This is an easy gift to make. All you’ll need are fairly large sized rocks, preferably ones that are large enough to hold in the palm of the hand. Smooth rocks are preferable, the kind you find on the beach are perfect.

Wash each rock, and dry. Ask your preschooler to use poster paints to draw a face or smiley on the rock. Once the artwork is complete, dry the rock thoroughly. Cut out a piece of felt or velvet cloth and stick to the bottom of the paper weight with glue. Voila! You have a paperweight that’s good enough to gift!

Now that the holiday season is here, it’s a great way to introduce your child to the joy of gifting presents that are wrapped in lovely paper they made on their own. These wrapping paper ideas are easy and fun to create, and inexpensive to boot! Plus, they are simple enough for a 3 year old to try.

Before beginning any of these, spread out a large plastic sheet on a work table or on the floor. If possible, create a space for the project outside the house. Make sure he’s dressed up in something comfortable, but old – finger painting can be messy!

Finger Painting Wrapping Paper

What You’ll Need

• White or colored paper
• Non toxic paint

Method

Give your child several colors of finger paint. Allow him to be creative with his fingers. Try using a theme for different papers – shapes, stars, etc.

Once he’s done with each paper, hang it up to dry on a clothesline or wire, and secure with pins.

Fireworks Wrapping Paper

What You’ll Need

• White or colored paper
• Non toxic water colors
• Some drinking straws

Method

Spread out the paper and ask your child to pour small gobs of paint randomly across the paper. Let him then use a straw to blow air over the paint so it spreads in uneven directions. This creates a firework effect.

Tip

Use sharply contrasting surface and paint combos for a truly spectacular effect. Try a pale colored paper with dark paint or a dark colored paper with white or pale pink color.

Use gold glitter paint to outline the fireworks.

Sponge Painting Wrapping Paper

What You’ll Need

• Different colors of poster paints
• Sponges cut in various shapes (circles, triangles, stars etc.)

Bowls for mixing color

Method

Pour colors into separate bowls. Let your 3 year old dip each sponge shape in the color and press it on the paper. As always, dry each paper on a wire.

Tip

Try cutting out different animal or bird shapes. Fish are easy to draw and cut out, and so are numerals, party hats and so on.

Wrapping gifts for their grandparents and other relatives with paper that they painted and created themselves makes children feel proud enough to burst! Make sure you inform the gift recipient about the hard work gone into their wrapping paper, and encourage them to make a fuss over the effort!

You know what it’s like. You’re putting the finishing touches to dinner, or just settling down to watch Oprah, and your preschooler just won’t settle down. There’s a way to get around this. Set up a simple Crafts Kit that contains all the materials he needs to keep himself pre occupied for a couple of hours.

It doesn’t take long to put together, it’s cheap and best of all you don’t have to spend 30 minutes collecting crayons, tearing off sheets of drawing paper and getting him all set up at a worktable. With a kit that’s stocked and ready to go, all you have to do is haul it out when your angel needs to get his hands dirty!

A Crafts Kit doesn’t have to be elaborate. A simple cardboard box will do just fine. Or you could use one of those large plastic containers that are available at home improvement stores. Really in a pinch? Just grab your laundry hamper, and begin throwing stuff in there!

Here’s what your Crafts Kit should include:

• Crayons
• White chart paper
• Colored chart paper (yellow, pink, pastel blue and green)
• Black paper
• White paper
• Gray paper
• Pencils
• Poster board
• Pair of scissors
• A bowl for mixing
• Non toxic washable markers
• Glue
• Chalk in various colors
• Modeling clay
• Non toxic water colors
• Paintbrush (medium and small sized)
• Stick for mixing
• Hand wipes
• Large plastic sheet to cover the work area
• A smock or loose comfortable shirt (for your little artist)
• Poster paints
• A box of glitter
• Glitter paint
• Cellophane
• A hole punch machine
• Small sponge
• A roll of thread

Keep your Crafts Kit somewhere high up on a shelf or locked in a closet, so he can’t get to work on his own when you’re not around. When in need, just drag the box out, settle him down on the floor or work table and enjoy an hour or so of peace and quiet!

Here are some figures that are really scary. According to statistics from Para Publishing, one third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives, and over 80 percent of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

It’s not difficult to understand why reading habits have decreased they way they have. With competition from television, and (ahem) the Internet, books have a hard time making a place for themselves in our imagination.

While figures like these are daunting, it’s not impossible for you to help your preschooler develop a love for reading. Take it slow, keep at it, and you should be able to gift your child the reading bug.

Catch Them Young
Start when your child is just a few months old – old enough to recognize your voice and look at pictures. When they’re toddlers and old enough to recognize alphabets, ask them to point out letters that they recognize as you read.

Make Reading Part of their Daily Routine
Keep aside an hour everyday to read with your child. It could be a simple story book, or a collection of rhymes. No television, no distractions.

Make Friends with Books
Gift books for birthdays, and for no reason at all. Take him along to the book store so he can pick out a book of his choice. Encourage relatives to gift him books too. You don’t have to completely stop with the toys. Just make sure you add at least one book to the mix.

Make Reading a Fun Activity
Have fun while reading to your child! Use different voices for different characters, and help him paint a mental picture of every scene. Don’t be dull and boring. The point is to make him think, “Wow! This is fun!”

Use Word Games and Often
Board games like Scrabble are not only a terrific way to spend time with your child, they also build reading skills. Plus, the two in one effect is unbeatable. You’ll be helping him read, while also bonding with him at the same time!

Continuing with yesterday’s topic – toy recalls- here’s a round up of some new recalls that have been announced in the last week.

• Sears is recalling more than 6000 pairs of TKS Brand children’s pants sold from July to August this year at Sears stores nationwide for about $16 each. The reason? A ribbon belt around the waist has been found to “cause entrapment hazards.”
• About 64,000 holiday figurines including plastic snowmen and bears imported from (where else?) China have been recalled because they have been found tainted with (what else?) lead paint. These were sold at Home Depot stores from October through November this year.
• About 13,000 girls’ clothing sets consisting of mainly olive cord knit pants and pink short sleeved tops of the Basic Edition brand have been recalled, also because of entrapment or entanglement hazards from the drawstring of the pants. These were sold at K-Mart stores nationwide during this July.
• About 1400 collectible helmets, again imported from China have been recalled because the surface of these helmets contains a high amount of lead. These helmets resemble those worn by race car drivers, and were sold at Bell Racing dealers through out this year.

Be happy, and be safe!

With 2007 being something of a record year as far as toy recalls are concerned, you’re probably still worried about the kind of gifts you can choose for your child. And a little caution is definitely not out of line when it comes to toy safety. I don’t believe there is any need for paranoia, but most of the toys that contain loose small magnets may still be on shelves when you go shopping this year.

This summer, Mattel recalled more than 8 million toys because of the presence of little magnets which were prone to coming loose, and posed a very real danger because they could be easily ingested by toddlers and preschoolers.

After Mattel’s high profile recall, the toy industry decided to formulate guidelines for the manufacture of toys that contained loose magnets. The guidelines include having labels on the covers warning parents that the toys contained magnets, and manufacturing safer toys that would eliminate the possibility of magnets coming loose.

The only hitch? These guidelines won’t come into effect till January 2008, which means that these toys will still be on toy store shelves through this holiday season.

If you have both older kids and toddlers at home, you might want to reconsider buying toys with magnets for your older children. Most of the kids who got sick because of ingesting magnets were preschoolers and toddlers, not older children. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to prevent the older ones handing over these toys to the toddler in the house.  In fact, in many cases where toddlers were rushed to the ER after ingesting a loose magnet, the toys in question were handed to them by a sibling. Definitely gives you something to think about.

So, what are you doing to take care of toy safety?

My very first post!

Welcome to my blog, The PreSchool Mama, created especially for all you mommies of preschoolers out there. In here, you’ll find tips and advice for teaching your preschoolers, ideas for arts, crafts and activities, tricks to get them to eat, and plenty of motivational advice to help YOU better cope with raising your preschooler.

So what makes me such a preschooling expert? Well, I am a former preschool teacher myself, with training in Montessori teaching methods, and managed to combine my kindergarten career with raising my then three year old son. I definitely found my training and teaching experience hugely beneficial when it came to raising my own child. In fact, I soon found that friends and relatives were all too keen on picking my brains when they needed help with their kids!

Which is where this blog comes in. I hope to share all the wisdom I have gained through life experiences at home and in the classroom, and I hope you’ll find this blog useful for raising your own child.

Do drop by again, and often!