DIY Homeschool Lessons

 

I have been looking up all the pumpkin patches near us, and it does not look promising. I put together some pumpkin homeschool activities to bring a sprinkle of Fall into our life this week.

Just a little disclaimer, I am not a professional. These activities are tailored to things that work best for my son. He has probably got a lot in common with everyone else's amazing toddlers. I just hope this can inspire mommas to take on homeschooling without doubts of being effective. You do not need fancy curriculum, tons of supplies, just a little creativity.

 

I will try to keep things Shortte and Sweet so here we go.

 (More activities at the end of the post)

 

Pumpkin Shape Farms

Okay coming off doing shapes last week I wanted to start with this refresher for Micah.

I just cut out "pumpkin" shapes on orange construction paper. Copied them onto the green and will have him sort it out.

For activities like this I like to create a story.

"Someone stole the pumpkins out the patch and we have to help them find their spot." 

This helps me build a conversation with Micah. One thing I have learned from taking him to speech therapy is how to open the door for his imagination. Once that door is open, I can help him build expressive language.

 Pumpkin Seed/Candy Corn Counting

For this activity I cut out circles and made a couple candy corn shapes with numbers on them. I will have Micah use candy corn or pumpkin seeds to match with the number.

I.e. Two pumpkin seeds on the two.

 

This is just building his recognition of itemizing numbers. Yes, he can count and read numbers. I just want him to really understand how it all works.

 

You can do this for literally anything put numbers down on a paper even. Use pasta for counting, whatever you have on hand.

 Number Pumpkin Patch

For this one I covered an old shoebox with construction paper. Cut out little gourd shapes and glued them on toothpicks. Then it is just a matter of having Micah match the gourds to the right spot in the pumpkin patch.

He was super excited about this activity, so of course we tested it out. I think the difficulty is spot on for where he is at right now.

 

You could do this with the alphabet and even words. Meet your child where they are at.

 

What is inside the Pumpkin?

For this one I cut out a pumpkin shape. (I just free hand and use scrap paper for everything.) I glued the stems, so it opens like a flip book. I glued some orange yarn and pumpkin seeds inside. I bake and craft often, so I did not buy anything special for these activities. You could totally just draw the inside of a pumpkin and it would work the same.

 

This activity I put in to really stretch his sentence building and expressive language.

I.e. "I see..."

"I see seeds."

"I see pulp."

 

"The pulp is orange."

"The seeds are white."

 

You could do this for any fruit or veggie. I have seen ones similar for apple anatomy.

 

 Pumpkin Pie Playdoh

We made this so Micah could form shapes and letters with the Playdoh.

I.e. "Make a circle." "Make the letter P."

 

The fact that he can relate the color and smell to this Autumn season is just a bonus. The more senses involved the better in my opinion.

 

Recipe

1.5 Cups Flour

.5 Cup Salt

2 Tablespoons Oil

2 Teaspoons Cream of Tartar

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

.5 Teaspoon Nutmeg

.5 Teaspoon Cloves

Sprinkle of Ginger

1 Cup boiling Water

1 drop of Orange gel color

 

Just mix the dry ingredients

Add the boiling water (already colored)

Knead it until it comes together

 

 Here are some of the other homeschool activities,

 

-Shape Hunt

Cut the shapes of your choice out and place the paper on the floor. Have your little search the house for things in each shape. You could cut out paper shapes and hide them around the house for another way.

 

-Shape Figure

I made a shape rocket out of construction paper and taped it to the wall. Then had Micah identify the single shapes while seeing them in a full picture. It just steps the difficulty up a tad.

 

-Alphabet Tic Tac Toe

We did the Letter A upper and lowercase on apple shapes. This was just a way to make it fun, but also going over letter cases.

 

-Color by Number

I just made up a picture, which makes it easy to adjust to difficulty. Simply draw a picture and number sections. Then assign a color to each number. This was one of his favorites.

(You could do letters, shapes, numbers, animals, anything really.)

 

-Shape Lacing

We did an apple being laced by a hungry caterpillar. That was one of our books for apple week. You can cut out any shape with cardboard, punch holes in it, attached a string and voila. This works on motor skills and cognitive skills.

 

-Letter Tracing

You could buy tracing paper or make your own. All you need is lines and dots. I usually make up little songs to help Micah as he traces.

 

 

I set a theme for the week based off Micah's interest, or any events coming up. I stick to shapes, alphabet, counting, and expressive language activities for the most part. I try to line things up with his speech therapy to keep things circulating in his mind. We have a ton of books, so I match them up with the theme.

 

Okay I think that is it. If y'all have any questions, ask away.

Happy learning!

 

XO,