How to Set Up an Affordable Homeschool Preschool Space

We recently made the decision to homeschool our preschooler for the time being. The main reason my husband and I made this choice is because our school district has deemed it unsafe for students to have school in-person until COVID numbers go down. Also, we have a new baby on the way and want to take the extra precaution. Once we made the decision to homeschool we needed an area of the house as an organized preschool space. I thought I would share how we set up our affordable homeschool preschool space in case it would help give ideas to anyone else.

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Homeschool Space vs Homeschool Room

The reason I call it a homeschool space and not a homeschool room is because we do not have a separate room that would be convenient to use as an educational area. Plus, I have an almost two-year-old who will participate in some activities (storytime, coloring, etc) but I’m sure she will wander off to play with her toys during some of the curriculum time.

Instead of a room, we dedicated a wall of our preschooler’s bedroom to be our homeschool space. I will go into detail below with how we organized the space and what supplies I’ve purchased thus far. I want to keep homeschooling affordable and hopefully, temporary!!

Homeschool Preschool Curriculum

In March, our daughter went to exactly three days of preschool before COVID shut everything down. I was thrown into trying to homeschool her at that point. It didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

Each night I spent a lot of time on Pinterest trying to find free printables and activities. Furthermore, I didn’t have any dedicated space for “school” so there were a lot of distractions. My daughter and I both ended up being frustrated. I probably had too high of expectations (I am a former middle school/high school teacher, I’m NOT trained for preschool). In addition, I didn’t do a wonderful job of setting the groundwork for being successful at homeschooling.

Now, going into the fall season, I knew I did not want to repeat my mistakes from spring. This time, I researched different curriculum and was shocked at how expensive some ran. There was no way I was going to shell out hundreds of dollars on a curriculum for teaching one preschooler.

Luckily, I found Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool and I am so happy! This preschool curriculum is extremely affordable and she has done all of the planning for you!!

Included are morning songs, two-week units, recommended books, activities, etc. Each unit is clearly broken down and very easy to follow for the parent/teacher. She understands the limited attention span of this age group because of all her professional and personal experience. I only bought Part I but if we don’t end up sending our daughter back to in-person preschool this year I’m sure I’ll be purchasing Part II as well.

Preschool Supplies

The suggested supplies for this preschool curriculum are very basic and often used for numerous units. I bought most of our preschool supplies at Dollar Tree and the dollar spot at Target. Examples of the supplies include glue sticks, cotton balls, construction paper, dot stickers, etc.

To see the supplemental supplies I’ve purchased click on this photo on my “Shop My Instagram” page for direct links.

Affordable Homeschool Preschool Space

For the homeschool preschool space set-up, I purchased most of the items at IKEA. The kids’ table and chairs, the two rails with hanging containers and pails, plus the book display were all purchased at IKEA – super affordable!

Tip: I’m going to use the book display to hold only the books for the current unit we are working on. As you can see from the picture, I am waiting on many holds from my library to arrive for Unit 1. I’m guessing many other preschool parents in my area have purchased the same curriculum.

In the hanging containers and pails, I am organizing all crayons, markers, glue sticks, scissors, dot markers, etc.

For all the craft projects and artwork I’m sure we’ll be doing, I bought two of these cute hanging art displays. I was nervous about shipping timelines (the product comes from England) but they arrived very fast with a personalized note and tea bag – how sweet!

Tip: Once the art displays become full (or after each unit) I will have my daughter pick her favorite piece to keep being displayed or to be stored in her keepsake box. This way we won’t end up with a ridiculous amount of artwork. Purge as you go along – trust me.

The cube storage will help me keep all the rest of the supplies and curriculum organized. I am keeping paper and supplemental workbooks (workbook 1, workbook 2) in these magazine files. Any printed curriculum sheets or printables I am storing in binders. In the fabric bins, I have misc. supplies as well as trays for doing arts and crafts on. My goal with the trays is to hopefully reduce messes and keep things like beads from spilling.

In this small container, I am currently housing masking tape, dry erase markers, post-its, dot stickers, and a sand timer. Then in this larger container with a lid, I am storing arts and crafts supplies (pipe cleaners, puffballs, cotton balls, googly eyes, and beads).

On a different wall, I plan on using chalk paint on a closet door. Then I will hang our daily calendar on it. I bought our calendar in the Target dollar area but here are more great options – daily calendar 1, daily calendar 2, daily calendar 3.

Tip: What you won’t find in our homeschool preschool space is our easel. The room is carpeted so anytime we want to paint I plan on putting our easel outside or in the kitchen.

   

So there you have it, our easy and affordable homeschool preschool space. If you follow me on Instagram (@planningforkeeps) I will share how our homeschooling experience is going and any tips I gather along the way.