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.

Tot School-Week 2

It was not the most productive week for us. I am 21 weeks pregnant and not feeling well much of the week. I tried to stick to my plans as much as possible but some days just didn't go well. I'll try again next week! Here's what we did accomplish!

We did some spooning of beads into different size cups. I used a measuring spoon and some pinch cups from Pampered Chef. She loved this!


I got out the velcro food and let her cut to her little heart's desire! I was going to have her match the halves back together but she got bored before we got to that.


I hid some small firemen and policemen in a tupperware box of popcorn kernels. We got these red, white, and blue popcorn kernels for a Christmas present and they did not pop well so I dumped them in a box, hid the men, and let her dig. It made a huge mess, mainly because big sister just had to play too!


We did transferring pom poms again but this time I gave her an ice cube tray. She did good at first with only putting one in a hole but by the end she was stuffing them all in one!


I let her hammer golf tees in a styrofoam block with a toy hammer. She didn't like the hammer (?) but would push them with her finger. She loved this and so did big sister (who used the hammer). I got this idea from Delightful Learning, I think.


Everyone's favorite activity this week was farm animal sounds bingo. I have had this game forever and got it out this week for both girls. My older daughter and I used the game cards and Lyla used the toy farm animals. When the animal sound came on I would ask Lyla to find that animal. They got the biggest kick out of those animal sounds!


That's all we did this week. She was much more cooperative and "stable" this week but I was careful in choosing activities that I knew she would like. And we didn't do the trays every day since I didn't feel well. Overall a good week though!

Raising Rock Stars Preschool-Tt

This week was a little hectic. I am 21 weeks pregnant and didn't feel well for most of the week. I had a hard time getting motivated to "do school". Hopefully, next week will be better!

RAISING ROCK STARS
We continued our RRSPS curriculum with letter Tt. We did the Power Point slideshow this week and both of my girls loved it! They don't get to use the computer much so it was a real treat for them.

OTHER ACTIVITIES
While baby sister was doing tot trays, Abby worked on this clothespin number match game from childcareland.com

We also did an ABC safari from makinglearningfun.com, apple patterning from makinglearningfun.com, and rhyming memory match.

Everyone's favorite activity this week was farm sounds bingo. I got this set at Wal Mart several years ago and had never used it. The girls got a huge kick out of the animal sounds, especially the donkey!

LIFE
I have been very proud of Abby this week. She has been such a good helper around the house, something she is not usually known for. She helped hang up laundry, sweep, vacuum, and unload the dishwasher. We are really trying to encourage this with lots of praise and hugs and kisses!

She has also been a big helper to her baby sister. Again, we are trying to encourage her to be kind and share and use sweet words with her baby sister, even when it is hard. I have overheard her "inviting" Lyla to play with her several times this week. It makes me so proud!

On a different note, I have art boxes for each of the girls with basic supplies, crayons, stickers, etc. and they can get them out anytime they want as long as they clean up after themselves. Abby got her art box out one day this week and made this paper bag puppet. Then she put on a puppet show for me! It was so funny!


MISSIONS
My plan was to do a missions activity with Abby every week but I fell short this week. One day we were watching the news and it was about India. Abby said, "We saw India on a map last week!" So we got the map out and looked at India. Then last night while watching some news coverage of the World Cup we brought out the map and showed her where South Africa is. I have been looking for missions activities for preschoolers and came across some neat things that I will share as we do them. I really have a strong desire to give my girls a heart for missions!

That's it, that was our week! Hope you had a great one!

Our Tot School Zone

I hesitated about posting this since we just started doing tot school and preschool but I think the more pictures and ideas you can get the better.

We live in a small house with 2 bedrooms and a tiny but open living, dining, and kitchen area. We don't have an extra room to dedicate to play or school. But this house does have a large laundry room and lots of closets so my school stuff is spread throughout our house.

The majority of our books are on this bookcase in the girls bedroom. I recently narrowed them down to fit on the shelf. It is hard for me to get rid of books, but I am trying to learn to live within our current space :) Their toys are also in their bedroom closet.

This is our coat closet in our hallway, although it isn't really a hallway. Its a weird space with all the doors to the bathroom, bedrooms, and closets. I put all our school stuff that we won't be using very often. On the top shelf is a bin for all their art and the stacked bins have toys, seasonal books (Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc), and all of my theme materials. I was a speech pathologist at a preschool so I have a lot of books and language materials. I also use this closet for odd objects that don't have a place.

The majority of the school stuff is in our big laundry room. This small bookcase is for our tot trays. I have a dry erase board over it to keep me organized. The red baskets are to keep the materials I will use for the week. Like I said, I am new, and this may change, but last week I got so tired of digging through boxes every night for materials so I got all my stuff ready for the week and put it in the red boxes. Each night I take the stuff out and put it on the trays. Working good so far.

This shelving unit holds things I use more often. On the top shelf are my supplies (file folders, pockets, scissors, etc.) and the other two boxes are found items (containers, bottle tops, funnels, ice cube trays, etc.). The stacked up pink boxes are for very small items like beads, feathers, googly eyes, etc. Next shelf, red boxes. These house ribbon, tissue paper, paints, fabric, etc. Next shelf, more boxes. These house alphabet, number, color, rhyming, manipulatives, etc. Play Doh is in the smaller boxes. Next shelf, more boxes which house puzzles, card games, construction paper, and workbooks. I have art boxes for the girls on this shelf as well. The bottom shelf is non school items.

The girls don't come in the laundry room much. Our computer and office stuff is in there as well. I don't let them get the tot trays themselves. I put them on the kitchen counter in the morning and we sit on the living room floor or dining table to do our work. Then it all goes back to the laundry room.

I don't have a big collection of tot toys so there are only a few toys that are off limits. As I acquire more learning toys I will probably keep them out of reach.

I dislike how spread out everything is. I wish I had a dedicated school room but I do feel lucky to have such a big laundry room in such a small house.

That's our space!

Tot School-First Week

Lyla is 26 months old.

This was our first week at attempting tot school. Most of it didn't go anything like I expected. I have a 4 year old daughter who just started the Raising Rock Stars preschool curriculum and I have other planned activities to do with her at the table. Lyla wants to be a part of that (which I knew would happen) so we are doing tot school during that time. I sit between them and try to help both of them. It took a few days to figure it all out but by the end of the week it was going more smoothly. I was surprised at what Lyla enjoyed and what she didn't.

She usually loves puzzles, but not this week. Play Doh kept her attention for a whole 2 minutes.

Pouring rice turned into throwing rice, everywhere. Coloring lasted for 1 minute. Except with a pen she found, that she used to color her legs :) The bears and cups ended up on the floor and then she refused to pick them up!

But she did enjoy several other activities. She liked putting spaghetti into a salt shaker.

She loved putting stickers on a piece of construction paper.

She liked stringing penne pasta onto a chenille stick, but she needed a lot of help from me to complete.

Her favorite activity was tranferring pom poms from a bowl to a paint tray with tongs (she barely got the hang of those). She did this over and over. Then she counted them with me and identified and named the colors.

I got out nuts and bolts for her to play with and tried to show her how to do them but she didn't get the hang of it. Big sister tried to teach her how to do it too! So sweet!

She didn't like this puzzle earlier in the week but I brought it out at the end of the week and she enjoyed it then. She was pretty independent with it.

We put some of the shapes in an empty Kleenex box and she had fun pulling them out.

She is sitting in on the Rock Star stuff and is enjoying it. She sang songs with us and listened to the stories.

For fun this week we spent a lot of time outside in the water. We went swimming in big pools twice this week which she loved. She is quite a daredevil in the water!

But she also enjoys her kiddie pool.

She also likes helping me drown the plants, I mean, water the garden!

I learned a lot this week about planning and organizing. I hope the next week runs more smoothly but we'll see! I know that tot school is supposed to be one on one focused time but I just couldn't make that work. It worked better having both girls at the table working. I am going to try to make time for one on one play next week.