This is really just a sampling of what Danny has to keep occupied with at his tender age of 3 years. We have magnetic letters and numbers, dry erase boards, wooden blocks, big block legos, Zoob building thingys, coloring books, bubbles, puzzles, etc. Does he like to use them? Not unless Camille or I are right there with him. Play-Doh is fairly independent but he doesn't really know what to do with it unless someone is right there.
He plays with his cars, trucks and trains but it's never at the time I need it to be, know what I mean? Last year I worked around his nap schedule but this year I want our lessons to be done by lunch. He naps after lunch. I don't want our lessons to last all day like they did last year. So I need to keep Danny busy while we are doing our lessons and he's not at the point he can do any time of seatwork other than scribble drawing and playing with Play-doh.
These are items we are considering for ds3 that will be "lesson" toys only or at least that's the plan. I'm going to create Preschool Baggies which are very cost-effective, but it takes time so this will be a work in progress. At first I'll use Dolly M's Preschool Baggie ideas, and then branch off from there once I get the hang of it. I've been told there are numerous ideas online, I hope so because I just don't know if I have enough brain cells left to create one on my own!
I've also gone shopping for items I feel will be a great addition to the "keep Danny busy having fun & learning" arsenal, here's what we're considering.
The Leap Frong Learning DVDs: Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, Talking Words Factory II and Math Circus. These DVDs have been highly recommended for preschool by so many homeschoolers they are hard to ignore!
A View-Master! Remember these? The View master is $5.00 and the inserts are $4.00 each at Amazon, it's worth a try! I like that I can use these as a learning tool as well as keep him clicking away.
Sequencing Puzzles, Galt's What's Next
Puzzles, there are 10 puzzles in this and the puzzle pieces are self-correcting. Danny already has a similar puzzle experience like this with the Foreign Word Match puzzle in the main picture above. We will probably use a lot of Galt products for preschool and kindergarten.
I LOVE these bean bags, there are also alphabet bean bags available. I love the bag they come in, and the millions of uses I can dream up! We have an indoor basketball hoop for Danny which can be used with this and in combination of buckets we can play word, number, color, shape and even french games with these!
Ring Toss, this can be played inside or out and even mom can throw a ring or two while reading aloud. Gee, I wonder why moms are the super heroes of multi-tasking? Lol. The rings can serve dual purpose and be goals for a bean bag toss. The points on this one can be tallied by Camille to see who wins the game.
This is a sequencing game as well by Melissa & Doug. It may require help until he's ready to do it on his own. These beads can also be used with shoestrings to create even more activities or be used on their own for a sorting activity, shape identification and color identification.
This is all I want to purchase in the next six months to help me with Danny. I will be creating our own little preschool baggies and working on getting Danny into his own little schedule. Other than learning DVDs, there will be no tv- this is a pitfall for us.
When Camille was Danny's age she was in daycare because I worked, so Danny is a little learning experience for me in all areas which I have to constantly be aware of my own failings and be consistent with him. Everyday is filled with so many overwhelming challenges and blessings in addition to LIFE! Lol, I believe being a stay-at-home mom/homeschooler is one of the most demanding, challenging and sometimes draining jobs a person can undertake but the blessings of "being there" and seeing firsthand the small and large victories just fills my heart with joy.
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8 comments:
For preschool baggie ideas you might want to try www.activitybags.com A friend of mine has this book and set up a co-op thing at her church were she got 30 moms together and they each may 30 of one bag and then did a swap. So each only had to make one bag 30 times but went home with 30 different activities for their kids. My kids have enjoyed these activities and they do keep my 4 year old occupied during school. He is only allowed to play with them during school time. Hope this helps.
Hi Jessica... something that also kept my Rylee busy at that age and at the table with us.... tanagrams and the animal tanagrams book. Also, The cuisenaire alphabet book and wooden rods. It also helped with motor skills and critical thinking. All independently.
She was taught if she wanted to be at the table with us, she had to be quiet and work on her task. She really wanted to “do” school too, so this was very motivating.
Looks like you have a lot of ideas and things already… I just wanted to share something that worked great with us.
*Ü* Enjoy!
Lisawa~
Chalk board, magnet board with letter or even numbers. Early Learning Fun Flash Cards *great set* has in it. Alphabet,colors & shapes, First Words, Sight Words, Phonics & Numbers . This can be used until 2nd grade. Here is the link: www.MHkids.com
We also used foam puzzles, wooden puzzles & V Tech games.
Neat ideas! I got ideas from Jeannie Fulbright's web. She wrote Apologia. It www.jeanniefulbright.com and go under homeschooling tips then preschool. Enjoy:)
gapeach
The Livingstone School
Amazing tips! I will use so many of these ideas with my little one.
Thank you!
I'm planning a post on this very subject later this week. My big thing last year was file folder games, as many as you can make! I had originally made these for our 4 year old, but they kept our 2 year old enthralled as well! I found many that he liked here: www.preschoolprintables.com/filefolder/filefolder.shtml
Also, I kept on hand: a magnetic tray with magnetic letters; a mini-chalkboard with chalk; sewing cards; a bag with poker chips from the store and index cards (I used red, white, & blue markers to make dots in different patterns, they needed to match the patterns with the poker chips); his own pencil box filled with crayons, chalk, stickers, etc.; lots of wooden puzzles only to be used during schooltime; and books on tape (recorded by mommy, this keeps him interested longer . . . how is mommy reading me this book when she's right there talking to my brothers?) There are other things, but this comment is plenty long!! Come visit me later this week and hopefully I'll have my post done!
Ooooh! Great ideas for the little ones! I too, like the leap frog videos and I'm not a TV fan!
Enjoying your postings - I have not seen some of these preschool items - and I peruse ALOT of catalogs for my preschool class. I really like the shape bean bags - I have the ones like this that are the color ones, but not the shape ones.
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