Preschool Activities (also some for young elementary students)

I now have two little learners in my house. I guess I’ve had 2 learners for a few years now, but one of them hasn’t been all that interested in learning until about a month ago when her switch flipped on. I literally saw the lightbulb flicker on, and now you can’t slow her down. She has a passion to learn like I didn’t expect from her. So when we started “school” officially 3 Mondays ago, you can imagine how hard my day was to teach 2 little ones especially with this preschooler who had so much zeal for learning. I couldn’t keep her occupied. She would finish an activity and then immediately say “what are we gonna learn next Momma?” into the wee hours of the night. And that’s how it’s been with her for 2 ½ weeks now. That first Monday, I knew I had to do something to make my life easier so I hopped on Pinterest and found some hands on center type activities that I could hand her to do independently. Here’s some of the things I found: http://sewfantastic.blogspot.ca/2012/05/rainy-day-fun.html pom pom games I printed out and laminated many of these math center activities http://www.geocities.com/thetoddlerhouse824/mathcenters.html I love this site http://first-grade-garden.blogspot.com/2011/09/math-stations-set-1.html I printed off a bunch of my favorite ones of these and put them in page protectors so I could use dry erase marker/crayon on the page protectors (and I didn’t want to use all of my laminate) Both Andrew and Eliz use this: http://mathwire.com/numbersense/domparklot.pdf I printed all of these out for Eliz: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/05/prek-numbers-shapes-colors-review.html Lizzy likes to do this with a friend: http://www.kidscount1234.com/shapefill.pdf Math: http://www.kidscount1234.com/onemore.pdf http://www.kidscount1234.com/moreorless.pdf both A & E http://www.kidscount1234.com/countcolor.pdf Kindergarten yatzee http://www.kidscount1234.com/yahtzee.pdf Both A & E give A two dice for addition and E gets a dice with 12 numbers on it http://www.kidscount1234.com/clear.pdf Money exchange http://www.kidscount1234.com/coinex.pdf Race to trace http://www.kidscount1234.com/racetotrace.pdf http://www.thestay-at-home-momsurvivalguide.blogspot.com/p/preschool-activities.html I didn’t print anything off, but I loved some of the activities on this page. We have since started a hand painted ABC book in addition to a craft with a different medium (like I let her tear up a piece of construction paper and use glue stick to place the glue on another piece of paper in the shape of letters for A, and for B, I gave her a toilet paper roll and washable paint and let her paint a B out of bubbles) This http://finallyinfirst.blogspot.com/2011/11/sight-word-fluency-romance-ruined.html is a super cute way to help your child learn to read the sight words. We’re not there yet with Eliz, but my Andrew will love this for the bigger words This is also another great idea for learning spelling, sight words, or even letters and numbers: http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2011/10/sight-word-parking-lot.html?showComment=1319571243034#c5501857452008954589 I love the greater or less than game on this page and the number word match up with dots and the number under the greater and less than game: http://firstgradeschoolbox.blogspot.ca/search/label/Number%20Sense Number game where you put beads on a pipe cleaner: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/preschool-math-with-beads/ I use #2 and #12 from here: http://secondstorywindow.typepad.com/home/2011/10/toddler-time-busy-bag-exchange-part-3-freebie.html I also found a great website where you can find additional worksheets to make sure your child has mastered a concept for any age: www.superteacherworksheets.com/ I love Mark Kistler: http://www.mkisdraw3d.com/public/p_mmval/ . He is an art teacher who gives you step by step tutorials on how to draw. He has lots of free things you can draw on his website, and both A and E LOVE to do this. You can also find a group deal to buy all access to his site through homeschool buy for $40 (instead of the $100) if you find that your kids really love this art program. We do, but I can’t currently justify the additional $40 after buying BrainPop and AtoZ learning group buys this year too. Maybe next year. Hope this post helps someone looking for fun activities for their young little homeschoolers. We have fun with all of this at our house.