keeping preschoolers busy

[rieshy]

Accidental and quiet successes with my littles:

 

I bought "Richard Scarry's Big Busy Sticker and Activity Book" for my 4 1/2 yo for Christmas. It has turned into a great little inexpensive pre-school activity. He loves working quietly in it as his "school."

 

I also bought a couple of book of mazes and cut individual mazes out and slipped them into plastic sleeves for both my 3 yo and 4 1/2 yo. They work them with dry erase pens, over and over.

 

Any other ideas?

[blakereese]

If I give my DD paper, scissors, and a glue stick she will stay busy for a long time. But only because I only let her do it when I need some one on one time with DS. She loves having a glue stick without me sitting right there. :D

 

Also, she loves if I give her a piece of paper and put a few squiggly lines on it. Then I ask her to make a picture from it. She'll connect the lines to make something, or make several somethings...anyway, she feels super smart and creative, and I get a little quiet.

 

And finally, each week at the library I let her choose an audio book(with the book included). She will sit in the corner on the bean bag (where I can see her) and listen and follow along with the book. She just started to read in the past few months, so she enjoys this.

 

My DD is the kind of child who cannot play alone and is usually thisclose to me at all times, so I am happy when I find some things that work. In a few weeks, these tactics will be old news and I'll be on to something else. :lol::001_huh:

[Outdoorsy Type]

These are the things I use a lot with my 3yo:

 

Rod and Staff pre-k books. They are cheap, and keep him happy/occupied. Putting them in the pages and using dry erase would make them even more economical.

 

Play-doh at the table while listening to an audiobook.

 

various puzzles

 

Magna Tiles are the biggest hit at my house, but they were a $$ gift from my inlaws.

 

Counting Bears

 

Melissa and Doug pattern block set

 

Nesting Blocks to build towers with

 

And if all else fails I turn on Magic Schoolbus, Signing Time or Letter Factory. :tongue_smilie:

[happypamama]

I just sorted through all of our early learning materials and sorted out what would be good for the 2yo. He has: pattern blocks (a couple of types), a matching game (Memory with Dr. Seuss characters, but I just have him look through them and find the pairs), puzzles of various types, a magnetic dress-up set, crayons and paper, and some other stuff that's escaping me right now. He absolutely loves to draw and cut, so that gives us plenty of time for the big kids. Oh, a felt board would be good. I use workbaskets for the kids, and I just made one for the 2yo; he is beyond thrilled to have HIS own basket. Every time I say that it's time to do schoolwork, he comes running and insists that he do schoolwork too. We have a chalkboard and big sidewalk chalk that he likes. Playdough would be good too, or maybe some sort of paint (paint with water, maybe). We also have a magnetic board (it and the chalkboard are part of an old easel), and some animal magnets; he'll spend a while sticking those up too.

 

It's also nice when both big kids are working on something, and I have a few minutes to read a book with the toddler, so I keep a couple of bins of his books in the schoolroom.

[AngelBee]

:lurk5:

[chicagoshannon]

Sticky Mosaics are good for keeping them busy. It's good for fine motor skills too.

[mo2]

play-doh

blocks

scissors

paper to tear

a bowl, cup, spoon, and some empty seasoning containers

a square of fabric (old receiving blanket) and clothespins (I've learned that these 2 items can become pretty much any costume in the world!)

DVDs

Starfall

[Susan in TN]

My 4yo especially loves to "work" in my older kids' finished Singapore math books.

 

My 2yo & 4yo like bright colored paper to fold ("origami" ;)), cut, and write on.

 

I recently bought a bunch of felt and a few pieces of "stiff" felt. The "stiff" felt is the background, and they trace and cut out figures (cookie-cutter type shapes) onto the soft felt to make scenes. It's a little tricky for my 4yo to cut, but my older kids help out, too, and then they have fun making pictures. I may try cutting out a bunch of shapes for them to arrange into pictures.

[lisamarie]

My 3 year old plays with foam letters and practices her letter sounds and tries to make words (this is her favorite activity), she plays with cuisinart rods and counts them or builds things, colors, likes to cut paper, looks at books, colors on our little dry erase board or with her dry erase workbooks, strings beads on a shoe lace, and helps me with chores.

[mom2boys030507]

I have a few different inexpensive pre-school books. One is cut and paste, for him to do that he has to do at least on page in the other books, makes everything last longer. Most are just coloring, drawing lines, or circling, he does enjoy the books but not as much as the Cut and Paste. DS3 also has access to the drawers with math manipulatives, puzzles, Lace and Trace shapes. These he has been trained and training on only taking one out at a time then cleaning up when he is done. He is also able to play in the playroom or on the computer for short periods after the older two are done with their computer subjects. Most of the time my son asks me if the current toy in the playroom is school and I can say yes for you and this make him happy and he is off on his own. I will say that we highly value teaching our children to be able to play alone and this really paying off during school time right now.

[SevenDaisies]

We do most of our schooling during nap time when my dd 2 is sleeping. However, that still leaves me with a busy ds 4. My ds won't sit for more than 10 minutes for anything unless it makes a mess. He'll cut paper for an hour. He'll play with play-doh 1 - 1 1/2 hours!! It's a mess to clean-up, but it's worth the quiet time.

[rieshy]

I had to google "sticky mosaics." I bet that would be a hit at my house too.