When it comes right down to it, kids are just as able to learn from the everyday stuff you have lying about your house as from pricey educational toys. You don’t have to blow a fortune on the latest fancy toys in the market to give your child an edge. There are learning aids that you can find right in your home that you can make use of for boosting language skills, counting and sorting practice, identifying objects, number practice and so on.

In the third part of my series on Money Saving Tips for Preschool Mamas, we’ve already gone through thrifty secrets for saving on clothes and art supplies.

Here are some commonly found things at home that you can use to instantly fashion learning aids for your kids.

1 - Paper Bags

Photo Courtesy Flickr - Nix Sidhe

These have unlimited uses. Use to play counting games. Attach a picture of a elephant to a puffed out paper bag, and make your child feed him peanuts by numbers you call out or by looking at a card with a number on it. Vary the picture of the elephant with a rabbit and use small pieces of carrot shape construction paper to feed the rabbit a required number of carrots.

Attach a picture of a rabbit to a bunch of paper bags, and write a number on each of them. Cut out pieces of orange tag or paper, to look like little carrots. Make small dots on each carrot. Ask your child to count the number of dots on the carrot, and place it in the rabbit bag with that number.

Stuff a brown paper bag with newspaper halfway through, and tie it with a string. Paint it black, and draw a pair of eyes with white paint. Tie a long string to the bag and hang it from a nail in your child’s room. Attach 8 strips of crepe paper to the bag, 4 on each side of the bag. Use this “spider” for counting activities, and making sets.

For more “legs” to count, tape 3 such stuffed bags to each other to make a centipede. Attach a dozen crepe paper legs on each side of the centipede, and hang in your preschooler’s room.

Take a bunch of paper bags, place them sideways, and staple them at the closed ends. Your child can use this “book” for any number of activities – as an alphabet and number scrap book, to draw pictures , to collect and name items she finds on nature walks etc.

Use lunch bags to create a city with your child – stuff with newspapers, and place on their sides. Draw windows or paste stickers on the bags to create a building. Name them “Central Library,” ” Wal-Mart” and so on. Your child can pitch in with suggestions for buildings she sees around town.

Stuff a bag with newspapers, tie the mouth with a string and attach to a stick. Use wool to create hair and draw on eyes and a face, and you have a puppet that you can use for imaginary games and story telling.

2 - Boxes

Photo Courtesy Flickr - Al Fassam

Create a story box. Place small toys like dolls and cars, plastic household toy equipment and let her make her own doll house from scratch. For boys, make other buildings like a tool shed. Let her take out an object one by one from the box and weave these objects in a story. Share in the story creating process.

Take an empty box, and wrap in white paper. Write the words of a nursery rhyme on each side of the box. Use it as a rhyme dice to sing nursery rhymes.

Punch holes into the sides of an old shoe box and give your child colorful laces to create patterns by lacing through the holes. Don’t forget to wrap a piece of tape around one end of the lace to secure it in place.

Use old detergent boxes or tooth paste boxes and use to sort in order of size, or stack inside each other.

Cut out pictures of a room from an interiors magazine like a bed room, kitchen etc. and paste on separate shoe boxes. Cut out smaller pictures of separate items that go into these rooms, for instance, a couch, chair, a dresser etc. Ask your child to place all the small pictures that go into that particular room – the bed picture goes into the bedroom box, and so on.

Stick numbers on each section of a candy box, and let your child count and place the required numbers of peas or beans into each section.

Use milk cartons that are shaped like a house, and ask your child to build a house by using square and rectangular stickers.

Use shoe boxes as nature study boxes. Let her fill up with things that she finds when shoe goes out with you – dried leaves, feathers, dried twigs etc. Ask her to name each of these objects.

3 - Play Dough

Play dough is a thrifty mom’s best friend. Let your child use these to make alphabets, and numbers. Being able to feel the alphabet as she’s molding the dough, leads to a better awareness of the letter. Make your own play dough. Use food essences like cinnamon, lemon and lavender, and let her experiment with making different alphabets with different scents.

4 - Stationery, Stickers

Take a few boiled eggs and color by dipping them for 10 minutes in a solution of water and food coloring. Use these dyed eggs for counting games - give your child small polka dot stickers, and a bunch of index cards with numerals on each. Let her look at each card and stick the required number of stickers on the colored eggs.

Create a shape chart by drawing and painting square, rectangle, triangle and circle shapes on a cardboard. Cut out a sponge in the same shapes, and ask your child to match with the shapes on the board.

Fix paper clips to index cards with a number on each. Give her a magnet with a string attached and ask her to fish out the number that you call out.

Write names of household objects on index cards (door, window) and stick them on those objects. Leave for a week and help her read and identify the words.

Cut out the front of a nice greeting card, and paste on cardboard. Cut up into several pieces (depending on her age), and use as a puzzle. You can also use the front of cereal boxes. Stick a knob (the kind you see on drawers) on each piece to make it easy for her to lift each piece.

5 - Kitchenware

Use empty plastic cups, and disposable glasses to stack one inside the other.

Use spoons and cups to measure rice, lentils, beans and other measuring activities.

Use measuring activities for preschoolers to see how much a cup of milk weighs against a cup of rice on your kitchen weighing machine.

Color pasta shapes by dipping into a solution of water and food coloring. Use to thread into a necklace. Threading games are excellent for fine motor skills development.

Let her color ice cream sticks different colors, and sort according to colors. Or color them different shades of the same color, and sort from lightest to darkest.

Give her a funnel, a strainer and colander, a glass of unstrained tea, a bowl of salt mixed with rice and let her find the easiest way to separate the salt from the rice. Same with the tea – let her figure out how to separate the tea from the leaves using these objects.

Fill jugs with water or dry beans and let her pour into an empty bowl without spilling. It helps develop motor skills.

6 - Clothes

Use beads, and buttons for sorting activities. Socks and mittens can also be used for sorting games. Sort by size, color pattern etc.

Draw a pair of eyes and stick a piece of pink constriction paper on the toe area to make a hand puppet.

Sort shoes of family members in increasing, and decreasing order.

Don’t throw away old costumes, or accessories like scarves and costume jewelry. Use these for playing dress up or for other imaginative role playing activities.

Use laundry for sorting activities. Let her sort into whites and coloreds, clothes and linens, and so on.

7- Furniture

Use ribbons to practice tying shoe laces between the two wooden handles of a chair.

Stack up cushions and use as a narrow plank for her to walk on. It helps her gain control over balance.

Use pillows and cushions as an obstacle course at home.

Throw a bed sheet between two chairs, and let her use the tent as her personal space. It encourages imagination. Ask open ended questions and encourage her to take about her “house.”

Use pillow covers to play I Spy games – stick a card with an alphabet on it to the cover, and let her find things from around the house that begin with that letter.

Play guessing games or mystery games - have a bunch of stuff inside the pillow cover - small toys, glass beads, pine cones - let her close her eyes, grab one and guess what it is.

So, what do you grab from around the house for an impromptu lesson? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Learning to recognize and play with colors is usually more fun for kids because it’s at least a little messy!

Here are some ideas to try this weekend. Remember to cover your work table with an old plastic table cloth or cut up shower curtain to protect the surface.

Make a Rainbow

Take a sheet of paper, and moisten it by spraying water. Ask your child to paint arcs in red, blue and yellow using a paintbrush. Leave some space between the arcs of color. The colors will begin running into each other creating new shades. Explain the concept of secondary colors - how they are formed when certain primary colors mix together.

• Red and yellow gives you orange
• Blue and yellow gives you green
• Blue and red gives you purple

Mobile Colored Fish

Now that she has the basic concept in place, let her mix purple, green and orange by mixing the primary colors in separate bowls. Ask her to paint across a sheet of thick paper in waves or arcs. Once the paint is dry, turn the paper over, draw a simple fish shape and cut out. Your child can decorate with sequins and glitter. Let her make an eye, and cut out extra pieces of the sheet for fins. Punch two holes right at the top of the fish’ s body, tie a string and hang from the ceiling in her room.

Pretty and Pink

Give your child red and white paint in two bowls, and an empty bowl to mix. Let her mix a small dab of red with some white paint to create the color pink.

Ink Blots

Take a thick sheet of paper, and make a fold down the middle. Let her drop a blob of thick paint in two different colors on one side of the sheet. Choose contrast colors like black and white, red and yellow. Now fold the sheet of paper, and then open up again. The colors would have mixed, creating an abstract painting!

Food Color Mix

Take piece of blotting paper, and cover the mouth of a glass with it. Secure with a rubber band. Moisten the paper by putting a few drops of water on it. Use an ink dropper or an old dropper from your child’s medicine bottle to drop a few drops of different food colors. Ask your child to observe what happens as they begin to spread and blend into each other.

Marker Mix

For another blotting paper idea, draw arcs on a sheet with washable markers in 3 colors. Take an ink dropper and put a few drops of water on each color. Let the mixing magic begin!

Black and White Drama

Take a plastic squeeze bottle, and fill with soap flake finger paint. Let your child squeeze out patterns on thick black paper.

Take Out Treat

Put a few blobs of finger paint in a divider tray, and ask your child to mix as many colors as she wants to. Give her a colored take out container, and let her dab little blobs paint on the container with her finger tips to decorate it.

Delicious Color Mix

Mix a quarter cup of milk with 2 cups of sugar to make frosting. Pour into three bowls and add red, yellow and green food coloring to each bowl. Let your child mix the frosting on the plate to see what happens when colors mix. This is one art project you don’t have to store or throw away – let her spread the colored frosting on crackers! Voila! A snack!

Have fun!