Activities for Preschooler and Toddler

I wrote last week about activity bags that I had been making for both of my girls, age 4 (almost 5) and 2. I was inspired by this post at My Delicious Ambiguity, these posts at Walking by the Way, and this website which has books you can purchase to make your own preschool activity bags. I wanted an easy way to just grab an activity and not have to search for the components. My mother in law usually keeps the girls one day a week (she is on summer vacation) so I have used that time to get my bags all put together. I keep the items in gallon ziploc bags and put those bags in canvas bags that I plan to label. I still haven't decided if I will use workboxes for my preschooler and tot trays for my toddler or just fill their bags for the week and let them have them in the canvas bag, still figuring that one out.

I also made a few actvities that both of my girls have enjoyed, just in different ways. They don't fit in ziploc bags but can be stored in the canvas bags. Thought I would share since they were inexpensive and easy to make.


I got the inspiration for these fish at Counting Coconuts. I don't sew, but my grandmother does and she offered to make these for us. They were supposed to have embellishments on them that they could count but my grandma wouldn't do it-she was afraid they would pull them off and get choked! Both girls have enjoyed the game this week as is but you could add the embellishments, felt numbers, or paper clip on whatever skill you are wanting to work on. You can also work on colors this way.


I don't live anywhere near a Target but actually got the chance to go this week and picked up these small foam shapes in the dollar bin. I then used an oatmeal container to store them in, wrapped it in pretty scrapbook paper, and cut the lid like a shape sorter. My 2 year old likes to do the shape sorter while I work with my preschooler on other skills. We have used them so far to practice patterning and following complex directions (give me 2 yellow circles and 1 blue square). It has also been used as a basketball game!


I have had the idea for this in my head for a long time. Making Learning Fun has instructions for clank cans and I have always wanted to make one. I have been saving the metal juice lids for a long time and finally decided to make my own clank can. I wanted one that both girls could play with so I got ABC stickers at Target dollar bin and put them on the juice lids. I wrapped a baby formula container with scrapbook paper, cut a slit in the lid, and let the girls play. My toddler stayed occupied with this for a long time and my preschooler had a blast looking at all the letters and putting them in. This is really open ended-you can put anything you want on the lids-pictures, colors, ABCs, numbers, etc. I left the back of the lid empty for now, I can't decide if I want to do phonics and put a picture to go with the letter or do the lowercase letter on the back. I only have 18 lids right now, so that is why the whole alphabet isn't there.


This is a toddler activity I made. I found an elephant shape online and used it as a template to cut out different types of scrapbook paper. You could make this into a file folder game or just leave it as is. I think these elephants are so pretty!


Here is a picture of the contents of my toddler's activity bag.


Here is a picture of the preschooler's activity bag. All of this is split between several bags by category: letters and phonics, numbers and counting, patterning and visual discrimination, and just for fun!

Several of these activities came from Making Learning Fun, some from Along the Way, a few from Carisa at 1+1+1, and a few from ChildCareLand.

I have really enjoyed making these things and seeing them get so much enjoyment out of them makes the time commitment worth it. I hope this is as helpful as I think it will be when baby sister gets here in October! I still have a list of activities I would like to make and add more to it almost daily. There are some really creative people out there in the blogosphere!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tot School Planning

I can't believe it has been a month since I posted anything on this blog. I have been in super planning mode, not just for tot school and preschool but in preparation for baby, which we found out will be another girl!

I spent probably a week nesting-cleaning out, washing baby stuff, organizing, etc. Then I spent a week recovering from all that work! During that time we decided for sure that we will homeschool the girls. I just know that is what God wants for our family. We have already encountered some resistance but I am trying to not let it get me down. If I am following God's will, then I am doing what is right and it will be blessed by Him.

I was inspired by this post from My Delicious Ambiguity about toddler busy bag activities. My wheels started turning and I thought it might be a good way to organize our tot school activities, especially for use when I have a newborn to take care of. So I got busy making gallon ziploc baggie filled activities for Lyla. I printed some activities from Making Learning Fun and used some of Carisa's tot book activities as well. I have a long list of other things to make for her "busy bag", most of which includes my grandma (a sewing wiz). I am still a little unsure how exactly I want to use this. I have been thinking of just using the bag as storage and placing the items on trays as usual or filling the bag with activities for a week at a time and letting her play with (and clean up) to her little heart's desire. I am also thinking about incorporating blanket training in this but I think trial and error will determine what works best. I am just using plain canvas bags for now. I will jazz them up once I determine what will work. I am also contemplating moving our bookshelf with the trays out into the living area so their supplies are accessible all the time. I am worried about the mess as neither of my girls have learned how to pick up after theirselves (completely my fault) but it would be helpful once baby comes if I can successfully train them to do one activity at a time and clean up after each activity. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!

Preschool Planning

I can't believe it has been a month since I posted anything on this blog. I have been in super planning mode, not just for preschool but in preparation for baby, which we found out will be another girl!

I spent probably a week nesting-cleaning out, washing baby stuff, organizing, etc. Then I spent a week recovering from all that work! During that time we decided for sure that we will homeschool the girls. I just know that is what God wants for our family. We have already encountered some resistance but I am trying to not let it get me down. If I am following God's will, then I am doing what is right and it will be blessed by Him.

I prayed really hard about whether to start kindergarten, what curriculum to use, and just what homeschooling means for our family. Since we will be adding to our family in just a few months I decided that starting kindergarten would not be good for us. I decided to stick with preschool activities. This way we can get adjusted to our new baby sister and it gives me time to figure out what works for our family. I also have lots of life skills to work on with the girls before formal "kindergarten" begins. Abby is not good at cleaning up after herself and obeying immediately and Lyla needs to be potty trained and lose her pacifier. I just feel like kindergarten, life skills, and new baby would be too much for me!

I really had a hard time choosing curriculum, especially since I am looking ahead to kindergarten. I finally decided on three different ones that I have combined.
1. Raising Rock Stars Preschool Curriculum: I love everything about this! We have already done two weeks of this and I just loved it and so did the girls. I love the memory verses, worksheets, easy readers, power point slides, etc.

2. Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve: This was a last minute addition. I subscribe to this blog and just love it. She announced last week that she had just completed a new preschool curriculum and I just had to have it. It is $45 but I think it is going to be worth every penny. It is a letter of the week type of curriculum, similar to RRSP, but she includes activities, recipes, and service projects to go along with each letter. She has memory verses for each letter but I am sticking with RRSP for the memory verses. I think the two of them put together is an incredible preschool curriculum. We haven't used it yet but I can't wait to start it next week.

3. Sonlight P3/4: At first I was just going to stick to this as our only curriculum but there just wasn't enough there for a almost 5 year old. P4/5 was more than I wanted to do, so I went with P3/4 and added the other stuff I mentioned. I love the books and some of the suggested activities are really good. It has a wide variety of books so the girls will learn some geography, science, Bible, history, and poetry.

To round out our preschool experience, I have made several preschool activities in a bag (and toddler ones too for Lyla). Most of the activities came from Making Learning Fun and then some are homemade. Most focus on pre-reading and pre-math skills. I have a list of other things I would like to make as I gather the supplies. It is basically the same as what I was putting on the trays, but these are in gallon ziploc baggies with all necessary components included. I thought she could grab a tray and a baggie and work to her little hearts desire. I am still trying to figure out exactly how I want to use these. I thought about doing the workbox system, similar to Carisa's, but I don't really have the funds to buy anything else. I also thought about having a canvas bag with the activities for the week and she can choose what she wants to do, when she wants. I read somewhere about blanket training (for babies) but thought this might be good for her too. I thought of having her do activities on a blanket and when she was done, putting away her bag and blanket. I might do some trial and error in this area to see what works best.

My main goal is to have all of this up and running fairly smoothly before baby comes so it won't be so difficult trying to do this with a newborn. We'll see. If any of you have suggestions, please feel free to leave me a comment.