“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.”
- Walt Streightiff

When it comes to preparing your preschooler for the big bad classroom, there’s really no need for a fixed curriculum per se. The world is his classroom, and everywhere you turn, there are opportunities to learn through play. Here are some ways to convert everyday routines into learning experiences.

English

1 - Look for alphabets everywhere – let her search for her initials on cans and packs in the supermarket, on license plates, on store signs and billboards, traffic signs etc.

2 - Play I Spy Games that require her to look for objects that begin with a letter inside the house or garden.

3 - Practice language abilities all the time, every single day. What is the color of that girl’s dress? What are the letters on that traffic sign ?

4 - Enrich her vocabulary by constantly pointing out objects and things. Start with the things they love -animals, birds, fruits and vegetables – and follow up with household items, shapes, water bodies, vehicles.

5 - Write names of objects around the house on index cards, and stick them on these –doors, windows, bed. Point these out often.

Math

6 - Look for numbers everywhere – on cans in the super market, ion book, the telephone directory, newspapers, license plates etc.

7 - Count and often – how many people are standing in the bus stop? How many yellow flowers are there on that tree? How many coins does it take top buy a candy bar? How many steps does it take to get to the car?

8 - Do plenty of sorting activities at home – sorting is great practice for counting. Forks and spoons, a mixed bowl of peas, dried beans and pebbles, laundry sorting – all these can be used for great sorting activities.

9 - Sing counting rhymes together, and often.

Social Studies

10-Watch movies with an international theme. Mulan is a great start.

11- Experiment with various cuisines – Chinese, Spanish - and talk about those countries.

12- Do flag crafts. Paint one on paper or make one out of fabric.

13- Make model towns out of empty milk cartons and shoe boxes, and label them – fire station, hospital, library etc.

14- Include toy cars and trucks in play, include boats in the bath tub, and talk about how they help in transportation.

15- Play shop – set up a store, have fake money and let her sell you stuff.

Science

16- Blow bubbles. Use little jars of bubble solution with blowing rings. Add food coloring to make colored bubbles.

17- Make a weather chart. With your help, a preschooler can learn to read temperatures with an outdoor thermometer with large numerals, and record them in a record book.

18- Change activities according to the season. During rainy days, puddle jump, look at the difference in the sky and cloud formations, and monitor the movement of rain drops on your window pane. During summer, measure his shadow at different times in the day at the exact same spot. In winter, make a snowman together, or make snow angels.

19- Visit a zoo or a farm close by.

20- Make a day trip to the museum.

21- Experiment in the garden. What happens to plants that are not watered or are faced away from the sunlight?

22- Experiment with magnets. What objects do they stick to? Can she lift small objects with them?

23- Experiment with mirrors.

24- Have fun in the kitchen – measure rice, sugar

25- Teach her about personal hygiene and nutritious food.

26- Make snacks or schedule making dinner together.

Second Languages

27- Sing foreign language songs. Spanish ones are always great fun.

28- Teach single words in a foreign language – words that can be used regularly like adios, or emotional ones like J’taime.

If you need ideas, check out

Preschooler’s Busy Book: 365 Creative Games & Activities To Occupy 3-6 Year Olds

There are plenty of activities in there. They are not particularly ingenious, but they are non fussy, easy to do and easy to set up, and inexpensive.

Enjoy!

Here are some ways to get your child practicing his handwriting skills before he finishes preschool. With most of these, you’re aiming to strengthen his fine motor skills – the ones that are responsible for holding and guiding a pencil along a straight line.

1. Give your child strips of paper and let her cut up into confetti. The strips shouldn’t be too thin or floppy. Make a smiley face on the upper hole where the thumb should go, to teach her how to hold the scissor properly. Start with shorter pieces of paper that she can cut with just one snip. Progress to longer pieces which need two snips of the scissor, and so on. Use blunt ended scissors. After a while, move on to snipping along a line on the paper. Draw squiggly lines, straight lines, circles. Let her cut around a picture. All these scissor cutting activities for preschoolers help control the movement of the scissors as it moves ahead to the next snip, and as it moves ahead to its goal, which is great practice for writing.
2. Rip newspapers. This may seem like a boring task, but you’d be surprised at how much they enjoy it. Terrific for fine muscular development. Start with random ripping into small bits, then move to ripping on a line that you’ve drawn for her on the paper. For advanced practice, let her rip around a picture. Draw squiggly lines, and let her rip though them.
3. Part of the problem with writing for most preschoolers comes with holding the pencil correctly. Place a piece of sponge in her palm, and let her close her ring finger and little finger around it. Now, let her use only the thumb, forefinger and middle finger to hold the pencil. Having to hold the piece of sponge with the last two fingers will make her hold the pencil tightly with the first three. Here’s how to do this.
4. Cut out three holes in a sock, and let her insert her thumb, forefinger and middle finger in each hole before she attempts to practice writing. Again, this helps to reinforce the right way to hold a pencil.
5. Give her beads, or cheerios, or pasta shapes, and some string to thread.
6. Use lacing cards, or make some of your own by punching holes in cards – use old greeting cards. Lace a thick string through.
7. Use thin crayons or chalk pieces for practice for beginners – they are easier to hold.
8. Let her connect dots on paper. Use lined handwriting paper, and make two dots that will help her make vertical, horizontal and slanting lines. Have many such lines of dots for her to connect. This helps her draw straight lines for alphabet writing.
9. Practice writing semi circles (like the letter “C” facing both ends). Use dots again to help her get the shape right. This gives practice for making perfect circles and semi circles for alphabets later.
10. Let her trace the outlines of figures and drawings with crayons.
11. Work on developing those minute finger muscles. Give her some play dough, and let her make small balls or sausage shapes out of them, using her thumb and forefinger only .
12. Use tweezers for sorting activities. Let her pick up a bean or a pea with a pair of tweezers, and transfer into another bowl.
13. Do spooning activities. Allow her to spoon dried beans from one bowl to another using her thumb, forefinger and middle finger to grasp the spoon and transfer the beans.
14. Practice inserting keys into locks or keyholes.
15. Take an old shoe box with the lid on, and make a slit on the lid. Practice inserting playing cards into the slit with her writing hand.
16. Practice writing with her fingers in shaving foam, or in a tub of sand.
17. Let her draw a picture, and sprinkle glitter inside the figure carefully, taking care to stay inside the lines as much as possible.
18. Play with rubber bands. Let her wrap rubber bands around plastic bottles or glasses – it strengthens those very important little muscles.

Do you have more tricks to get your preschooler writing confidently?

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.

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!

The sense of smell is the only one that sends signals to the brain, unfiltered.

Certain fragrances increase the brain’s ability to think. Mental alertness and creativity can be strengthened by smells like those of cinnamon, peppermint and lemon. Rose and lavender, on the other hand, help your child relax. Certain herbs and spices are also known to have calming effects, and can be used in appropriate situations. Use the sensory powers of these flowers and herbs to boost creativity and brainpower in your preschooler.

Encourage your child to participate in preschool activities that include the sense of smell , to stimulate these areas of her brain. It doesn’t have to be a formal activity with scented bottles – just introduce scents into everyday activities, and play around with them. Experiment!

• Give your child scented markers for artwork, or use scented dyes and paints.
• Create your own scented paint by mixing tempera paint with food essences.
• Create a fun and yummy scented paint mix of your own. Mix gelatin with just about half the amount of water that’s actually needed, and let your child paint with it. When the gelatin dries, she can have fun scratching at the painting, and sniffing the smell.
• Participate in activities together with your preschooler - make potpourri together. Put some cloves and cinnamon sticks inside a net bag, and draw it tight shut
• Make colorful new scented crayons out of old ones. Place crayons in muffin tins lined with paper, add a touch of food essence to each, and heat in the oven. You have colorful wax discs that smell heavenly. Here are specific instructions.
  
• Help her identify the smells of different food essences and extracts in your kitchen, and herbs and flowers from your garden.
• Encourage her to take an interest in your flower garden or herb garden.
• Fill your home with appropriate herbs that stimulate certain processes in the brain – keep rose, orange and chamomile in the bedroom to induce calmness and help her go to sleep. Lavender, vanilla and nutmeg are particularly good for those nasty irritable spells just before bed time. Place lemon, cinnamon, basil the room where she does most of her learning or art work.
  
• Participate in cooking activities together that make use of brainpower boosting extracts and essences - cinnamon buns, for instance.

Enjoy!

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!

There are opportunities to learn in the most popular games preschoolers play. All little girls love a tea party, and because all kids love role playing so much, your little boy will be ready to host one too! Give your preschooler some practice at entertaining on her own, by helping her host a tea party for her dolls and teddy bears.

First up, let her take the initiative in planning for the party. Let her decide the number of “guests” she’s going to have.

Help her make some little sandwiches or cheese and crackers for her guests. Here are some cooking ideas for preschoolers, as well as a mini pizza recipe if you want to throw a party your guests will rave about!

Let her set place mats for each guest with matching fork, spoon, saucers, cups and plates. Help her make her own placements out of cardboard or thick construction paper which she can decorate with markers, and little place cards out of tags with the name of the guest on each.

Get creative – use her bracelets as napkin rings.

Let her set the table with the cutlery, place cards, and place mats.

What this teaches her: This game is ideal for teaching her to set a table on her own, and gives her good practice using sorting skills to sort out forks, spoons, cup and saucers for each guest. It also helps her learn the importance of organization and the value of planning ahead.

Bon Appetit!

Maybe because their memories of anything in white coats aren’t necessarily pleasant, kids love to play at being a doctor. It gives them a chance to torture some one else with a shot! Encourage this, and use it to introduce measuring activities and language skills.

Set up a clinic for her.  Give her a chair, and a table, with an empty writing pad to make her notes in, and a sheet of paper to record data.  If she has a doctor’s play kit, all the better.  Use her teddy bears and dolls as prop patients.

Act as the patient’s Mommy with four of your “kids” coming in to see her.   First up, let her measure the weight of each “child” by placing the doll on your kitchen weighing machine.  Let her note down the weight of the doll herself.

Next, let her use a measuring tape to measure the height of the child. D on’t worry about specifics – just the figure closest to the actual reading will do.

Tell her what’s wrong with the baby – she’ been sniffing and hasn’t been eating too well etc. etc. If she has a play doctor’s kit, she could use her stethoscope to listen to their heartbeat, give them shots etc.

Let her arrange all her patients by height, and weight.

There are plenty of opportunities to learn in everyday games.  If you play games with your preschooler that encourage learning, I’d love to hear about them.

The preschool years are the perfect time to introduce your child to the wonders of science though small and easy activities and games. Since everything at this age seems wondrous and breathtaking, you won’t have trouble getting your child to sit still, and take part in science activities that teach her about actions and reactions.

• Let her use a block of margarine to scribble on a sheet of paper. Splash some water on the paper. The part with the margarine on it won’t get wet – the water will slip right off. Explain to her why this happens, that oil and water never mix. Show her more examples of this – mix cooking oil and water together, and show her the result. Point out gasoline layers on puddles of water.
• Let her hold a candle like a crayon, and draw on a piece of paper. To reveal what she has drawn, let her paint the page. She can also use potato juice or lemon juice for the same effect. Explain the concept of invisible ink.
• Use gardening and plants to explain the concept of photosynthesis. Place two pots of plants in two separate locations – one in a dark closet, and one in the sunlight. Water both equally, and observe the difference in the two plants after a few days.
• Drop a few seeds in a cup full of soil, and cover with plastic. Keep in a sunny area. Monitor the progress of the seeds as they begin to sprout.
• Play with your shadows. Switch off the lights, light a candle and make animal shadows on the wall. Compare your own shadows on the walls. Point out your shadows in the daytime and at different times of the day.

Science is actually more interesting to many preschoolers than learning counting or the alphabet. The results are always so astounding, and magical to little eyes.

Have fun with these!

It’s been a crazy couple of days, and I am late with my weekly tip.  Here you go.

Recite the following rhyme together with your child:
Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?

I think Mommy took the cookie from the cookie jar?

Who me ? Yes, you!

Couldn’t be. Then who?

With each round, substitute “Mommy” for other members of the family- her grandparents, relatives, friends and teacher, even the pet.

This helps promote memory for all the people in her life.

Enjoy!