Thursday, August 09, 2007
A Quick Question
This year I'm going to try to have some time each day for Evan and Amy to play one on one with Emily while I teach the other big kid. I was wondering if any of you have some good ideas for things to do with a preschooler (2-3 years old). I'm thinking things like playdough, blocks, and puzzles. Please leave a comment if you have any ideas. I'm hoping to collect a bunch to rotate through. Thanks!
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11 comments:
We're going to have the same issue here, so I look forward to hearing some suggestions. My 2 yr. old really like the Little People toys: the farm, school bus, etc. She also likes magna doodles.
Hope you have a great school year! Looking forward to hearing about it.
We do this, too...Sometimes Hannah reads to Abbey, they play dolls together, draw and color. When it's Benjamin's turn with Abbey they play a simple board game or card game (go-fish). Some days, I sit the play dough box on the table, and they take turns with it when they aren't doing lessons. One thing every one loves to do (and this surprises me) is play with math manipulatives...like the pattern blocks. I keep pages and pages of the shapes they can fill, and they will do one shape after another with the pattern blocks. Or make their own designs.
I agree with Wendy...the Little People toys are one of my youngest's favorite toys. She has the doll house with the family and a little car...she loves to play with it and her brother's LP farm.
Another thing that keeps the little one busy and feeling like she's doing school is a dry erase board. At our homeschool convention a company was selling small boards and erasers for $2. I bought a couple and Abbey will sit a "write" on her board for a while.
Sorry this is so long. Hope our ideas help. I want to put together some boxes that the little ones use on certain days, but I haven't done that yet.
This is in response to your comment on Laurie's blog. I didn't know if you'd see it:
Christina, nice to hear you liked "Suite Francaise." It's on my reading list after a co-worker of mine told me she'd read it in her book club and it sounded so interesting. I'd looked at it though, and wasn't sure if I'd like it. However, now that I've heard you liked it too, I think I'll give it a try. I think the circumstances of the book make it all the more interesting.
One my kids enjoy is the idea of playing school with the younger one. Emma can make Play-dough letters or numbers with Caedmon while telling him what they are and what they say. Or, they can play story time and she can show him a book even if she makes up her own story. They can set up his favorite stuffed animals or figures so they can be part of the story time. Like the other comment said, a chalk or dry erase board is great for this so they can really play school.
Another Idea for Evan to do with her as he is older and a boy, is to let her make some fingerprints on paper (washable stamp pad of course:) and he can add to them to make them all kinds of characters. Maybe they can make a little story together.
I think the hardest challenge with that age is that the attention span is so brief and the wonder as to where mommy is and what she is doing that they can be part of is always distracting.
Also, do you have any view masters?
Kim at Lifesong posted a link with preschool ideas :)
There's some great ideas here. I am going to try some of these things for Calvin...
Stickers. One thing the 2-3 year likes is to "do school" like the "big kids." I would make "math pages" by taking making empty squares they had to fill with stickers. E.g. 1+2=3). Dollar Store has lots of stickers
What happened? Blogger wouldn't let me finish....
Salt tray art. Fill a cookie sheet with salt and let them draw. Older kids can practice letters this way at the same time.
Collage. Have older child cut out animal pics (like all tigers or all fish or all Letter E.) Pour some glue into a spare lid (to contain it) and let child dip finger into it and glue pics down while older child supervises. They can do as many or as few pics as attn span will allow.
Pipe cleaner fun. Make all kinds of shapes with these.
They seem longer occupied when they are close to Mommy,huh?
Hi Christina, Just thinking about you and wondering how you are doing. How's school? It's been pretty silent over here! :)
Christina,
You are so sweet. Thank you for all your encouragement and wisdom. I hope the school year is going great for your family. It is such a joy to see Christian families investing in their children they way you are.
God Bless you!
Leigh
Christina,
I bought Seth the Tangoes Jr. from Timberdoodle this year. He enjoys the heck out of them and entertains himself for 20-30 minutes at a time while we do Latin. They're also a fun thing to do together. Another favorite "do-together" for the kids is to play restaurant with the mini kitchen, a cash register and a makeshift table. There is one last favorite and that's to play "ice cream stand" with micro-bead "playdough," the real ice cream scoop, the apron Shauna made, and the pretend dishes.
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