Category: Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home

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Apple Grid Game: Free Math Printable for Ages 2-4

It’s apple season! The perfect time to do apple-themed activities with the kids. When my kids were little, we played Math Grid Games all the time.  I made an Apple-Themed Grid Board to share with you today. Here’s a picture of the game board: How to Use Math Grids with your Preschooler: Print 2 Grid Boards per player Gather two different sets of tokens and one die. For Younger Kids: Take...

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What are Lapbooks? A Cool Way to Learn!!

Just what is a lapbook?  Here’s a picture of the Pirate Lapbook my son made when he was a preschooler. As you can see, it is a file folder that is  refolded so that the edges meet in the middle. Then, you tape other pages to the bottom or into the middle to add in more material.   It is a cute way to display small folded mini-books, flaps, pop-up...

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How to Teach Handwriting

How did we teach handwriting in our homeschool?  This is what we were using when ED had just turned 5. ED really enjoys writing…  Here’s a picture of ED writing in her journal from last January (age 4). The kids and I made a special trip to Staples for them to pick out their own journals. I offered to write whatever they wanted for them, so they could record things...

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Alphabet Activities for 2-4 year olds (Free Alphabet Mats)

I thought it might be useful to pull a lot of our letter-activities together into one post, although we didn’t ever focus exclusively on letters. We generally had a theme or unit (astronomy, birds, volcanoes, bears, pirates, princesses and whatever else the kids were interested in at the time…)  and we added in these types of activities to supplement whatever else was going on.  So, just keep in mind that...

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Fine Motor Skill Activities for 2-4 Year Olds

I frequently get questions from parents who wonder just what to do and where to start with their preschoolers.  Many of the things we did are things most parents do naturally in their home: free play with toys, time exploring and playing outside, dancing to music, reading books aloud to the kids.  But as a Mom who stayed at home, I was always looking for different activities and approaches to...

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Preschool Science Activity: Animals Above and Below Ground (Free Printable)

In ED’s preschool science we are still talking about plants and animals. On this day we talked about animals and plant parts that live above or below the ground. We talked about how some animals like the grub or the cicada live part of their life under the ground, then live another stage above the ground. Some animals shelter under the ground when it is cold (like frogs and turtles)....

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Preschool at Home: Math Activities for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 Yr Olds

Today, I thought I’d highlight a few things I did with my kids for math in the 2 1/2-3 1/2 age range. Here are some activities I did with ED when she was 2 1/2.  She was just learning to count up to 4 objects at the time. You could do this with any theme — flowers, ladybugs, trucks or whatever your tot is interested in: One-to-one correspondence, counting out...

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Teach Your Child to Read!

In this post I’d like to share a dozen activities that we did with the kids to help foster early reading skills. These are activities we did with CVC words and basic sight words to make the learning process fun and engaging!! 🙂 The first step in learning to read is to make sure your child knows their letter sounds. We shared lots of ideas about that in our Preschool...

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Preschool at Home: Alphabet Activities for 2-4 year olds

Here are some alphabet activity ideas you can do with your little one: At first we played these activities just for letter identification, but as the kids learned their letters we would play these games and identify the sound/s they make. Above all, be enthusiastic and have FUN with the kids!! Jump on Letters:We did this activity with everything from contact paper in the kitchen to letters written in chalk on...

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Pattern Block Templates (Ages 18mo-4 years)

When my kids were little I bought a set of Pattern Blocks. It’s been one of the most enduring resources we have. We still bring them out occasionally and also use them for math now and then. The kids have used templates like these: And they’ve also used the pattern blocks for free play: There are lots of places where you can find free pattern block templates: One of the...

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15 Children’s Books Your 4-7 Year Old Shouldn’t Miss!

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a really cute idea for encouraging independent reading.  I thought I would also share some books my girls have LOVED between the ages of 4-7 or so: The Wish Cat,  Pinkerton, Behave!,   The Clown of God,  Stellaluna,  Caps for Sale  Tikki Tikki Tembo (affiliate links)   And some more books: The Gardener,    I Have a Sister–My Sister Is Deaf,   Big Bad...

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Preschool at Home: More Geography Activities

Yesterday, I shared a lot of activities that you can do with maps.  Today I want to share some other geography activities that my kids loved. After reading through Me on the Map (which is just perfect for the 4-6 year old crowd), I had ED do an activity that focuses in on where we live.  You have the kids color in and paste their location, pinpointing their location by going from...

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Preschool at Home: Geography Activities (Maps and More) Ages 4+

There are so many fun things you can do with your preschooler (or elementary kids) to help them gain an understanding of the geography of our amazing world! You can make all kinds of maps to enhance your preschooler’s knowledge of the world. Over the years we have made maps… with sand, dirt and grass seed like our Nile River Valley Out of clay, like our Ancient Greece (and Mediterranean...

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Animals Around the World (Montessori 3 Part Cards)

World Animal Packet: This 70+ page packet helps kids learn about animals on every continent! It includes Montessori 3-Part Cards, Activity Sheets for every continent, printable continent cards, a world animal game, world animal pin map activity, and more! The last two weeks I shared some of ED’s animal-related activities. She looked closely at the vertebrate-invertebrate groups and we talked a lot about the characteristics of the animals of the...