These ideas are for Ziploc bags, but you can use resealable bags too for some of these preschool activities.

1. Put some shaving foam into a Ziploc bag, and add a few drops of food coloring. Add some more shaving foam on top of the food color. Let her squish the bag, and watch the changes in color.
2. Add two different drops of food coloring to the shaving foam, so she can see how they mix to create new colors. For instance, red and yellow.
3. Give your child some playing sand, lots of shells and rocks, and let her choose the number of objects and sand she wants to place inside the Ziploc bag. These make great sensory bags for kids.
4. Fill up a Ziploc bag with blue shaving gel, and add a few plastic sea creatures and fish into it, to make her own ocean bag.
5. Put some shaving gel into two separate Ziploc bags, and place one of them on the window sill (works only if it’s sunny), and the other in the freezer. Take them out after a while, and let her see the difference – great time to teach her about “hot” and “cold.”
6. Put some water in a Ziploc bag, and freeze it. Discuss how the water changes from liquids to solid.
7. Use Ziploc bags to store pieces of your preschooler’s puzzles.
8. Use them to store the parts of her Barbie play set, different colored buttons for sorting games, beads etc.
9. Take a bunch of Ziploc bags, and put one item in each of them – the thing should either float or sink. For instance, a cotton ball, a pebble, a toy, a leaf etc. Let her separate into objects that float and objects that sink.
10. Make ice cubes in different colors (add food color), and drop a few of these into a Ziploc bag. As the cubes melt, the colors mix and create new ones. This is also a good color recognition activity for a preschooler.
11. Put rice in a bag, and add color to it. Let her color the rice by squishing the bag.
12. Put a wet paper towel inside a bag, and sprinkle some fast growing seeds. Zip and, place near a window. Or tape the bag to the pane. Or use a clothes peg and some yarn to hang the bag near the sill. Observe the sprouting, and discuss. You have a preschool science activity that takes no time to set up. Use a Lima bean for quick results.
13. Put some glitter in a bag. Apply glue to a few objects – a small doll, pebble, a cone – and drop them into the bag. Let her experiment.
14. If you have plastic polar bears, put them into a Ziploc bag, add some water and freeze. Discuss the Antarctica, polar bears, their habits and food.

Do you have ideas for playing with your preschoolers using Ziploc bags? I’d love to hear them.

Stability is a good thing for a preschooler, but there is something called too much of a good thing. A little change in your child’s routine can actually stimulate her mind. Look at it this way – our minds become numb when we follow the same routine everyday. We begin to operate on auto pilot. But when something happens to change that routine, we find ourselves more enthused, more alert. It’s the same for kids.

Bear in mind you don’t want to make frequent and drastic changes to your child’s daily routine, just a few little things on occasion that can seem exciting for her , and get that little brain ticking! Here are a few things you can do to stimulate your child’s mind, by changing her routine.

• Change the way she usually does her art – let her work under the table instead.
• Or tape a sheet of paper under your table, and let her her lie down on her back, and draw on it.
• Move things on her table or in her room around a little, just enough that she actually has to look for things.
• Sing rhymes with different words. For instance, Mary had a Little Lamb to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
• Use old and empty cardboard cartons to make a tunnel from the front door. Your child has to crawl through the boxes every time she wants to go out into the garden.
• Make up new endings for her favorite stories. Little Red Riding Hood, for instance.
• If she’s playing the same computer games, or having fun on the same old sites, check out some new sites for her. Here’s a list.
• Let her be mommy for a day – let her decide on the menu, let her decide how much TV you can watch, and let her tuck you into bed with a bed time story. Or do just one of these things in reverse.

Change is a good thing, if you introduce it well. Having a fixed clockwork routine that never ever changes might be great for a robot, but preschoolers need to experience some flexibility.

What do you think? Would you dare to upset the cart?

I am still in the mood for smaller posts that feature a few simple preschool activities.  This week, we’re looking at the world through a different view.  Seeing how the same things look different when seen from different angles or through a screen, stimulates the sense of sight, and is a simple enough science concept for preschoolers to grasp.

Take pieces of colored acetate in different colors, and ask your child to look though each.  What color are the things around her?

Let her look through:

• An empty toilet paper tube
• A piece of flimsy chiffon fabric
• A magnifying glass
• Pieces of colored cellophane
• A piece of netting or gauze
• An empty drinking glass
• Your eye shades

Discuss which gives her the clearest view.  Encourage thinking by looking though a piece of colored cellophane that’s a different color from hers, and asking her to guess what color are the objects you’re looking at.

Have fun!

This weekend, choose a theme that you want your preschooler to pick up (colors, shapes etc.)  Make a telescope out of an old wrapping paper tube, or other card board tube.  Paint and decorate the tube.

Decide on particular shapes that you want your preschooler to spy (something that’s round)

particular colors (something that’s green or yellow)

particular textures (something that feels rough)

particular objects (something made of fabric – any type)

Any combinations of the above for an older child who finds these too simple

Enjoy!

If your preschooler loves putting puzzles together, create puzzles of your own, instead of buying new ones.

Take a picture of her, and stick it in the middle of a rectangular piece of poster board.

Decorate the rest of the board as you like with markers.

Once the picture is firmly glued to the board, take a paper cutter and cut up the board into several pieces.  For a toddler, cut fewer numbers of pieces, and for an older child, make more pieces to challenge her.

Put the pieces in a paper bag.  You can make as many puzzles as you like, varying the pictures to make them more challenging – photos of the whole family, pictures of the pet etc.

Tip: Remember to print another copy of the picture, so you can have one ready if she gets upset about having her picture cut up! If you can find small drawer knobs at hardware stores, stick one on each piece of the puzzle – it makes it easy to hold the puzzle pieces as she’s putting it together.

Have fun!

Here’a an idea to reward your preschooler instead of handing out material things.

Make a bunch of Reward Cards.  Take some index cards, select some activities that both you and your child can do together, and write an activity on each index card.  The activity has to be something your child loves doing with you.  Here are a few ideas:

• Going out for ice cream
• Going for a walk together, or to the playground
• Painting the fence together
• Washing the car together
• Cooking dinner together

Make as many cards as you like.  To store them,  cut out the pocket part of an old shirt, glue it to a poster board, and hang it somewhere prominent. Keep your Reward Cards in here.

Every time your preschooler completes a small chore, or does anything worthy of praise, let her have a card that she can use to spend more quality time with you.

Be specific in your writing on the card.  For instance – This Reward Card is valid for one afternoon of finger painting together.

This is a great way to reward kids (children are more likely to do things if you can dangle a reward in front of them, and if you’re hesitant about using money or gifts or anything material, as I know many of you are, this is a great reward).

Before long, your preschooler will want nothing much to do with you, and will have plenty of other things she’d rather have than time with you, so make good use of these days!

Enjoy!

Following up on the problem solving activities for preschoolers that I posted last week, I’ve been thinking about how we can use problem solving when it comes to their own lives and discipline.

Kids love it when they’re given a chance to participate in discussions that are centered on them.  If you’ve been having a persistent problem with your preschooler- dawdling over her food, whining every morning before she has to get ready – see if you can involve her in the problem solving process, so both of you can come to an understanding.

Sit her down, and say, “What do you think we can do, so you’re not always late getting ready every morning.  Tell me. I want to know.” You might be surprised at the answers she comes up with.  In this case, there are plenty of ways you can solve the tardiness problem.

• She could choose her clothes the night before, and lay them out, so she saves time in the morning.
• She can go to bed a half hour earlier, so she feels fresh when she wakes up.
• She can go to bed with her clothes on (non wrinkly, of course) so she’s through with the getting dressed bit when she wakes up.
• She can set her dressing up and getting ready routine to a timer that she has to beat.
• She could also go to school in her night clothes to save time (but then, others would laugh at her – brainstorm all possible solutions, and all the consequences of the solution).

Maybe, you could try this with other problem areas – meal time fussiness, boredom in the car etc.   You might find that involving her gives her more control over her life, and therefore she might be more likely to stick with the solution you agree on.

I am not a big fan of pussy footing around your kids, and at some point, you’ll have to come up with more effective discipline measures than merely gritting your teeth, and suffering silently through it.   Personally, this method seems to work better for me as opposed to ” Eat up your dinner, or else…!” Punishment and nagging seem to have temporary results, if ever.

What do you think?  Do you try this with your own kids?

Your preschooler will love making up his own songs by changing the words of his favorite songs or rhymes - Old McDonald, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the ABC Song, Mary had a Little Lamb etc.

This weekend (or whenever you’re in the need to bust those boredom blues), sing songs while substituting words forher own experiences. For instance, “Old McDonald had a farm” could become”Old McDonald went to the mall” if you’re on your way to the mall. Follow up with all the things she’s likely to see at the mall. This is great for singing in the car on the way there.

Or when she’s having her snack, sing “Mary had a little lamb” to the words “(Child’s name) had a little (snack or fruit). Great activity for boosting preschool vocabulary and strengthening language skills! Also, terrific as a music activity to build appreciation for song!

Enjoy!

So, Emma wanted to know which of the preschool activities I post are suitable for younger kids, in this case, her two year old toddler. I normally don’t confine my activities to any particular age group – anywhere from 2 to 6 are appropriate ages to try these. Some kids are writing words when they are two, while others pick up a little slower. No biggie.

Generally, I believe you, The PreSchool Mama (or Toddler Mama!) knows your own child, and what she would enjoy doing best. Remember to only do activities that your child enjoys, no matter how old she is. Forcing her to write or do counting activities when she is not in the mood, or just too young to deal with advanced activities is the easiest way to ensure she’ll lose interest in all learning.  There are some days that kids are perkier and more enthusiastic than others, and those are the days you should strike while the iron is hot!

Coming back to the question of age appropriate activities for 2-year-olds, I am going to do an in-depth post one of these days, with activities for younger kids. For now, I’d suggest making a nature table for those of you with toddlers.

Take your child on a walk (for those of you enjoying glorious spring where you are, probably a great time of the year for this activity), and let her collect things she finds along the way – leaves, twigs, little pebbles, small rocks, nuts, cones, flowers etc. If you’re lucky enough to make it to the beach, don’t forget to bring some shells back. At home, arrange all these on a tray, and keep it in her room.

Talk about each object, identify them, and let her “write” out the names for each on a sheet of paper. “Writing” here is just scribbling – give her a pencil, and let her scribble as you say the names. And remember, when she scribbles, it is REAL WRITING!

This is a good time to talk about nature, and how it’s not just made up of birds and animals, but also the millions of unnoticed things around us, like the things she’s just collected.

For all you Toddler Mamas, how do you spend time doing stuff with your kids?

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?