I thought maybe everyone could list their favorite activities or crafts that they do with their preschoolers.  That way we can share ideas.

Just a few of the things we do are:

baking

playdough and cookie cutters

making cards for various holidays

painting *not as often as I should*

working on letters

flashcards (yes this seems heavy handed but they are fun ones and zack really likes them-I let him guide it and as soon as I see that he is getting bored or irritated with it away they go)

Cooking supper *likes to help me stir things or add things to pots

Clean up *chores-likes to gather items like sippy cups and glasses from other rooms and bring them to the kitchen. 

 

What do you do with you preschooler all day long.
BTW he goes to preschool two mornings a week and goes to gymnastics an hour a week.  We also go to reading time at the library and would like to make time to go swimming now that we have the ear plugs for max to keep water out of his ear tubes.

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SAHM to Max and Zachary

Weight Loss: 10 /21 pounds (first 10 %)
Total of goal: 10/100-only 90 to go :D

Julie-- you forgot computer time!!!! That is a much-- lol

cooper wrote:

Julie-- you forgot computer time!!!! That is a much-- lol

UMMM-DH is a computer tech and he says no computer for the boys (well rarely anyway)

LOL

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SAHM to Max and Zachary

Weight Loss: 10 /21 pounds (first 10 %)
Total of goal: 10/100-only 90 to go :D

Julie,
I do some of the same stuff that you do. I am not very good at cooking with my boys. I just am not that patient when eggs start getting all over the counter, floor, and clothes. How do you cook with your kids?

We also love to do glueing projects. We will glue just about anything. My kids also like to do stamping. I got giant, washable stamp pads from Lakeshore. They like to stamp with stamps, fingers, hands, and leaves.

We love to wash toys in the sink. I let them just soak and "clean" the plastic toys when they get dusty in the kitchen sink. It makes a huge mess, but I figure it is soapy water so the floor is also mopped when we are done.
Beth

haakadoodle wrote:

Julie, I do some of the same stuff that you do. I am not very good at cooking with my boys. I just am not that patient when eggs start getting all over the counter, floor, and clothes. How do you cook with your kids? We also love to do glueing projects. We will glue just about anything. My kids also like to do stamping. I got giant, washable stamp pads from Lakeshore. They like to stamp with stamps, fingers, hands, and leaves. We love to wash toys in the sink. I let them just soak and "clean" the plastic toys when they get dusty in the kitchen sink. It makes a huge mess, but I figure it is soapy water so the floor is also mopped when we are done. Beth

Well i said we try to do those things-didn't say how often-LOL

That stamp pad sounds awesome I havn't seen one of those here in canada yet.  Does this Lakeshore have an online store??  That is a great idea about the toys and rolling the washing toys into washing the florr too.  Definitely going to try that one!

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SAHM to Max and Zachary

Weight Loss: 10 /21 pounds (first 10 %)
Total of goal: 10/100-only 90 to go :D

We also paint with water-- yup! We have a roll of brown paper that I just roll onto the floor give DS a bowl and a brush and let him have at it! He loves it! Then in the summer we take the same roll of paper (different sheet though ;) ) and tape it to the house and we do the same thing! We also "paint alot of other things" like playhouses and such-- with water of course ;) and we use paint brushes (grown up kind, KWIM) they love that! We do play alot of play doh-- instead of a play doh table we use the floor of the kitchen-- works great! AND sometime we put on swimsuits and swim in the tub! I got alot of my ideas from the preschool power videos-- they are great! AND the kids love to watch them!

What are preschool power videos??

 

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SAHM to Max and Zachary

Weight Loss: 10 /21 pounds (first 10 %)
Total of goal: 10/100-only 90 to go :D

We read TONS of books-sometimes the same one 3x in a row. We go to the library 2x a week usually.

We love puppets and do lots of puppet shows. DD likes making the paper bag puppets too.

We play lots of games, picture/letter/etc Bingo, candyland, Hiss, Uno.......

We have lots of the musical tapes with action songs with bean bags, scarves, etc and my kids love these right now.

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Ann, Full-time mama of 2 crazy kids and a sling'n toddler

http://www.preschoolpower.com/

their method of teaching is the hands-on approach (i.e. Montessori learning) BUT my kids never knew they are learning just having great fun and thought mom let them do cool things!

www.lakeshorelearning.com
it is a great store, the products are made very well. Many poeple use them in preschools.

thanks for the link Katrina, I will have to check that out.
Beth

Thanks for those two links.  I checked them out.  The lakeshore stuff is avail in Canada but is twice as much so I think I will try to get a friend in the US to pick it up for me and send it here.

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SAHM to Max and Zachary

Weight Loss: 10 /21 pounds (first 10 %)
Total of goal: 10/100-only 90 to go :D