I’ve been wondering how much time you spend doing stuff with your preschooler – not TV or movies, just preschool activities that are fun and also teach her something…anything. I try to spend an hour most days, more on weekends, and not so much on a crazy busy day. Time management has always been an issue for me, because all my work is done online, and there’s just too much there to distract you.

Thankfully, all seems (relatively) quiet on the Britney front. I remember I lost valuable time keeping up with her antics during that entire head-shaving-sanitary-pad-displaying-locking-self-in-bathroom phase. The more time I spend looking up the latest bit of Britney Spears gossip online, the less I get done. Worse, the lesser time I get to spend time with my family, which is unforgivable.

For those of you who’re having trouble finding time to include meaningful and fun activities for your preschoolers in your daily schedule, I highly recommend a preschool activity calendar.

What you do is create a monthly planner. You can do this together with your child, and that’s an hour of quality time right there. Draw up a calendar on a sheet of paper, with large squares for each day of the month, and on each square note down an activity for the day. Some suggestions for preschool activities:

• Make a snack together.
• Read a book.
• Play dough fun – mix play with learning alphabets and numbers.
• Role play. Bring out the props – old scarves, jewelry, accessories – and let her imagination run wild
• Go on a nature walk, picking up interesting things along the way
• Act out a favorite story or nursery rhyme with lots of actions
• Try fun with science – with mirrors for instance. Here are other science activities for preschoolers that don’t take a lot of time.
• Look through family pictures – talk about her grandparents, and other relatives
• Create a love map together. Make a list of all her favorite things –movies, books, songs, stories etc. Things change fast when you’re a 4 year old, so her choice of favorite movie or song will probably be different by the time next month rolls around! This is a great activity for boosting self esteem and confidence.
• Make a sock puppet, and act out a story.
• Put on a puppet show – use papers bags to create easy to make hand puppets. Here are a few ideas on using paper bags to make puppets.
• Make an obstacle course in the yard, and have fun with it!
• Put on some music, and dance together.
• Have a tea party with your child.
• Take some chalk and draw stick figures in the yard.
• Draw a family picture together.
• Play games with sand – fill a tub with sand, and let her write out alphabets and numbers with her finger.
• Play a game of Lotto.
• Play a game of musical hide and seek.
• Do some sensory activities with smell, taste, and hearing.
• Do a memory activity.
• Take a few paper plates, some string and make face masks from them.
• Have a Mommy and Baby workout!

I am sure you have more things your child loves to do that you could include. Write one entry for each day of the month. It’s Okay to have a couple of activities that repeat – for instance, you could set aside more than one day for reading activities, or nature walks, depending on the weather. But you have to make sure you complete the activity for the day, unless there’s an earth shattering emergency.

Once you’ve written everything down, decorate with stickers and sketch pen squiggles. Slip into a plastic cover, and hang it up someplace where you both can easily have a look at it.

Every time you’re done with an activity for the day, draw a star on that day with the marker. All the stars on the calendar as the month comes to an end will make you feel like Super Mom!

                                          Image by Flickr – Clairity

Okay, a confession. Science was the yuckiest subject at school for me. I couldn’t wait till I finished high school, and didn’t have to suffer through science anymore.

Part of the problem, I think was the way science was made so intimidating in class. Teachers (and parents) were clueless about breaking things down, and making them simple for ordinary mortals.

Having said that, science is also one of the most important subjects your child can grasp, aside from math. By now, we are all aware that geeks will inherit the earth, so here are a few activities to help your preschooler connect to her geeky side.

Kids love to play with mirrors – these throw up incredible opportunities for play and learning. Here are some fun activities using mirrors:

1. Write her name on a piece of paper, and hold it up in front of the mirror. Why are the letters all wonky? Discuss.
2. Put a marble or other small object on a mirror, and roll it around. Watch what happens to the reflection.
3. Experiment with the many possibilities – Let her look at the back of her head by using two mirrors – hold one mirror behind her to face the back of her head, while she holds out the other in front of her.
4. Let her put a spoon inside a cup by look at the reflection in the mirror.
5. Move on to bigger challenges. Let her insert a toothpick or matchstick inside the mouth of a bottle. This also helps her co ordinate her eye hand movements, great practice for other useful skills later on, like writing.
6. Let her find other surfaces to see her reflection in – kitchen appliances like the toaster, or the screen of a TV that’s switched off.
7. Let her look at her reflection in the waters of a pool. Or fill a large tub with water and let her look at her reflection in it. What’s the difference between this reflection and that in her mirror? What happens when she drops a pebble onto the water?
8. Experiment with the steam in the mirror, or on the shower doors after a warm shower. Let her write her name on it. Introduce the origin of steam, and how it clouds up glass surfaces.
9. Let her use a mirror to see the things she cannot see – for instance, she can hold out a mirror in the garden to see the things behind her. Or, let her hold a mirror out the window to see yard or street scenes that she can’t see from inside the house.

More mirror ideas, anyone? Please share.

This preschool activity encourages your preschooler to listen and concentrate. I love it because it combines a sense of hearing activity with a fun game

First, record a number of sounds that are familiar to your child – a car being started, animals she’s familiar with, a musical instrument, the sound of water pouring into a tub, birds etc.

Now, stick a picture of each object that you’ve recorded on separate cards. Cut out pictures from magazines, catalogs, newspapers etc.

Place the cards in a row in front of your child, and play the tape with the sounds.

When she recognizes a sound, she has to take that card and place it face down on the table. Continue until all cards have been placed down.

To keep things simple, start with 6 cards and increase as you go along.

Enjoy!

Long before your child has learned to form a decent sentence, she’s probably learned to warble to words from the latest pop song.  Kids are universally attracted to music – think your 1 year old nodding his head in time to the beat of a song.

Music is more than just fun and games.  The Mozart Effect was discovered when participants in studies showed improvement in memory and thinking, when they were exposed to Mozart’s music. 

No age is too young to begin introducing your child to music.  Here are a few tips to get you started.

PreSchool Music Activities

• Basic music games can start with simple shakers. Fill small bottles with a variety of fillers like sand, rice, dried beans, popcorn kernels, paper clips, and peas and use them to make a variety of sounds that you can use for accompaniment as you sing songs together.
• Play pop music, and dance with her. Use props like scarves and streamers.
• Sing with your child, and often.  Sing in the car, in the bath. Sing a lullaby before bedtime.
• Sing songs that have lots of sounds instead of actual words, like Old Mac Donald.
• Experiment with the Mozart Effect.  Play classical music while she is involved in painting or some other creative activity or when she’s trying to solve a puzzle.  Notice any changes?
• Show her the difference between high and low notes as you sing. If you sing a high note, she has to touch her head. When you sing a low note, she has to touch her knees.  Or she has to stand up or sit down whenever there is a change in note.  This also teaches her to concentrate and listen.
• Use kitchen utensils and other objects as musical instruments.  Steel spoons, glass bowls, tins – these can all be used to create a variety of musical sounds.  Listen to the difference in sound in each one.
• Sew on jingle bells to each finger of her mitten or glove.  Now she gets to create music every time she moves her arms to the beat!
• Use plenty of actions in your songs and counting rhymes. 
• Let her look for similarities in the songs she knows – for instance, the Alphabet song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Ask her if she knows other songs that have the same tune, or sound similar.
• Use songs for chores – “This is the way we set the table” sung to “Here we go around the Mulberry Bush.”
• Use songs to teach.
• Play a game of musical hide and seek.  Send your child out of the room and hide a toy in the room.  When she gets back in the room she has to look for the toy, while you sing a song to provide her clues.  When she comes near the toy, you sing loudly. When she moves away from the toy, you sing softly.  This also increases her ability to concentrate.
• Here’s a site that’s great fun. It has options for her to create her own music merely by selecting certain keys.  Great fun for preschoolers, and easy too!

Play on, and keep smiling!

Welcome to those visiting from Melissa Garrett’s blog! Make yourself at home!

For those of you celebrating the onset of spring, here’s a game that you can play outside to encourage balance. After days of being cooped up at home, your kids will love this obstacle course in your own yard, all made from things you find around the house. Toddlers will find this game helpful to gain better balance and better control over their movements.

Use colorful paper plates to make stepping stones that your child must step on to get from one end of the “river” to the other end.

Lay out large strips of construction paper painted gray on the ground, to denote narrow pathways she has navigate.

Use a short wall for another obstacle that she must walk on. If there isn’t a short wall you can use, see if you can find a narrow plank or a low desk from the house.

Pull in some desks or chairs from inside the house to create an obstacle that she must crawl under to get to the other side.

Lay a rope on the ground in a twisting shape to create a snaking path that she must walk on without losing her balance.

Enjoy!

Kids love any games or activities that allow them to be goofy.  This weekend, try a preschool activity that includes the silly quotient to teach her about the animal kingdom, besides developing her language skills.

The story could start like this :

Mommy and (her name) were on their way to the farm.  On the way, they met a dog.  The dog said, “Bow Wow.” 

Now, let her sing a rhyme using the barks for the words.

Do this for other farm animals.  Each time, let her use the animal sounds to bark, neigh, quack and cluck through the rhyme or song.  Use simple rhymes that she knows – Old Mac Donald, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star etc.

Next story: Substitute the forest for the farm, and include wild animals.

This activity is almost painfully silly, but fun for the kids.! Plus, learning animal sounds is a lot more fun this way.

Teaching your preschooler to express her emotions and recognize emotions in others is a huge part of her development. Unfortunately, this tends to get lost in all the attention that’s paid to getting her alphabet and numbers right.

Teaching her to recognize emotional reactions in others develops compassion in your child. Compassion is hardly an inborn trait – it has to be taught, and it’s just as important as intellectual development. What use is intellect if a child has no trace of empathy or compassion for another’s pain.

Identifying her emotions also helps your preschooler gain better control of herself. She may still have tantrums, but they won’t be as intense or as frequent as before. Use emotions to help your child understand what she is feeling, and what she needs to do to make her feel better.

1. If your child has a bad dream, put your hand on her heart and let her know you will always be in there. Tell her to place her hand on her heart every time she needs you, or feels afraid. It will comfort her. Tell her to do this every time she feels sad, angry, frustrated – it will help her understand the signs of an oncoming tantrum, and will help control tantrums better.
2. Role play and act out different life situations – happy ones, sad ones, frightening ones. Ask her to express these emotions with facial gestures as best she can. Ask her what faces she makes when she’s angry or sad or happy.
3. Use stories and rhymes to talk about emotions and feelings. For instance “Itsy Bitsy Spider” can be used to teach the power of persistence and the desire to succeed,” or Amazing Grace” can be used to teach her the power of self belief.
4. Discuss important memories in your lives. Talk about how you felt on your wedding day, when she was born, how she feels on her birthday.
5. Ask her to recount occasions when she feels, happy, sad or scared. They give you clues into her emotional state.
6. Teach her about happy places. It may seem like psychobabble, but children are comforted at the thought of being in a place where they are safe from harm or fear.
7. Use puppets to introduce emotions in storytelling. While reading bed time stories, change your voice with the emotions of the character.
8. Discuss the emotions of each character in the stories you read. Why is that little boy sad? Why dos the lamb feel afraid?
9. Don’t belittle her fears or brush them off. A bad dream is very real to your child. Talk about it with her and comfort her. Don’t just say “Oh, it’s nothing” and let that be that.
10. Keep an hour or so to spend with your child doing something she loves – putting a puzzle together, cooking etc.
11. Discuss times when you got angry with her. Let her know the reason for your reaction – Yesterday, you did this and this, and so Mommy became angry with you. Let her know that her behaviors have consequences.
12. This one’s a no brainer to raise an emotionally well adjusted child. Always tell her you love her. Even when you need to correct her behavior by scolding her, make a distinction between the scolding and the fact that you love her. She needs to know your love will last whatever mistakes she may make in her life.

Kids don’t know the right way to express anger, although they are capable of feeling all the same things we do. It’s up to you to teach your child the right way to express her feelings. Raising a child is not just about discipline and learning pursuits – a child needs to develop a strong sense of compassion and caring for others. This is something she carries with her to adulthood.

Your preschooler is already pitching in when you dress her up – she puts out her leg to wear a trouser, and tries to find the armhole, when you’re slipping a T-shirt over her head.

When to comes to dressing up, it will be a while before your child can actually pick out her clothes, and dress up on her own. Patience is key. Don’t be discouraged if she can’t dress without help. And never force her. You can pick out her clothes, and lay them out on the bed for her in the morning, but it will take time till she’s independent enough to actually dress herself up. Some kids just pick up faster – it’s no big deal if she doesn’t. My son himself only picked up these skills when he turned 6. No long term damage there.

Ready? Let’s start with the coat, then.

Place the coat on the floor with the open end facing up, and sleeves spread out. Let your child squat down near the neck of the coat, and slip her arms inside the arm holes. Then she can lift her arms up and over her head, and the coat will slide very naturally down her arms, and around her. Practice makes perfect.

For pants, demonstration works best. Sit her down beside you on the bed or floor, and let her copy your movements. Teach her to pull zippers away from her body.

For underpants, teach her to look for the little label at the back. If there are no labels, make a little mark with a permanent nontoxic marker to indicate the back.

I love this tip from Parent Hacks to teach your child to slip on her mittens. Hold the mitten on your palm with the opening facing her, and let her slide her palm inside. It’s easier for her than to struggle with the mitten with her own two hands.

Teach her to loop the belt into the loops before she puts her pants on. Mark the exact belt hole she needs, with a small piece of adhesive, or circle it with a marker from the inside.

Use the marker to make putting socks on easier – make a sign at the heel. This is where most kids fumble.

To help her tell between left and right shoes, take a marker, and make complementary signs on the inside of each shoe, so when she places them together, the marks face each other. For instance, try a “ >” sign for the left shoe, and a ” <” sign for the right shoe. Tell her, “When these two arrows face other, then your shoes are ready to wear.” Try other variations – have two half circles facing each other. Or just peg them together in the correct order with clothespins.

More Dressing Up Tips

• Always stuff one sock or mitten inside the other, so you can always find a perfectly matched pair. Or clip together with clothespins.
• Use a diaper pin to attach a pair of socks or mittens, and let them stay attached through laundry, drying and back in the drawer. You’ll never have to look for a missing pair again.
• Keep clothes in your child’s closet in complete sets, so she always has a full set that’s ready to wear. It encourages her to try dressing up on her own.
• Teach your child to make a fist when she puts her hand inside a sleeve.
• If possible, get clothing with prints or appliqués in the front, so she can differentiate the front and back on her own. For plain colored t-shirts, teach her that the label end comes at the back.
• To slip on a T-shirt, let her first place the T-shirt front down on the bed. She can then slip it over her head, and down, easily.
• If dressing up in the morning rush seems hard, try getting your preschooler to wear her clothes at night before she goes to bed. Choose only non wrinkly fabrics, and use a plastic bib to protect her clothes during her brushing and face washing routine, and you should be fine. This doesn’t work with a bed wetter, of course.
• As far as possible, use shoes with Velcro for preschoolers. They’re just easier and hassle free. Or till she gets to the point where she can tie shoelaces on her own, substitute the laces with a piece of elastic tied at the ends – she can slip and out of the shoes with ease. Some parents are of the opinion that getting shoes with Velcro fasteners or slip ons makes it harder to teach them to tie shoelaces. I think, it’s important not to overwhelm your child. They have plenty of time to learn these skills, and the chances that you’ll still be tying her shoe laces when she’s in college, are pretty slim.
• Use the wooden handles of a chair to practice tying laces into a knot. Use ribbons for practice. Be patient – tying shoelaces tends to be one of the harder skills, since it requires such fine motor skills.
• Nail a smaller coat rack for your child near the entrance, so she can hang up her coat on her own. Nail a wicker basket to hold her mittens, and small scarves. Keep a small stool handy, so she can sit down and put her socks and shoes on with ease.
• Teach her to button shirts from the bottom up – it makes it easier to get them all even.
• Build self confidence in her dressing skills by letting her overcome the smaller challenges first. Buy pants and skirts with elastic waistbands or Velcro fasteners, so she can handle them easily. The same goes for shoes.
• Velcro is a smart Mommy’s best friend – sew on a patch instead of a button on your child’s overalls, and place them on shoes.

So, how did you teach your preschooler to dress up on her own?

Challenge your preschooler’s mind with these problem solving activities. Placing a new challenge or problem before your preschooler helps her brainstorm new ways to solve it. These are necessary life skills your child has to learn, not only in the classroom environment, but also as an adult.

Try these simple activities:

• Push her toy under the couch, and ask her to retrieve it. Watch what she does. If she needs help, give her a rod or stick to try pushing the car towards her.
• Ask her to fetch you something that’s on a higher shelf she can’t reach. Observe how she solves the problem. Make suggestions if necessary – she can drag a chair or stool over…
• Mix a cup each of beans, salt and rice in a large bowl, and give your child three smaller bowls, a strainer and a colander. Ask her to separate the beans, rice and salt. talk about the different ways you could do this.
• Spill some water on the ground (you could do this when she actually does spill something on the floor!) and give her a variety of materials to wipe the mess with – paper napkins, a wash cloth, sponge, a synthetic piece of fabric etc. Discuss what material is best for mopping up the water.
• Draw two parallel lines in the yard with a piece of chalk, about four feet apart. Place a piece of crumpled paper just inside one line. Ask her to get the paper to the other line without touching it. Brainstorm different ways she can so this – the obvious one would be to blow on it. See if there are other ways to move the paper forward – fan it with a plastic plate or magazine, perhaps.

Memorizing things alone won’t prepare your child for serious learning. The brain is exercised when you throw these little challenges at it.

Have fun!

This weekend, help your child make an About Me book. Take an empty book, and begin filling with his favorite things. Start with his name.

My name is _________________ .

Use similar sentences to note down his age, birth date. Other entries can include

The name of my school is (if he goes to preschool)

I live with my __________________ .

My best friends are _____________ , _________________, and _____________.

I like (his favorite foods), but not (the foods he doesn’t like).

I have two hands, two legs, two eyes,….and so on.

I like to play (his favorite sport or game)

I can (enter some activity that he can do, like sing the alphabet, or name fruits, anything at all), but I can’t (name something he can’t do yet, like drive a car etc.)

Add as many entries as you like – the only condition is they should all center on him.

Stick his picture, and have a separate page for vital statistics – measure his height, weight, color of eyes etc., and note these down.

Include an imprint or outline of his hand, and foot.

Include his favorite memories of events – I like my birthday because ….

Maybe you can you come up with more ideas!