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!

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!

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!

Measuring Activities for PreSchoolers

The concept of measuring distances in feet, or inches is a difficult one to grasp, but one your child will have to begin to learn soon.

Begin by using measuring scales that she understands – let her use steps or strides to measure the distance to the door, from the door to the car etc.

Count how many steps it takes to cover each length of distance.

Let her use arm lengths to cover the same distances. Let her compare the number of strides with the number of arm lengths taken to cover the same distance. This is also great practice for counting lessons.

Give her a dressmaker’s tape and begin measuring things –

• Her shoes
• Distances from her bed to the door
• The tiles on the floor
• The length of the carpet
• The hands of the sofa chair
• The car

Stick to a certain unit of measurement to avoid confusing her – only inches in the beginning, for instance.

Measurements –adding them, breaking them down – will be part of her studies soon enough, and this helps her to learn the basics.

Weighing Activity for PreSchoolers

Use your kitchen weighing scale for this measuring activity. Create a worksheet and make columns for the name of the item you’re measuring and the weight. Let her fill this on her own as she’s done with each weighing activity.

Give her a cup of rice, and show her how to weigh it.

Compare the weight of the cup of rice with other items – let her measure a cup of beans or lentils, or short grain rice, and compare the weights.

Give her a bag of rice, and ask her to fill another bowl using a small measuring cup. Let her count how many cups it takes to fill the bowl.

Break down this activity as you go along. How many spoons of rice does it take to fill a cup?

What She Learns

These activities help develop an understanding of weights and distance. Plus, there’s lots of counting involved which helps boost math skills. Noting down measurements on a worksheet on her own gives her a sense of accomplishment, of doing something on her own, and doing something right – always a self esteem booster.

Have fun, and keep smiling!

Learning words and what they mean is the very basis of education.  Whether your child goes to a preschool or is home schooled, she will be expected to know a number of words before any serious learning can begin.  Thankfully, vocabulary is also one of the first things we start teaching a child (when your baby says her first word - that’s her introduction to vocabulary). 

Here are some vocabulary preschool activities that you can use to boost your child’s understanding of words, increase the numbers of words she’s familiar and their context and meaning.

Bean Bag Game

Throw a bean bag back and forth, and recite rhyming words

Start with the very basics.

Cat, bat, mat, pat

Can, pan, man

Top, mop, hop

Tin, bin, pin

Egg, peg, leg, keg

Run, bun, sun

Progress to bigger words.

Land, band, sand

This is a verbal game, so don’t worry too much about spelling discrepancies.

White can go with tight, might and bright, and even kite.

 If she gets stuck, continue, and explain the meaning of the words as you recite them.

 
Thinking Game

Use thinking games to boost vocabulary.

What else in the room is red?

Show me something else on the table that’s round. (at dinner time)

The egg is yellow. Find me something else in the house or garden that’s yellow. Give her a paper lunch bag to fill with other things of the same kind she finds.  Strictly no opening closets.  She’ll have to found whatever is out in the open at home or outside.

Story Telling PreSchool Activity

• Cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines, and make a scrapbook of it.
• Paste the pictures to pieces of cardboard, insert in clear plastic covers and staple at the sides. 
• Include a fair mix of things that she’s very familiar with (animals, household items or objects) and things she’s not familiar with (ocean, forests,). 
• Now look at the pictures together, and make a story out of them. 
• When she comes across a picture that she doesn’t know much about like a forest, explain what it means and the different animals and birds that live in one, and proceed with the story. 

Name the book after your child.

Word Recognition Through Context

Take a bunch of index cards, write names of commonly found household objects,  and place the cards on these objects.  For instance, door, window, bed etc.  Keep the cards up for a week, to establish word recognition in your preschooler.  At the end of the week, take the cards down, and write down the words on a paper.

Let her compare the list with the cards, and match each card with the word on the list.

Tip: This preschool activity works equally well, if you’re trying to get your preschooler to learn a new language.

Enjoy!