Preschool at Home – The Apron Strings Way {part 3}

Welcome to {Part 3} of my Preschool at Home series. I have had fun looking back over some of the activities we enjoyed when our children were preschool age. The activities mentioned in these 3 posts are by no an exhaustive list. Rather, they are intended to spark your imagination and creativity, get you thinking outside the box and seeing potential and opportunity for learning as you and your children spend your days together, working together, playing together.

It is also important to be reading to your children, singing with your children, providing a safe and secure atmosphere for your children. We also read the Bible to our children and teach them the accounts of Bible stories and characters. Sharing these things with our children gives them a strong and healthy foundation on which to build and grow and develop. To wrap up this series I share with you 6 more ideas for ways your preschooler can learn, at home, in the context of family.

• Go on Outings –  Take a trip to the zoo, visit museums, stop in at the hardware store, take a drive in the country. There is something to learn at every turn. Education does not necessarily happen around a tiny table with a dozen tiny children sitting in tiny chairs. It happens at every turn, it happens as we go about our days.
• Be a Real Cut Up – Draw 3 long, wavy lines parallel to one another from one end of a piece of paper to the other. Ask them to cut the paper into strips following the lines as best they can. Change it up with zigzags and hills and valleys for variation.

• Be Dramatic – Encourage your children to act out their Bible stories or dramatize their favorite story book or nursery rhymes. Or hand out tickets to the whole family when your little guys begin hamming it up after hearing Mom read from Treasure Island to their older siblings (aarrrrgh, Matie!!!)
• Go on a Treasure Hunt – Since we are on the topic of treasure, keep a drawer or bin handy for junk mail and old magazines and let them ‘have at it’ with scissors. Ask them to hunt for things that are red, or triangular in shape, or tell them to find 3 pictures of puppies, cut them out, glue them to their paper. This keeps them busy for hours (almost!) and then they can practice their practical living skills by sweeping up the scraps with a wisk broom and dust pan.

• Make It Sweet – There can be a whole lot of learning in a little package of candy. Count the pieces together. Sort them by color. Which pile has the most? Which pile has the least? Play the matching game – can you find the crayon that is the same color as this pile? And then there’s a lesson in sharing – One for you, one for brother, one for Daddy, etc.
•  Let Their Fingers Do The Writing – Keep a bin handy (preferrable one with a tight-sealing lid) half full of rice or popcorn or wheat berries. When Mom is occupied making supper or making a phone call or nursing the baby have preschooler sit at the table or on the floor and practice drawing letters or shapes or freeform art with their little fingers. Their fine motor skills are not always ready for the tedious pencil and paper so this can help with the transition.

Over the past 3 days I have shared 18 ways you can ‘do’ preschool at home with your children. I’ve just scratched the surface! Three and four year olds are full of vim and vigor, energy and enthusiasm. We can all use a few more tools in our toolboxes. What are you doing with your children in your home during these preschool years?

• Preschool at Home – The Apron Strings Way {part 1}
• Preschool at Home – The Apron Strings way {part 2}

Sharing at some of these wonderful places.