5 activities to do with your preschooler
Your little one is quickly learning to use their hands and motor skills for things that help them learn and have some fun. From glueing and colouring, to putting on their socks, these skills are important for your preschooler as they approach the kindergarten stage, and there are many ways to practise these skills.
I put together a list of top 5 activities for your preschooler:
- Crafts – seasonal and special events: Anytime a special date, event, or even a new season is hitting the calendar, it’s the perfect inspiration for any craft. Each month, there’s at least one thing to acknowledge, whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Canada Day, or the start of Autumn. Pinterest is a great search engine for crafts, if you need ideas. Hit up your local dollar store for supplies, they usually have everything you need and most of the time, things you didn’t know you needed. Doing crafts isn’t just a learning tool, but also an opportunity to bond with your child over construction paper and cotton balls, keep them busy on a lazy day at home, and using their imagination to create something interesting.
2. Learning activities – flashcards and games: There can be opportunity put aside for learning any time of the day when you are home with your preschooler, but one of our favourite bedtime activities was flashcards. It was the best way for Jackson to focus because he wasn’t surrounded by toys or television. And for us, we really took advantage of this particular activity when the 2020 Covid pandemic started, and Jackson was in S.K. I didn’t want him to miss out on keeping up with his letters and sight words, so Flashcards were really handy. We spread them out on his bed, and went through the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. It was a great way to bond and get him excited about knowing his letters and sight words. It was at his own pace and on our own time so it was a new way of learning and connecting with no pressure.
3. Outdoor play – scavenger hunts: Checking out all the different parks in our area was always one of our favourite ways to spend time outside. Jackson loved exploring different parks and climb and make new friends. Or, on any kind of day, whether it be a beautiful sunny day or cloudy but comfortable for walks, getting outdoors for a scavenger hunt can keep your child’s mind busy and get them using their little minds to look for things in nature. Choose a topic and search the neighbourhood for colours, shapes, leaves, birds, anything you can come up with to create a scavenger hunt, and have something exciting to talk about later in the day. It’s a great way to get back to nature and get your little one excited about the outdoors. There is so much more to discover out there!
4. Painting – freestyle pictures: If you “brush” aside the idea of a mess, painting can be so much fun for any child. Whether it’s an existing picture from a colouring book, or just freehand rainbows and flowers, painting is a great way to experiment with colours and imagination. It can also feel like the perfect time to be “free” and be artistic. Jackson seemed to love the painting station at our local Early Years Centre, and occasionally at home. Just put some newspapers down on the surface of choice, open up some paints, and place a blank sheet of paper. Give a few ideas of what they can do, or just let them do their thing.
5. Activity books – patterns and matching games: Getting ahold of some activity books that contain colouring pages, mazes, maps and crossword puzzles is a great tool to have especially for travelling or when you don’t have the time to invest in a lot of set-up of materials. We were given a handmade Letter Box from a family member to practice words with magnetic letter and popsicle sticks with words to spell out. When you’re out and about, like on a road trip or at a restaurant waiting for your food to arrive, pulling out an activity book helps pass the time and gives your child something to focus on and also be creative with. And before they know it, their meal has arrived!
