Simple + Easy Kindergarten Homeschool Activities
These simple and easy kindergarten homeschool activities will make fun and interactive homeschooling a breeze!
If the words simple and easy make your heart sing, you are in the right place! With 4 little ones underfoot, a baby to nurse and a 100 year old home to update, I simply don’t have time for complicated activities.
I am not afraid to say I am not currently a “pinterest mom”. While fun crafts have their time and place, they are not making it into our current everyday home school routine.
I am always on the lookout for easy activities to do together that augment my kindergartner’s learning but don’t add to chaos or clutter. I’m excited to share these fun activities with you here.
Simple + Easy Homeschool Activities For 5 Year Olds
These simple and easy kindergarten homeschool activities require little prep and often no extra supplies. All of these activities encourage the development of wonder and independent learning!
These easy kindergarten activities are broken into the following categories:
- Nature
- Art
- Reading
- Confidence Boosters
- Comprehensive Learning
Easy Nature Based Activities:
These easy nature based kindergarten activities will encourage your young one to fall in love with nature, learning about the natural world almost effortlessly.
There are so many easy nature activities to choose from:
- Go for a nature walk on a long trail. Bring a notebook and colored pencils and sketch a few critters
- Find a a beach to relax and play in the sand. Bring along some educational beach books and relax together
- Grab a pair of binoculars and a bird book and head to a bird refuge or natural area. Talk about the species you see.
- Capture a snail, slug or other small critter and create a habitat in a mason jar. Enjoy observing him for the day, then release!
- Print out a few coloring pages from Nature Inspired Learning, and focus on studying that animal for the week. Head to the library and grab some books on your chosen subject!
- Grow, catch and release butterflies! Growing and releasing butterflies is a fun spring activity that effortlessly teaches kids about science and nature. We released butterflies 3 years in a row now, and the kids never grow tired of it! Buy the kit here.
Art:
Art is so fun but can get messy and create excess clutter quickly. Here are a few easy, laid back art activities that you can incorporate into your kindergarten homeschool curriculum:
- Paint rocks using acrylic paint or an art kit and release them around parks to encourage others
- Keep watercolor and paints at the ready and enjoy the easy and forgiving art of watercolor together
- Make a weekly batch of play dough. Add a few drops of lavender for a relaxing creative time!
- Keep a fabric bin and encourage textile play and creativity
- Choose a youtube channel that you enjoy and trust to give your child art lessons. Make sure to sit and do them together! We have enjoyed Kid’s Art Hub fun instructional videos.
Reading + Literature Based Activities
A passion for reading and love for books is one of the most important goals of homeschooling your 5 year old. These easy activities support literacy and a love for reading:
- Have a weekly library day where you check out new books and audiobooks
- Schedule daily reading aloud times in the morning, afternoon and before bed
- Host a monthly reading group with another home school family. Plan a fun snack and a read aloud time
- Use 5 In A Row for an easy and gentle literature based curriculum. Each week, you’ll choose a new book to read 5 times, and the curriculum will walk you through easy learning sessions based off the story. My children have loved this gentle curriculum!
- Plan a bookish picnic, where you load up your favorite books and head to a grassy field, complete with finger foods and snacks. Sit, snack and read! (My kids loves this!).
- Create book nooks with your kids, complete with pillows, blankets, snacks and books
Click here for the best kindergarten read aloud books!
Confidence Boosting Activities For Kindergartners
When homeschooling, we have the unique opportunity to build life skills right into our child’s curriculum. These experiences, in turn will bring confidence! Our daily rhythms can easily support these confidence building activities:
- Teach your 5 year old basic cooking skills. Breakfast is a great time to do this! You can also create a weekly baking day (we do this on Saturday)
- Daily chores will help build confidence and teamwork skills in your child. Chores for a 5 year old can include learning to make their bed, putting away laundry, and the basics of washing dishes.(Focus on teaching and habit training, not perfection.)
- Free time! One of these easiest but most beneficial “activities” you can give your child is free time. This unstructured free time is crucial in developing independence and creativity. Free time allows a child to find their own voice in life and lean into the things they love. At this age, these will typically be things like building forts outside, playing with their favorite toys, and “reading” their favorite books.
- Involve your child in household projects and renovations. You can easily grow your child’s confidence by asking their opinions and getting them involved on a project! If you are repainting a room, show your child 3 pre- approved colors and ask them to “pick” the final color. Involve your 5 year old any way you can!
Kindergarten Activities For Comprehensive Learning
These kindergarten activities will teach your child many lessons at once. They are an immersive, easy way to introduce your child to many fields of study and open up their mind to wonder!
- Take a field trip to a local zoo. Better yet, ask for a zoo pass as a Christmas gift and visit regularly!
- Visit a local farm, blueberry patch or apple orchard.
- Volunteer together! One of my favorite kindergarten memories with my daughter was when we volunteered with her American Heritage Troop to spread bark dust at a local park. We worked alongside a large group of people bettering our community and enjoying the fresh air. Any opportunity that teaches your child about service and how people work together for the common good is wonderful!
- Do a short job shadow of someone you admire, or visit a fire station.
- Visit a museum or go ride a train. Young children especially enjoy anything focused on trains, airplanes, and automobiles!
I hope you found these easy kindergarten activities inspirational! Remember, so much is learned just in the everyday acts of living. Enjoying exploring the world with your 5 year old, and have a wonderful kindergarten year together!
More home school inspiration here:
A Gentle Kindergarten Homeschool Schedule
