I need ideas for educational play things for my 3 yr old

[bookmomma]

she will be three this spring, and she likes to play school time, too. I had her grandpa build her a small child's desk to sit at and work beside us. I give her wooden puzzles, geometric stackers, wooden sorting toys, bead stringing, coloring and finger painting, and some of the boys' math manipulatives (she thinks they are cooler than spit) to play with. I also give her some easy Kumon pages for cut and paste, colors, and folding. And of course BOOKS!

 

Any ideas for other educational toys for toddlers? I'm looking for some music CDs, and other stuff for her to enjoy during school time. Post ideas or links!

[cara]

This past week a tub filled with rice with measuring cups and spoons, a little spoon, some medicine cups, a straw, etc seems to be the new hit around here. DS (8) wanted to play with it, DD (1) ate the raw rice, and DN (3) played with it for at least an hour.

[CamperMom]

I like the Montessori catalogs, www.MichaelOlaf.com and www.forsmallhands.com. They have great supplies and great information.

[mom2koh]

My son will be 3 in spring also. He loves legos and playdoh. I like giving him the playdoh b/c he's had some motor skill issues and that really works the hand muscles.

 

The legos are just fantastic to keep him occupied. He can build with them, sort them by color or shape (square vs, rectangle vs. circle), he also uses them to count with! So many different ideas.

 

Good luck. Once you find what your kiddo really likes and will be occupied with it is so much easier.

:grouphug:

[cara]

Check out 1+1+1=1 Tot School posts, she has a lot of great ideas so do the mom's that link up with it weekly, I get a lot of my ideas for DN and DD there

[GaHadley]

This past week a tub filled with rice with measuring cups and spoons, a little spoon, some medicine cups, a straw, etc seems to be the new hit around here. DS (8) wanted to play with it, DD (1) ate the raw rice, and DN (3) played with it for at least an hour.

 

Check out 1+1+1=1 Tot School posts, she has a lot of great ideas so do the mom's that link up with it weekly, I get a lot of my ideas for DN and DD there

 

 

I agree with both of those!

 

I had one of the under the bed storage boxes that I kept about half full of rice and my kids LOVED LOVED LOVED it! i put a flanel-backed vinyl table cloth under it for spills. Get a small dust pan/hand broom from the dollar tree for clean up :) The dollar tree is also a great place for measuring cups and spoons, funnels, etc.

 

A small dishpan with water - "wash" plastic dishes, give baby dolls a bath, pouring, sponges, basters, etc. . .

 

stamps and stickers

 

draw a shape on a piece of construction paper and let her fill with little stickers

[Kirch]

Check out 1+1+1=1 Tot School posts, she has a lot of great ideas so do the mom's that link up with it weekly, I get a lot of my ideas for DN and DD there

 

Definitely check this one out, along with links to others from her site.

 

Wikki Stix/Bendaroos have been a hit around here, either for open ended play or for making shapes, letters, numbers, etc.

[fenni]

My 2 yo and 4 yo love the Lauri toys packages from MFW. They also love watercolor paints and aquadoodle.

[AudreyTN]

I just got the Vtech Tote and Go Laptop for my 3yo's birthday. It's only $20 at my walmart, it wasn't available online so I linked to Amazon. (FYI, I *did* get my son the orange one. :))

[Tress]

I'm listening :bigear:.

 

I'm at my wits end with my 3.5yo, she wants to do REAL SCHOOL.

So playdoh, lego, rice etc are not acceptable to her:tongue_smilie:.

 

I gave her stickers, those ' magic' paintings where you paint with water and some Kumon books, she flies through it within 5 minutes and then comes back for more.....

[Lovedtodeath]

When my DD was 3 we started learning how to sound out words and write letters.;) When she was 3 and a half she was pretty much done with all K goals, and reading at a 2nd grade level. All kids are different.

 

My son likes to color in preschool workbooks from Walmart (leftover from big sis) or pages of Abeka Math that we skip. He also likes using scissors to cut index cards, or little pieces of paper and glue so he can copy what we are doing. For his preschool I use board books and activity books (lift the flap and such), and the resources listed in my sig. He loves to use the chalkboard and white board, and a lot of the activities mentioned here.

[Tress]

When my DD was 3 we started learning how to sound out words and write letters.;)

 

Hi Lovedtodeath,

 

my husband also suggested that I start teaching her to read...

I'm just not sure that that is the right thing, at this moment.

 

I'm pretty sure that if she had no big sister, she would not be asking for school. And I'm a bit afraid I'm setting her up for failure. In the Netherlands children start learning to read when they are in first grade (6yo) and I recently did that with her big sister who went from zero to 3th grade reading in a few months. She witnessed that and will for sure notice the difference. Combine that with not having age appropriate materials, there are no homeschool materials around here, so I used classroom stuff which is obviously geared to 6yo's and not to 3yo's.... Arrrrgh.

 

I have to find something for her.....oh, and something to prevent the 1yo to climb the bookcases would be great too :lol:

[bookmomma]

I like the Montessori catalogs, www.MichaelOlaf.com and www.forsmallhands.com. They have great supplies and great information.

Thank you! I bookmarked these.

[bookmomma]

Check out 1+1+1=1 Tot School posts, she has a lot of great ideas so do the mom's that link up with it weekly, I get a lot of my ideas for DN and DD there

 

I love this blog. Great resource. Thanks!

[Chris in VA]

Sorting/classifying, seriation, and number sense are all beginning to develop at 3.

For sorting, have small bowls, a placemat/paper with two or three circles drawn on it, a sorting tray (like a relish tray, even), an egg carton (good for sticker/poker chip sorting) and little mats (like coasters, plain). Depending on the size of the objects, you can use these to define the area for her. You can put one new thing to sort in a workbox every few days. Sort by color, by shape, by use, by kind--lots and lots of ways to group and catagorize. Some cheapie objects you can offer (one kind at a time):

 

poker chips

glass chips

paint samples

silverware

uncracked nuts

leaves

sea shells

erasers (the Dollar Store is your friend)

individual stickers stuck to poker chips or just on squares of index cards

Go for real objects that are attractive to the hand and get more abstract as she gains in skill.

 

You can make matching games, too, which is very much like sorting. A fun thing to do is to make a hook board--just screw nice-sized cup hooks into a board or use the sticky kind. Use luggage tags with stickers on them and have her match. You can adapt this to where she's matching the numeral on one tag (pre-hung for her) with a tag that has mini-stickers on it (or circles drawn by you, or whatever), or words matched to pictures, or opposites, or a letter and then the one that comes after it--a hook board can be used for a long, long time.

 

Seriation cards are cheap, and a small subset can be pulled for a 3yo. Try 3 part cards first--things she has experience with, like pictures of the sequence steps to going down a slide, for instance. Later, have her do 4 part and 5 part cards. If she uses a small rug ala Montessori to put these out, you can have her come get you when she's done, and you can discuss and reinforce with her.

 

In fact, having a rug for her to spread is an excellent way to define her space and let her take responsibility for her work. She has to get it out by herself, spread it, get her work, do the work (at this point she can either get you, leave it for you to view later, or just clean it up) and put everything away. Rolling the rug is good for her muscles.

 

Just a few ideas for threes. I taught them for years--my favorite age.

[mcconnellboys]

Fischer Price has come out with a line of their old, popular wind-up toys. They look as sturdy as the original versions (hope that proves true) and I've bought some of them for a new niece. One of the items they have is a wind up clock that plays a nice little tune. As the hands move around the dial, different windows open up showing things that occur at different times of day (school time, bed time, etc.). I believe you can set the hands yourself, too, for learning time. A simple Judy Clock would also be nice for learning time, sans music.

[swellmomma]

We have bins of moon sand, bubber and play sand for my 2 yr old

 

Peg boards, pattern blocks, and other math manips

 

Lauri puzzles, stamps, lacing boards and items(in addition to boards we have a block of cheese, a beehive and a button to sew to the stand)

 

magna doodle, water board(paint with water on the special board), homemade color matching games etc

 

I am also using ideas from slow and steady get me ready, Comprehensive toddler curriculum, Daily curriculum for early childhood, book selections from Sonlight P3/4 and B4FIAR. (the curric books were from my daycare days so I already had them on hand) for this coming term.

 

Up until now she just played with whatever I put out during school time, but she has been asking for more, so I am adding in the program ideas I got from the above sources and ordering a few new items (dressing frames, colourchanging touch board, and a few other little things I come across)

[skueppers]

My kids like pattern puzzles- pattern blocks and cards to go with them, and/or mighty mind.

 

Depending on how you feel about the computer, you could let her do educational computer stuff. She ought to be able to navigate those kinds of web sites on her own at this age.

 

Simple mazes are another option.

 

Good luck!

Edited January 2, 2010 by skueppers
typo

[bookmomma]

Sorting/classifying, seriation, and number sense are all beginning to develop at 3.

For sorting, have small bowls, a placemat/paper with two or three circles drawn on it, a sorting tray (like a relish tray, even), an egg carton (good for sticker/poker chip sorting) and little mats (like coasters, plain).

 

I let her sort the colored bears that are in the Saxon math manipulatives box (red, blue, green and yellow), and I place small plastic colored bowls (same colors) for her to sort the bears. She does at first, but then mixes them all up.

[TechWife]

The Lauri world map puzzle (check to make sure the pieces aren't too small for her); let her cut play doh with sissors (fine motor skills); make clothes for paper dolls from mag. pictures (cutting & pasting); books on tape from the library (or whatever they call them now - books on cd?) so that she can hear the story & look at the book at the same time. Sewing cards. Hand puppets.

[bookmomma]

My kids like pattern puzzles- pattern blocks and cards to go with them, and/or mighty mind.

 

Depending on how you feel about the computer, you could let her do educational computer stuff. She ought to be able to navigate those kinds of web sites on her own at this age.

 

Simple mazes are another option.

 

Good luck!

I have the reader rabbit toddler program and my boys loved it. You basically swish the mouse around to pop bubbles, or explore different areas. Very easy.

[Chris in VA]

I let her sort the colored bears that are in the Saxon math manipulatives box (red, blue, green and yellow), and I place small plastic colored bowls (same colors) for her to sort the bears. She does at first, but then mixes them all up.

 

 

That could be because she's bored. Try sorting different things with more than one attribute--bears are basically the same, only with a different color (and sometimes a different size). I find real objects are much more intriguing than packaged math manipulatives. She may have mastered sorting by color, too. Do you have buttons?

 

You could try ABA patterns, too--Lots to do! lol

[Carol in Cal.]

I would include some foreign language CD's--probably folk songs, sung clearly, so that she can start to develop an ear for whatever language or languages you think best.

 

Science supplies are very important. A 12 in ruler, a magnifying glass, a pair of binoculars, and one of those underwater magnifiers will give her a chance to make observations and get to know her fingerprints, what a leaf REALLY looks like, and the anatomy of fascinating little bugs. Some very colorful books of pictures of wild nature would be great for this age.

 

You can back these up with Magic School Bus videos if you think she is old enough.

 

You do have magnetic letters, right? Make sure you have a lower case set. That is something that people tend to neglect early on, and since most books are mostly lower case, it's a good idea to have those shapes be familiar.

[bookmomma]

You do have magnetic letters, right? Make sure you have a lower case set. That is something that people tend to neglect early on, and since most books are mostly lower case, it's a good idea to have those shapes be familiar.

Yes. We have the fridge phonics set (word whammer), and she plays with that and sings along the alphabet song.

[Lovedtodeath]

I taught DD to read by playing games with Lauri letters. We would learn how to sound out words by putting them down one letter at a time. She learned CVC words, easy phonograms like SH, and the silent E rule, and started taking off and reading everything. No curriculum, no workbook, ;).

[lilbean05]

I started out an anti-electronics mom, but as time has passed, I have slowly allowed more and more television and electronic toys in the house--so much so, that we got Leapster 2s for my 4 year old and 2 year old this Christmas. We borrowed them from the library first to see if they were worth while and decided to take the plunge. My 2 year old really loves his "Eat the Frog" (Leapfrog..) and plays it for maybe 10 minutes a day or, doing matching games (Chicken Coop, one of the downloadable games) and learning spanish from a Dora game. (We don't watch Dora, so he doesn't know anything about her other than the Spanish game). There are some games that we aren't fond of (fight this, whack that and then answer an educational question) but lots that we really like (mind bender, tangos, math puzzles, mazes, etc).

 

Other than this, my 2 year old eats up puzzles--the 24 and 48 piece wooden ones from Melissa and Doug. He also loves to flip through books and to watch Math Circus and Brainy Baby ABCs. Playdough, pretend cooking, and much to my surprise--a jack in the box---are our favorite things.