This is what “preschool” homeschool looks like here, along with books and folksongs and outdoor play. (She’s having a popcorn snack with little tongs to work on fine motor skills.)
Having a magnet board with a bunch of activity options helps me not get stuck in a rut of mental fatigue - I just stick a handful of different types of things on there in the morning, and when I have a few minutes between things I need to do with the bigs, I just do the next thing or let her pick what she wants to do next. I can also easily have the older kids step in to do something engaging with her. I just found pictures online of a bunch of her toys and games we already own and laminated them and stuck a magnet on the back. When we are finished with an activity, she knows we clean up before we move it to the “done” side and go on to something else. Having some structured one-on-one time makes the rest of the day go so much more smoothly.
If you have littles at home this year (whether you intended to or not!), a flexible structure like this can save your sanity, help your littles feel attended to throughout the day with engaging activities, and at the same time help them develop self-management skills. I actually think little things like this are part of what helped the bigs learn to be capable with managing their own schoolwork loads now. 😊