Lifestyle “Preschool” Part 2
By Stacey | Posted on May 19, 2010 | No Comments
In an earlier post, I talked about my difficulty in implementing my preschool/kindergarten curriculum and the accompanying guilt. I want to help you think through how to teach the same skills and make the same happy memories as a top-notch preschool just by including your children in normal life. With a little thought, many of your activities can teach and entertain your young children.
Let’s look at the way many preschools/daycares organize themselves and discuss how we can not only do these things at home with our children, but do them better(!) than someone else can do in an artificial setting. Most of the following categories were taken from a teacher resource site offering signs for the various learning areas in their classrooms. Since this could get lengthy, I’ll put this into a few posts.
- Magnet board: You can definately handle this one. Let your children arrange magnetic letters, numbers, animals or other homemade magnets (made with magazine pictures reinforced with cardboard and stuck on pieces of magnetic strip) on the refrigerator, washer, dryer or cookie sheet. Obviously, this will happen while you work where the “board” is. This can be a free-play activity or you can suggest some type of learning game. “Let’s sort these food magnets by food group.” or “Can you put these letters in ABC order? Sing the song to help you.” or “What comes after each of these numbers? Stick them on after each one.” Keep it fresh by rotating the magnet sets and making the children put them back in a zipbag when you leave the area.
- Puzzles: If your puzzles are getting boring, borrow some from one of your friends. For an added challenge, you can take the pieces out of two or more puzzles and have your child sort them into the correct puzzle. Make your own puzzles with magazine/catalog pictures glued onto cardboard and cut into age appropriate shapes. Keep your puzzles in a place where they can be used regularly near you while you do something else. For example, you could put a puzzle shelf in the living room (for the little ones to use while the rest of the family watches videos or reads aloud), or by your computer, or in the kitchen to be used while you cook. Puzzles should be easy for your little ones to transport to a flat surface without dumping them or they may tend to avoid them all together!
- Cooking: Let your children join you in the kitchen! I know they make messes, but you’ll survive. Talk the whole time: tell them what you’re cooking, why you chose it (“Daddy loves this casserole.” ”These beets are so great! They even fight cancer!”), what ingredients you are using, what they do (“This baking soda makes the biscuits rise.”), what utensils you’re using, etc. Let them dump ingredients, stir, and anything else they can handle. Even a two-year-old can cut some raw vegetables with a regular table knife. My kids love to do this. Today my four-year-old stood near me in the kitchen and helped peel carrots for lunch with a peeler. She did great!