newbieoftwo Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Any ideas on how to keep her busy? I've printed off a few tot packs from 1+1, but she finished what I had planned for the week in about 15 minutes last Monday :001_huh:. I felt frazzled all week trying to find activities for her while also allowing plenty of playtime and outside time (the weather is finally bearable in TX). I like the ideas of tot trays, but they only seem to keep her interest for a few minutes and then it is back to "Mommy, now what can I do?" I've even allowed extra tv time and iPad time this past week and it is still "Mommy, I want "school" work":lol: P.S. We already have the Kumon workbooks for beginning skills, but she is not quite ready for printing although she is trying her best to master it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 My little guy loves dollar store workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebacabunch Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 This is the point that I taught my girls to read. I used 100 easy lessons and they took off. Then they could go and read a book. I also did the fine motor skill books from Kumon at this age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 (edited) That's hard. Can you "sell" that things like water play, playing in dry beans, bubbles, playdough, painting, snipping/cutting magazines etc. are preschool? Maybe if you came up with enough things like that which would occupy her longer than set academic activities you could rotate them throughout the week. I'd try to enthusiastically convince her that this is what preschool looks like and it's so important. If she's hard to convince you could make activities with them--make letters in playdough, check to see what floats, art, scissor skills, etc. perhaps. Maybe you could do "formal" school time with a book and then a craft craft with her daily if she's into that. Then throw the longer activity like playdough in at the end with some kind of tie to the lesson to get her started? I, myself, would go nuts trying to fill her time with printables! Edited October 14, 2012 by sbgrace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAM Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Have you seen the Developing the Early Learner workbooks? They are very well done. DD4 loves them. No printing, at least not in the first couple books. She also loves Starfall and Kiddie Records Weekly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 My 3yo twins are the same way. They want to do "exactly" what the bigs do. I made workboxes for them from a rolling cart and filled them with some sorting activities, matching, cutting and pasting, card games (dollar store for those). I also got them some pooh, mickey workbooks from $ store. I print out mazes and dot to dots for them (tons of free preschool ones on line). Having them spread out in the 10 drawers helps. They color while I do read alouds. When we do memorization 1 of them repeats with us. I do some computer time (starfall or pbs kids play). C-Rods and geoboards are great for the boxes also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbieoftwo Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 That's hard. Can you "sell" that things like water play, playing in dry beans, bubbles, playdough, painting, snipping/cutting magazines etc. are preschool? Maybe if you came up with enough things like that which would occupy her longer than set academic activities you could rotate them throughout the week. I'd try to enthusiastically convince her that this is what preschool looks like and it's so important. If she's hard to convince you could make activities with them--make letters in playdough, check to see what floats, art, scissor skills, etc. perhaps. Maybe you could do "formal" school time with a book and then a craft craft with her daily if she's into that. Then throw the longer activity like playdough in at the end with some kind of tie to the lesson to get her started? I, myself, would go nuts trying to fill her time with printables! I am going to have to acquire some magazines for her to cut up as she does like her Kumon cutting book. Water play is part of her school day, but playdoh is complete playtime for her because we have been making them into letters and numbers for a year now. I haven't tried dry beans, though. That will be new and might hold her interest for a bit. And, yes, I am going nuts trying to fill her time with printables :lol:. She would do them all day long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Starfall.com, the full subscription. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbieoftwo Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 Starfall.com, the full subscription. ;) We actually have this already :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 I've taught my 3 year old that each kid has school time with mom, so he is not allowed to interrupt school time with his brothers. He gets his own school time FIRST. We do R&S ABC series, or a coloring book (I'm teaching him to "color properly"), or some educational-looking workbook from the store that someone gave me. I'll sometimes get out math manipulatives and do something from Education Unboxed - teaching him how to use C-rods. Once I'm done working with him (about 10 minutes), I say, "Ok, your school is done! Time for <DS2> to do school!" DS3 then has to go entertain himself for a bit. DS2's school doesn't take very long. The seat work is maybe 30 minutes total. Then DS3 can sit in on read-alouds for DS2 (though they're a bit above his head, so he often wanders off, which is fine). I think there is great benefit to teaching little kids to a) not interrupt other children's school time, and b) entertain themselves for short periods of time. On the other hand, when a 3 year old is asking for "school", they're usually really asking for one-on-one time with mom. So instead of tot-trays, where they are still entertaining themselves, take the time to work one-on-one for 10-15 minutes (or however long the attention span is if it's less than that, though I know some little girls have a LONG attention span :D). Then it's the other kid's turn. This takes some training, but it's worth it in the long run. I think after a week or two, my 3 year old got the picture (we started this routine this summer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenDaisies Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 What about the HWT wood letter pieces/cards and stamp and see? My 4 year old love these. They are great for kids that age who are ready to learn about letters and how to make them but not quite ready to print. I also have the roll a dough set, although mine never really got into making the play dough letters even though they love play dough. However, the cards that come with that set are great because they can also be used on the stamp and see. I think you can buy the cards separately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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