Recommended Materials for Preschool Age Child?

[Guest meggi3.14]

New to the WTM forums. So happy to be here! I have a 23 month old and would love recommendations on materials for this age. What have you used that helped prep your children for a classical education? Thank you so much!

[Mommee & Baba]

I have a 23m old ds and he hasn't much patience for sitting long periods...however some of his favorite things are..

 

 

• Pom Pom Sensory Tub (I have measuring spoons, different containers for him to dumb them into)
  
• Lacing Beads (He loves using the lacing beads on the dowel sticks I have inserted into a bean filled sour cream container with the lid closed and sealed with packaging tape and cut 2 holes in the top for the dowels and he puts the lacing beads on the dowels)
  
• Felt face pieces (I've cut a large circle and a large square and other random shapes like stars, ovals..ect and then I cut thin strips of different colors of felt. I also put velcro dots on the back of HUGE googley eyes. And he can make a face with the shapes and eyes.
  
• Board Books
  
• Play Doh
  
• Aqua Sand (yes I know I'm brave!)
  
• Finger Paint (My ds LOVES anything that involves his hands and paint!!)
  
• Leapfrog Fridge Magnets
  

I found that having his own "workbox" filled with these sorts of activities he'll be less likely to come wreck the kids school desks and instead dig through his workbox first. I will set time aside to allow him to play with aqua sand or finger paint a couple times a week though with me.

 

 

 

I do plan on purchasing some more Melissa and Doug educational toys for his workbox that include..

 

• Stacking Alphabet Blocks
  
• Cutting Play Food
  

I do give him erasable markers, crayons and colored pencils and his interest for those diminish FAST!!! He'd rather play with the things I listed above. However he has his own container of crayons in his workbox so he's welcome to try them anytime.

[Old Dominion Heather]

Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready is a good resource for pre-school.

[vonfirmath]

My son is going to be 4 this summer and my plan is to use the My Father's World preschool set with him:

http://www.mfwbooks.com/toddler_presch.htm#preschool -- He already has some Lauri toys that he really loves.

 

along with either

this Preschool Notebook Set I: http://www.gentleshepherd.biz/website_root_folder/home/Products/preschoolbeginningnotebooksetI.htm

 

or this

Graham Family Ministries Learning for Littles: http://www.school4jesus.com/store/product.php?id_product=34 (I've got this one already)

 

My sister says to be very careful with too much pencil work at this young age so I'm trying to keep that in mind. Especially because my son only seems to like "drawing" on the types of toys that you can erase.

[Rosie_0801]

The only things my 23 month old likes other then running around outside without his trousers on are the drawing/erase board a bit (that's more of a favourite with his older sister,) those beads on wire contraptions and a bit of drawing or painting. The painting is definitely an outside without trousers activity. (Why don't we have a paint splattered smilie?) Oh, and he likes plastic animals and stacking cups in the bath.

 

Rosie

[MeaganS]

Hey, you're in Provo! We lived there until about a year ago and between my husband and I, we have 6 siblings living there now. Welcome!

 

I have a two and a half year old and we're doing really simple unit studies that I put together. Right now, for example, we're doing one on penguins. I got several books from the library on penguins and we read them every day. I also did a search for coloring sheets and crafts that have to do with penguins, and we do one or two of them every day. While we do them, we talk about colors, we count, we talk about letter sounds and about big/little. It's really simple, and didn't cost me a thing. This is the type of preschool I plan on doing for the next while until I can teach her how to read.

 

Something I might do later is Letter of the Week. It is also very simple. Here's one version for free online. We also play with starfall.com almost daily, and my daughter learned all her letter sounds from the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD. These are all things that I would highly recommend. My goal is to get my daughter excited about learning and get her ready for reading and math so we won't have troubles later. Anything else she picks up along the way is a bonus!

[regentrude]

When my kids were little we did no formal academics whatsoever.

We read tons of books, told stories, talked, I answered millions of questions.

Had art supplies, crayons, paints, pencils, play dough on hand.

Played outside for several hours every day, nature walks, playgrounds, wilderness hikes.

Went to museums and live performances.

Learned by doing household tasks, preparing food, etc.

To me, the preschool stage is all about developing communication skills, vocabulary, fine and gross motor skills, social skills.

[BarbecueMom]

I tried to do the worksheet/coloring sheet thing, but it just doesn't work with little boys who still eat crayons, mostly because mommy says, "Don't eat crayons!"

 

For now, the only paper work I'm doing is printing off materials I run across to use for later, around age four or five. I'm also working on building a library of recommended books. I have several book lists printed off in a binder, and I try to shop off that list at garage and library sales. Same goes for music, but DH and I already had a large collection of jazz and classical CDs.

 

It's mostly "learn as you live" here. Lots of games, puzzles, can stacking, sink play, point-and-name, talking, listening, reading, and laughing.

[Guest meggi3.14]

What fabulous suggestions! I greatly appreciate it.