don’t buy it) and a few tools — rolling pin, blunt knife, cutters.
• A small jug, a small pitcher, a sponge. Child-sized real ones, not toys. Pouring is the practical-life activity everything else grows from.
• Peaceable Kingdom games — cooperative, so everyone wins together. Ideal before a child can lose gracefully.
• Chunky crayons and a big roll of paper.

Ages 5–6

• LEGO Classic — the plain brick box, not a licensed set with instructions. Open-ended beats one-outcome every time.
• Magnetic letters or letter tiles — the single best reading tool at this age, because building a word comes before reading one.
• Counters and a hundred board — anything countable works, but having a set to hand makes maths a five-minute decision.
• Pattern blocks — geometry, symmetry, and patterning, and they hold attention for a surprisingly long time.
• Gamewright games — Sleeping Queens, Outfoxed, Rat-a-Tat Cat. Real counting and strategy, still gentle.
• Jigsaw puzzles, 24–60 pieces. One of the few things that reliably absorbs a child working alone.
• Watercolours, glue sticks, child-safe scissors. Cutting builds hand strength faster than almost anything.

What to skip: most themed craft kits (one outcome, then done), electronic toys that do the talking, and complete Montessori material sets. The classroom materials are built for classrooms — beautiful, expensive, and mostly unnecessary at home.

Buy it · Make it · Use what you have

Every activity on these pages works three ways, and all three are equally good.

Use what you have. Kitchen cups, buttons, stones, cardboard. You can build a rich year spending almost nothing, and children rarely notice the difference.

Make it. A salt tray, sewn counting cards, a pin-push map. Homemade materials often become the favourites — and the making is part of it.

Buy it. If you love beautiful materials, invest away. Buying isn’t cheating; it’s one good path among three.

Screen-free by default

Nothing on these pages needs a screen. That isn’t a rule we’re imposing — it’s simply that at this age, hands and real objects teach better than anything a screen can offer, and a screen-free activity is usually the easier one to set up anyway.

If you’re specifically looking to reduce screen time, start with the materials list above. A shelf with three genuinely interesting things on it does more than any amount of negotiating.

When you have five minutes

Most days don’t have a clear hour in them. These need no preparation and no materials beyond what’s already in the room:

• I spy with sounds. “I spy something beginning with /b/.” Phonemic awareness, in the car.
• Count the stairs — or the steps to the postbox, or the peas on the plate.
• Sort the laundry by colour, then by owner, then by size.
• What’s missing? Three objects on a tray, one removed while they close their eyes.
• Rhyme chains. Cat, hat, mat, splat. Silly is the point.
• Set the table. One plate per person is genuine one-to-one correspondence.

Indoor and rainy days

The days that break most homeschool plans. Sensory bins, cooking, obstacle courses built from furniture, blanket forts, and anything involving water in a washing-up bowl will carry an afternoon.

The trick is having two or three of these already decided, so that the moment of “it’s raining and everyone’s climbing the walls” doesn’t require an idea from you.

Seasonal activities

Following the year gives a rhythm you don’t have to invent — leaf collecting and apples in autumn, ice and bird-feeding in winter, seeds and puddles in spring, water and long evenings in summer.

It’s also the easiest way to keep things fresh without buying anything, because the season does the work. Our members get a fresh seasonal theme every month; you can equally just walk outside and notice what’s changed.

If your child can’t sit still

For a child who is constantly moving, sensory-seeking, or easily overwhelmed — and for a lot of neurodivergent children — the activity often isn’t the problem. The setup is.

• Move first. Ten minutes of climbing or running before anything focused. Movement isn’t the reward for finishing; it’s what makes finishing possible.
• Let them stand. Very few children this age concentrate better sitting down.
• One thing out, everything else away. Visual clutter competes for attention that’s already stretched.
• Shorter than you think. Three good minutes beats fifteen fought-for ones, and builds appetite rather than dread.
• Add weight or resistance. Carrying books, pushing a laundry basket, digging. Heavy work is regulating for a lot of children.

More on arranging a space that helps: setting up your homeschool.

What a list of activities can’t give you

Every activity on these pages is worth doing. But a pile of good activities isn’t a curriculum — and that’s exactly where most homeschool printables leave you: with ideas, but no order, and no way to know what comes next.

The difference is sequence. In our Volumes these same activities sit in a deliberate order, each one quietly building the skill the next one needs. Pouring leads toward writing. Counting real objects leads toward the symbols for numbers. Nothing is random; the theme is just the costume, and a real progression runs underneath.

And because every activity is levelled — Explore, Practice, Extend — one child can grow through it for years, and siblings of different ages can work side by side, each at their own step.

You don’t have to do this alone.
Come find us — we’ve been waiting for you.

Where to go next

• Preschool activities — ages 2.5–5
• Kindergarten activities — ages 5–6
• Homeschool schedule — fitting it into a real day
• Setting up your space — you don’t need a room
• Printables — the hands-on kind

Homeschool activities FAQ

What activities should I do with a preschooler at home?

Practical-life work like pouring and buttoning, sensory play, letter sounds, counting real objects, art, and lots of movement. Everyday life carries most of it — cooking, walking, tidying up together.

What do I actually need to buy?

Very little. Duplo or LEGO, letter tiles, something countable, playdough, and basic art materials cover most of the early years. Kitchen cups and household objects do the rest.

How many activities a day does a young child need?

One or two focused activities of ten to fifteen minutes, plus plenty of free play, movement, and a read-aloud. Young children learn in short bursts, not long sessions.

What are good screen-free activities for young children?

Nearly everything on these pages. Building, sorting, cooking, sensory bins, cooperative games, and going outside. A shelf with a few genuinely interesting things on it reduces screen time better than negotiating does.

What can I do with a child who won’t sit still?

Move first, let them stand, put one thing out at a time, and keep it much shorter than feels right. Heavy work — carrying, pushing, digging — is regulating for many children.

Are worksheets bad for preschoolers?

Not bad, just limited. A worksheet usually records what a child can already do rather than teaching something new. Hands-on work teaches; a page confirms.