Preschool Supplies You Actually Need | Simple & Hands-On for Homeschooling Preschool

Hey everybody, welcome. I'm Jessica and today's video is going to be all about the best preschool resources to have on hand for your homeschool. Now, if you missed it, I have done an entire preschool series this month because as I have been looking ahead to homeschooling high school, I have also been reflecting back on our beginning. So the first video that I shared was what I would do differently if I could start all over. So if you missed that, I will link it up here. Then I shared my absolute favorite books, picture books specifically to read with your preschooler. So I will link that one up here as well. And then the last one that I did was the best games to play with your preschooler, which are some of our absolute favorite games that we wish we had played even more in our preschool years. So I will link that one as well. This week, we are going to be talking about resources. So I know that I said you could just read books and play games and I 100% stand behind that, but sometimes there are some extra resources that will make homeschooling preschooler more hands-on. And so I'm going to share my favorites with you for that exact purpose. The first thing that I have is this helping hands fine motor tool set. This is from learning resources. It has four different things. I have like a couple of pinchers, like a gator grabber, a twisty dropper, a handy scooper, and a squeezy tweezer. These are great for sensory bends. That was always the thing I use these for. They're fantastic. Water beads, rice, beans, whatever you're going to use, stick these in there with them and let them have sensory play while they are working on their fine motor skills. Next, I have one of our absolute favorite creative things, and that is do a dot markers. We absolutely love these. They are basically a bingo marker, if you will, but they're a little more preschool friendly because they're a little fatter and the dot is a little rounder. These are fantastic for them to do basically anything with, for them to color with, for them to paint with, for them to dot on a page, but also you can find some really great printables that are alphabets and number, like do a dots that just have the circles for them, and so they can start practicing fine motor skills with the do a dot markers by, you know, trying to get it in that little circle. So it is a great addition that also works on fine motor skills in an artsy and crafty type of way. While we're talking about arts and crafts, I also love quick sticks. These are basically tempera paint, so they are washable, but you just take the cap off and use the thing to paint with them. Like they dry in 60 to 90 seconds. They come in a ton of different colors. This happens to be the regular size, but you can see here on the back, they also have thin and jumbo. So the jumbo is about the same size as the do a dot if you need something a little bit bigger for your preschooler's hands, but this way you can get a painting without all the mess of paint, like having to have the cups and brushes and spills and all that. You don't have to worry about that. Paint sticks, great way to do art in preschool. I also love the large Crayola crayons because I think they're a lot easier for preschoolers to hold in their hand, and it helps them with their control. And while I have already talked about why I am not a very huge fan of putting a pencil in a preschooler's hand, that's my personal preference, and if you are going to use pencils in preschool for tracing or for drawing or for writing or for whatever, the ones that I recommend are the Ticonderoga, my first. They're a little bit shorter. They're a little bit fatter. They're triangle grip. They make it easier for a preschooler whose pincer grip is not quite formed to be able to control and hold them. So if you're going to use pencils, that's my recommendation. I also really, really love these pocket scissors. I'm going to open them so you can see because they really are so cool. Okay, so this is the scissors. There's no sharp anything. Then you push this out, but instead of trying to put your fingers in a hole, they're just like, they can squeeze, and then when you're done, you just push that back down, and you don't have to worry about the sharp thing. And they're not even really like that sharp. They're only going to cut paper. They have the safety blunt edges, but that is my favorite preschool scissors because I feel like trying to put your fingers in those holes and make that movement is so difficult. That's difficult for even me. Like after wrapping Christmas presents, my hands hurt. So I think these are perfect for preschoolers because they just squeeze this, and so they're working on those muscles without getting frustrated. I also love hole punchers for the same reason. These are easy squeeze hole punchers, and I love that. They're super easy, and you can just give your child a piece of paper and let them just hole punch. Like it doesn't have to be any kind of rhyme or reason. I mean, there are printables that you can get that will have different things. For example, here's the capital letter A. Punch out all the matching A's. Or here's a capital B. Punch out all the lowercase b's. Whatever there is. Like here's a butterfly. What letter does it start with? Hole punch all of those. There's tons of printables that you can use with them, but you don't have to have a printable. You can just hand them a piece of paper and a hole punch. I also really, really love wiki sticks. These are basically a, I don't know, it's like a straw. Actually, what it reminds me of is a pipe cleaner. Maybe that is what it is. It's covered in wax, and so they're like, you can shape them. You can do different things with them. You can see here on the back where they've made a couple different things, but they're really, really fun for kids to just play with. They can make a circle. They can make a square. They can just tie them up in knots. Again, really, really great for fine motor skills, and there's a lot of things that they can do with them. I also really love these math cubes because they can build with them, but you can also use them later for things like counting. You can have them use them for like color matching, for building towers. It's great for fine motor skills. You can use them, like I said, for ones, for tens. There's so many things that you can use these for, and they just grow with them. Obviously, I love Legos, but I think these have a whole lot more reasons you can use them or ways you can use them than just your typical Lego set. Pattern blocks are another favorite. I absolutely love pattern blocks. You can just use these to talk about different colors, different shapes. You can get the pattern block mats to have them match them or build with them. There's just so many different ways to use these in the early preschool years, as well as even later years. Emily will still do pattern block mats for the different seasons and stuff. They're a win. Learning links are link and learn. I love these for fine motor skills. There's a ton of different ways that you can use these. You can just have them sort them into the different colors. You can have them link, like make me a link of red. They can make a link of red. They're linking them to each other, which means you're working on those fine motor skills. Another great thing to do with them is patterns. You can learn your AB patterns, your ABC, like, okay, let's do alternating red and green, or let's do red, green, blue, and then they can make the links in that pattern. There's 500 in the set, so you have plenty to work with. Another really fun way to use them is if you have printables, you can punch a hole in the printable. I have some that are colors, and so it's like a red or green, and I'll punch a hole and have them make the link coming off of that printable so that there's like something extra and fun than just make me a red one. Play-Doh, I don't think you can ever go wrong with Play-Doh. Like, I just have a whole box here of a small one, so there's plenty to do. This is fantastic. They can be creative with it, but it's so good for their fine motor skills. Just the pinching and the pulling is great. There's Play-Doh mats you can get. You can just let them play with it for fun. It is a great thing to always, always have on hand. And then everyday things that I like to have on hand when doing preschool, because I think they come in handy for a lot of different things, are Popsicle sticks, the little round stickers. I love using these along, like with the DuoDot printables that I was talking about, using stickers instead of the DuoDot. It just gives it another way to use the same printable. Same thing with round magnets. You can use any, like, DuoDot printable or coloring book, and you can put it on a cookie sheet and use the round magnets. So again, you're just finding another way to purpose that. And all of those are still working on their fine motor skills, because they're doing magnets with their little pincher fingers, or they're doing stickers, which are even harder, or they're doing the DuoDots. And then the last thing that I have is clothespins, just your typical clothespins. I happen to have colorful ones because that's just who I am, but even just your cheap Dollar Tree ones that are like the plain wooden ones would be fine. The fine motor skills that they would be working on is fantastic, and you can have them use these for anything. There are printables that you can get that are clip cards if you want, like, a hands-on activity. Like, for example, again, there's a capital letter A, clip the lowercase a, or whatever that is. You can use something like this in a sensory bin. For example, if you don't have the fine motor skill set, or you can't find it, you can just use clothespins for that, where they can pick things up. Another really fun thing to do with them is have them do those DuoDot printables that maybe you now have on hand, and use pom-poms, like those little, I don't have any right now, but that's another thing I would keep on hand. But those little, like, fuzzy round pom-poms, they can use these to pick them up and then put them on the dot and let them go. You can also use these with Play-Doh, like, to bite a little Play-Doh off. Either way, they're fantastic for so many things, or just, like, have them play with them. Just give them some to work on that fine motor skill. And, like I've mentioned before, I don't necessarily think you need a full curriculum for preschool, but if you're looking for simple hands-on printables that pair really well with these types of resources that I showed you in this video, that's exactly what I created Purposeful Preschool for. It's full of ready-to-use activities for letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and more. Plus, fine motor activities and a ton of printable pretend play packs that make learning feel like play. So, instead of trying to come up with ideas or figure out how to use all these tools, you already have something you can grab, print, and use right away. It just makes it easier to take the resources you already have and turn them into simple, meaningful learning throughout your day. Before you go, if you're homeschooling a preschooler this year, I'm doing a giveaway you're not going to want to miss. I'm giving away everything you need for preschool. Books, games, hands-on resources, and even Purposeful Preschool. So, if you've been wondering how to make preschool simple, fun, and actually work, this is the easiest way to get started. Check the link below in the description to enter for a chance to win.