Learning with the younger one

Last year I was very pleased with the school work I did with the boys. However, I was not satisfied with the amount of one-on-one time I had with my daughter working on developmental skills. (We mainly just colored, painted, sang, cuddled or read together.) She will soon be 3, and I feel very convicted to be more intentional with her this year.

I have done some research and made a list of activities to do with her. The materials used for these activities will be kept on a high shelf in the pantry, only for use when we are together. Because she is a third born, I only had to buy a couple of things. These activities would work with a 2-4 year old. I hope to choose around 4 a day to enjoy alone with her.

Ideas for Learning with Older Toddlers and Preschoolers

1. Put dry noodles in the holes of a sugar shaker
2. Blow up a balloon and bat it with a wooden spoon
3. Lacing cards
4. Lacing beads
5. Melissa and Doug "Sequencing Bead Set"

6. Sort pattern blocks by color
7. One letter per week with a craft
8. Counting/Sorting teddy bear counters
9. Tantagrams
10. Stacking cups (Plastic, paper, etc.)
11. Play dough
12. Dress up (She will keep these items in the play room. But I want to join in, too!)
13. Leap frog magnetic letters
14. Leap frog magnetic animals
15. Puzzles
16. Cheerio book
17. Coloring books
18. Shaving cream paint (a little on a baking sheet)
19. Painting
20. Write numbers in a box 1-8 on paper. Match that number of stickers
21. Use big tweezers or tongs to transfer objects (Pom poms and tongs from an ice bucket)
22. Cut long thin strips of construction paper and put stickers every few inches. Have her cut between the stickers.
23. Peg board game
24. Painting with water outside on the sidewalk
25. Sidewalk chalk
26. Shape sorter

27. Save a plastic butter tub. Cut a slit in the top. Put plastic poker chips in the slit and count.
28. Spooning beads into a paint palette/ sort by color

29. Q-tips in a Parmesan bottle
30. Watering flowers
31. Emptying dish washer
32. Dumping trash cans
33. Feeding cat
34. Transfer water from bowls with sponge
35. Plastic instruments or pots and pans
36. Mr(s). Potato Head
37. Outdoor toys- Sandbox/swing/slide/trampoline/balls/ water guns
38. Tricycle 39. Tunnel
40. Bubbles
41. Thread beads on to pipe cleaners
42. Play in beans- put in cups with funnel
43. Connect four
44. Look for objects in bowls of rice
45. paint prints with fruit
46. finger puppets
47. Gluing with glue stick
48. Painting rocks
49. Mini-clothespins- pinch and move from object to object
50. Stacking blocks
51. Wooden cutting food
52. Bean bag toss game (can also fill old socks with beans for bean bags and seal with

rubber band and toss into an old bucket)
53. Put a colored dot on a ping pong ball. Match the ping Pong ball with correct crayon
54. Barnyard Bingo 55. Aqua Doodle
56. Hopscotch
57. Dry Erase Board (dry erase markers stain- use a smock!)
58. Colored water (water + food coloring) transferred with dropper
59. Washing plastic doll in basin of water
60. Digging in dirt (take pie tins for mud pies)
61. animal markers
62. Linking toys (cubes, rings, etc.)

63. Tracing and using stencils

64. Making stamp art

65. Sand box and water table- shovels, letter molds, watering can, etc.

66. Gardening/ making flower arrangements

67. Letter bean bags (oriental trading)

68. Nature walk around the creek or lake

Every day:

~Lots of books (See: Honey for a Child's Heart)

~Nursery Rhyme and Praise cds for dancing and singing together

~Read a Mother Goose nursery rhyme or a poem for her every day (Use hand motions when possible)

~Toddler devotion- Memorize catechism questions &/or verses together