The Preschool Homeschool

When some people think of learning toys they picture mini-toy computers and electronic learning games. Although these toys do have a place in the educational spectrum, they aren’t the best choice for preschoolers. My daughter received a mini-laptop for Christmas. While she likes playing with the small mouse and having a kid-sized computer, it’s not her favorite toy. Her favorite toys are ones that require no batteries, don’t make any funny sounds or have a computerized voice saying “Bye-bye!” every minute and a half. Her favorite toys are her kid-sized pots and pans set, her apron set and her beauty salon.

These toys are her favorite because they require imagination and imitate real-life. She cooks everything from soup with ice cream in it to pancakes and ketchup. She gathers all her makeup and pretends to be a famous stylist with her pretend curling iron, blow dryer and scissors. Granted, she makes me look more like a KISS band member than a movie star, but she’s proud of what she’s done. So the best learning toys aren’t always the ones that make the most noise, have bright colors, scream at you in a computerized language, or require you to sit in front of the TV.  Here’s my daughter enjoying some of her toys - we’ll keep it a secret that she’s actually learning!

One of my goals with our holiday homeschooling is to teach her a variety of classic Christmas songs. We practice by singing them in the car, singing them to the dogs and listening to them on a CD. There were a couple songs that I didn’t know if I had the correct lyrics and I found This Great List of Songs that includes lyrics. If you’re looking to teach some holiday songs this Christmas, check out this site and print out your favorites. Another great idea is to use a share program to download just the songs you’re working on learning. This way you can listen to them in the house and car without added songs in between.

Here’s a very simple but extremely fun activity for preschoolers. This is great for a physical activity or a halloween party. You can use this same idea to make Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, too.

Cut out jack-o-lantern face pieces from felt or paper. If you want, you can buy those premade pumpkin faces made from felt or stickers that they sell this time of year. Blow up a bunch of orange balloons. This game is the most fun when there are bunches of floating pumpkins. Blow up the balloons and let the kids stick the face pieces on to make a balloon jack-o-lantern.

Once the faces dry, give each kid a balloon and let them bounce and hit their floating pumpkins. To play a game, have the kids stand in a circle and hit their balloon towards the person next to them without letting it drop. All the balloons should rotate around the circle and then the kids can have fun finding their pumpkin from the “patch.”

For a 2 person game, stand across from each other and hit the balloon pumpkin back and forth. For more fun, use 3 balloon pumpkins and make sure they don’t hit the ground.

I love using song and dance throughout the day with my daughter. Preschoolers are famous for loving to jump around singing and dancing. Since the holidays are creeping up on us, I thought I’d share some of our favorite, active Halloween songs.

Fly Little Bats - This song is good for getting kids moving. You can also create a craft project out of this by making the things mentioned in the song. Using felt for a felt board activity is another idea

Tune: Ten Little Indians

Fly, fly, fly little bats

Fly, fly, fly little bats

Fly, fly, fly little bats, Halloween is here.

Repeat with:

2. Crawl, crawl, crawl, little spiders

3. Stomp, stomp, stomp little monsters

4. Creep, creep, creep, little cats

5. Dance, dance, dance, little skeletons

6. Float, float, float little ghosts

If I Were A Little… I use this to help practice listening skills. I don’t do this song with her, but rather sing it and have her listen to the different directions. If she’s paying attention, she can act out the song without my help. Just use a tune you like for this one.

If I were a little ghost, little ghost, little ghost,

If I were a little ghost, this is what I’d do:

I’d float around the town, float around the town, float around the town.

Repeat with:

2. Little witch - zoom to the moon on my broom

3. Little cat - creep on my feet down the street

4. Little bat - fly up high in the sky

5. Little spider - crawl around on the ground

Enjoy!