Preschoolers have a natural inclination to be silly. They like to rhyme words meaninglessly, make up new words, and come up with new words for every day objects.

Kids this age may be too young to appreciate any “real”jokes or riddles, the kind that make older children laugh. What you can do at this age is to encourage their natural silliness. Here are some ways you can encourage a preschoolers sense of fun and laugh with her.

1. Play “silence” games. Everybody sits in a room, not saying anything. The one who laughs first is out of the game. The laughter is even more contagious when there is more than one child in the room.
2. Share funny things that happened during the day with your kids. Tripped on a step at the supermarket? Your preschooler will find it hilarious!
3. Share comic strips in the newspaper that are about hilarious kids his age, like Calvin and Hobbes.
4. Play what if? games. Create outlandish scenarios. What if she was in charge of the house for a day? What if your pet was a dinosaur?
5. Tag any day of the week as “special.” Have a Roller Skating Day when you wheel yourselves around the house. Or a “Blender Day” when you whip up juices together. Let her come up with her own ideas for the Day.
6. Laugh at her jokes, even if it takes her 20 minutes to get to the punch line. It’s important for her to know that she has the power to make others smile.
7. Place an empty carton at the door way, and insist that she has to crawl through the carton and into the house every time she wants to come in that day. Encourage her natural playfulness.

Above all, have fun!

Here are some more preschool problem solving activities you can do to get that little mind ticking.

1. Give your child a coffee can, and let her roll it on the floor. Now, give her some objects like a coin, a marble, a block, a small metal toy car, a crayon, and let her place each object one by one in the coffee can, and then try rolling them on the floor. Does the can roll any differently when there are objects inside them? Do heavier objects slow down the cans? What can she do to get the can to roll faster or slower? Discuss.
2. Use world issues to teach about problem solving. For instance, global warming. Explain how traveling by car less, and walking or cycling around more, is one of the ways she can solve the problem of melting glaciers.
3. Use real life situations to tackle problems. For instance, if she’ s having a tough time getting ready for preschool in the morning, talk about things she can do to get dressed, fed and ready on time. She could wake up a few minutes earlier, she could time all her daily morning activities so she gets them done quicker, she could just go to preschool in her night clothes… Talk about the feasibility of the solutions.
4. Most kids’ movies have the theme of problem solving. When you’re done watching a cartoon show or a movie together, discuss the problem, and how the characters solved it.

Have fun!

On a more somber note, I received a request to let my readers know about Russia and Georgia’s use of cluster bombs in their recent conflict. I must admit I haven’t been following the conflict much, but the thought of tens of thousands of tiny bomblets falling over an entire area, being buried as de facto land mines, and then exploding later when kids chance upon these is appalling. My American friends can visit this site for details on how they can voice their support for a ban on these deadly weapons.

The concept of the cycle of days and months can be a difficult one for kids to grasp, especially if you tell them that December is the last month of the year, and Saturday/Sunday is the end of the week.

To make them understand that days and months end to begin all over again, write the names of different months on paper plates, and arrange them in a circle on the floor. When you’re teaching her the names of months, let her jump or skip from one plate to the next, instead of memorizing the names of the months verbatim. Do the same for days of the week too. This helps her understand that Monday follows every Sunday, and there is a January waiting after every December.

Have fun!

If your preschooler lives close to her maternal or paternal grandparents, or other relatives, great! If she doesn’t, it can be hard to keep close relatives present in spirit, if not physically.

Here are some ways to keep those family bonds fresh:

1. Make a family tree chart in your child’s room, and paste pictures of grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Keep the tree simple and uncluttered. Include only family members she’s met already.
2. If her grandparents don’t mind being called at odd hours, paste their pictures in a special address book just for her, and write their telephone numbers next to the names. She can call them whenever she feels like.
3. Place pictures of relatives liberally all over the house - in frames, on bulletin boards, the refrigerator.
4. Pore through family albums together.
5. Let her make her own special personalized album with all her favorite people. Ask her grandparents or uncles and aunts to write special messages to her in the album.
6. Take a large map of the country (or world) and paste pictures of family members at the places they are at. It’s easy for a child to understand why she can’t meet her relatives everyday when she sees exactly where they are on the map, and how far from her.
7. Take all her dolls and teddies and let her make “her family” out of them, assigning relatives’ names to each doll or toy.

Enjoy!

Taking temperature readings of the weather outside may be a little too much for preschoolers who can’t really “see” temperature. But your child can see the clouds, feel the rain on his face, and the chill in his fingers when when snow falls. He can see when it’s foggy, and he knows when it’s windy outside.

To establish the concepts of weather, make a weather chart for your child. Make separate rows for each day of the month, and let her decorate with weather symbols - rain, clouds, sun etc. Then, let her use colored stickers to denote the weather outside - blue for a rainy day, black for cloudy weather, yellow for a sunny day, white for snow, and so on. She can even use combinations of stickers to denote a day that started out sunny, but ended up dark and gloomy - a half yellow sticker and a half black sticker. Let he do this every morning.

For an older child, you can take temperature readings, and record these too.

Make sure you hang the weather chart at her eye level - kids like to see what they are taking part in!

Have fun!

This weekend, look through old pictures of your preschooler and the family, and select a few.  Make copies of these in black and white.  Staple a bunch of these copies, and give them to your child to use as a coloring book. Painting is more fun when she’s coloring the dog or the cake at her birthday party!

Here are some more ways you can encourage kids to exercise and strengthen those important small finger muscles, so necessary for writing.

1. Do string play activities.
2. Do puzzles that require her to pick up small pieces and move them to their correct position.
3. Shell peas.
4. Work that play dough - give her beads and buttons to exercise those muscles.
5. Practice tying shoe laces. It may be frustrating at first, but every time she tries to lace them up, she’s working those very important muscles.

Add novelty to everyday experiences in your child’s life by switching things aound a little, ever so often.  Novelty has been found to increase alertness in kids - a predictable monotonous routine can actually dull the senses.  Try a few of these ideas:

• Try rotating her toys. Put aside the ones she plays with often, and bring out less used toys.
• Rearrange the furniture in your home, and let her help you do it.
• Change the position of her favorite chair, the one she uses to watch television, for instance, - she’ll enjoy the new angle!
• Let her sleep on the opposite end of the bed for  a few days.
• Eat on the floor in the living room or the yard, instead of the dining table, for  a day.

Have fun!

Sorry for the delayed posting, internets. It’s been close to a week of feeling under weather.

On with the tips, and here are some ideas of physical activities you can get your kids to do outside. They work just as well if she’s alone as with her friends. In fact, you could even combine a few of these, and turn it into a relay race for the kids. No fancy props necessary, only a few simple items you’ll find in the house.

Running (set a timer)

Doing bunny hops

Walking on a short wall, or a plank, or rope

Walking on paper plates

Crawling on his tummy

Crawling though a large open carton

Hopping on one leg

Walking on all fours

Balancing a book on his head

Throwing a ball into a bucket

Sliding like a snake

Encourage her to make as many silly movements as she can. It’s a great activity for physical co ordination, especially when you ask them to combine more than one activity.

Enjoy!

I hope you guys have an activity calendar for your preschooler all set up. If you don’t, summer’s a good time to start one.

If you have one, add “have a weekend picnic in the yard” to the calendar.  It’s one of those simple things that you know your kids will love, but is easy to forget to do.

All you need are some sandwiches, cake, fruit, and juice, all packed in a picnic basket. Pack disposable cups and plates, a large sheet to lay on the ground, and napkins. This is fun if there are more kids joining in the picnic, but you can just as easily make do if it’s just you and the kiddo!

Let her choose the right spot for the picnic. Let her take charge of serving you sandwiches and cake on a plate , and let her pour out a drink for you.  Fantastic way to spend time with your child.

Have fun!