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Little Ones - Activity Ideas
Hello Ladies!
Here is a list of all the types of things I did with my littlest ones when I was trying to homeschool the older ones. I haven't sorted them - some are independent, some are semi-supervised, but I've also added other more supervised activities that I would tend to incorporate with my older kids in group activities. If you have other activities not mentioned, please add them for the benefit of other mothers.
posted by Holly at 8:43 AM
7 Comments:
Activities are listed below in random order. For supplies, I would often use household supplies or materials purchased at bargain stores. The key is to provide enough variation each day, so some things aren't used every day, but also to provide enough things within a set time frame - every ten minutes for a toddler, longer for a pre-schooler.
1. Wooden puzzles - for kids, a different puzzle seems like a new toy, so a different one each day seems 'new'
2. Homemade Puzzles - using religious pictures glued to cardboard and covered with MacTac, I'd cut them up and make puzzles.
3. Playdough - at the table or to paste figures on the patio door!
4. Playdough Pots - to extend playdough time, have a collection of accessories to use with the dough, and which can be rotated: a pot of little animals and popsicle sticks; of little people; of cars and trucks; medicine dispensers that come from the top of Children's Advil; play knives and spoons and dishes; cookie cutters; cookie moulds; rocks & twigs so they can make a landscape!
5. Mouse House -- I'd put a large blanket over the kitchen table and let it hang down over the sides; give them pillows and small blankets; closed-lid cups of juice and crackers and cheese, and send them into their mouse house.
6. Gym -- I'd take off all the pillows fromthe couches and chairs, lay them on the floor, put a blanket over it, and let them roll around. I'd also arrange the couches in different ways so they could climb around (hard on the couches, but they were old in the first place!)
7. Boat -- I put the couches together and made a boat and they were pirates. They could dress up in hats and use washable marker for beards.
8. Water Play - I have used my kitchen sink well by lining each side with a towel to catch water, putting a towel under a chair in front of the sink, and letting them have a dribble of water (not a full sink!) from the tap, using spoons, medicine dispensers, funnels, small floaty toys, old margerine tubs, etc. The kids were dressed in a garbage bag with a head hole over their normal clothes. I homeschooled besdie them at the kitchen table.
9. Snow Play - I've brought in bowls of snow to the porch and let them use spoons to build snowmen inside on the entry mat if it was too wild outside.
10. Button Box - assorted buttons with a large blunt needle and yarn to thread.
11. Beads -- large non-swallowable beads to string on a shoelace which has a knot at one end. For highchair children, I would take a long shoelace, put on a few beads, and tie both ends so the beads couldn't come off - they loved this, but they could move the beads back and forth.
12. Paper and Pencil
13. Magazine and pen
14. Sewing Patterns -- using firm colored bristol board, I'd hole-punch some designs, and give them a blunt craft needle with colored thread to thread their patterns.
15. Put-Together Toys - like connecting chains, or interlocking thing-a-ma-jigs
16. Duplo
17. Cut and Paste activities - a good source of this is Frank Schaffer materials for cut out activities. they have some lovely craft books, but also the Preschooler and Kindergarten books have cut & paste activities. I've also used magazines.
18. Stickers - I usually draw them a quick little picture in a sticker notebook, have them color it, and them paste the stickers on to that.
19. Stamps -- various kinds. The ones with ink already in them or ones they can color with markers or paint and press on paper.
20. Egg cartons - decorate with marker; use pipe cleaners for antennae & make a caterpillar; attach a string and voila, your own pull toy.
21. Train - boxes tied together which the kids can play train in
22. Fridge Box -- great fun! They can decorate it with marker after you cut a door and a window. They'll play for hours.
23. Bought Toys -- Lite Bright; GeoSafari; Magic Pad; Bowling; Toy Garages; Toy Houses; Toy Castles
24. Target -- I've turned a chair upside down, given them the lid rings of my mason jars, drew a line with chalk a foot away, and had them practice throwing the lids onto the chair legs.
25. Chalkboard - they love this.
26. Ice-Cream Basketball -- After rolling up pieves of paper to make ball(s), practice throwing them into ice-cream containers from 1-2 feet away.
27. Car Races -- Using books and a couple of pieces of wood, making ramps to race cars down.
28. Blueprints -- constructing blueprint plans for a house, designing walls and doors out of books! Then, they tend to welcome each other in to visit.
29. Computer Toddler and Preschool programs.
30. An Alphabet Book - every day a different letter and cut and paste magazine pictures into it. Then go through the lower case letters, doing the same thing. Then go through it with phonetic sounds! It'll last for months!
31. Hopscotch - with chalk on the living room floor!
32. All About Me Box -- everyday, ask the child about his favorite things - food, clothes, pets, etc. Draw or have child draw and color and label picture. Put it all in a shoe box. Them, have child decorate box with crayons, stickers, stamps etc. My kids gave these to Philip for Christmas one year - all loved it.
33. Placemats -- a little bit of time each day to cut and paste pictures on sturdy bristol board (I worked in themes - religious , transportation, flowers, etc ) and then laminate with MacTac and use for supper.
34. Dominoes - they usually built things with these!
35. Blocks (lots of them)
36. Sort playing cards by suit or color or number
37. Shape Collages -- working one day with circles, another with squares or triangles, make pictures by pasting shapes on to illustrate something else. Display in kitchen.
38. Beanbag Toss -- Using a piece of cardboard, have them decorate it, then cut out holes, place it across the room and have them aim with beanbags. Your holes could be different shapes for a 'shapes game'
39. Ball -- I'd often just throw a small ball across the room and have a little one chase it and bring it back to me. Then I could still be supervising another child's work.
40. Books -- let them 'read' for 15 minutes with a large pile of books beside them.
I'll stop now and return later.
To continue while Anna makes lunch...
41. Magnets - I have a selection of different types of magnets which I bring out, different each day, for them to play with on the fridge or filing cabinet.
42. Coloring Books
43. Magnifying Glass -- with a pile of rocks, or leaves or twigs or their skin or whatever!
44. Story tapes with follow-along book
45. Pegboards -- they can use these to string yarn and make designs (nails in a flat block of wood works well), or they can put things on the pegs -- rings, bristol board numbers to 100, or letters.
46. Large nuts and bolts
47. Pipes and connectors (see a hardware store!)
48. Activity books - connect the dots, preschool workbooks, etc
49. Bubbles
50. Dress Up box
51. Painting - with brushes, cotton balls, string, sponge prints, Q Tips, powder puffs
52. Collages with noodles & glue, or yarn, or torn paper bits, or....
53. Tracing activities
54. Stick Puppets -- drawing pictures of bible figures or fairy tale figures (or cut out from a book), cut out, color, stick a popsicle stick on the back, and let them develop their own puppet show to perform for the family after supper from behind the couch.
55. Collections -- glueing and sorting rocks, leaves, shells, seeds
56. Play Catch - they can sit on the floor with each other and roll a ball (rolled not thrown!!) between their spread legs.
57. Weather Charts - drawing, cutting out, coloring, pasting weather symbols for every day of the month
58. Finger People -- drawing a face on their fingers and getting them to put on a play
59. Finger Puppers II -- using paper or store bought, they can design a puppet show to show you after the schooling
60. Doctor's Kits
61. Tape Recorder -- playing around with recording their voices with an old machine
62. Pattern Block Puzzles -- blocks placed on same shape pictures (can be purchased)
63. Make a City - with small boxes collected over time, painted, cut doors, have some cars, use black construction paper for a road.
64. ABC Cut Outs -- draw large block alphabet letters, have child cut out and color, paste in kitchen.
65. Making Cards - for birthdays, Christmas, etc
66. Tracing Shapes - using stencils where they trace inside the template, or using cardboard letters where they can trace around the outside. Decorate their shapes with designs afterward. Display.
67. Supermarket -- play money, cans of food, 'cash register'
68. Drawing Lessons - simple shapes - sun, moon, flowers, snowmen, etc
69. Rubbings -- using leaves or coins or junk-drawer materials, place paper over top and rub with crayon to make wonderful design
70. Pipe Cleaners - fashion animals, 3D or flat
71. Pig People -- dip thumbs in paint and press on paper, making many pigs. Then draw eyes, stick arms and legs. My kids loved this - we did it often.
72. Mobiles - usually I connected this to seasons and had the kids color , cut and hang religious symbols in a liturgical season mobile.
73. Homemade Trees -- using branches from outside, the kids would decorate them with cotton balls, stickers, ribbons, anything small that they could attach with twist ties, lodging it in a cup with playdough
74. Musical Instruments -- drums (pots and pans and wooden spoons - far away in the porch!!!); horns (toilet paper tubes); guitars ( milk cartons cut out on one side or bread pans with elastics stretched over them); tambourines ( paper plates and little bells
75. Toss Games -- ping pong balls into garbage cans; marbles into egg cartons; toy basket ball net with ball
76. Homemade Parachutes -- cut out a circle of a plastic bag about 6 inches in diameter. Attach 4 strings evenly spaced around edge of circle. Tie to a little plastic person or animal or dinosaur and let them drop these from the stairs to the hall floor.
77. Educational Videos
78. Tea Set
I think this ends my list for indoor activities for little ones! Whew! Now I might have specific educational activites, but that's another day! :-)
This all overwhelms me.Simply because the older schooling children always want to see, do, and basically get distracted with little ones activities. I'm always shooing the littles ones out. They watch too much PBS shows.
These are lists of IDEAS which you can pick and choose from as suits your personality and children and circumstances. It's certainly NOT meant to overwhelm! :-)
My older kids initially wanted to do all the things the little ones did too! Sometimes I would incorporate an older child theme in a little kid activity which helped.
And then, they all slowly grew out of it , one by one, and the older were able to function without distraction and on their own stuff.
I have two rooms connected together - the living room and the classroom - we always had the little ones play freely in the living room while I was in the classroom. Sending your little ones 'out' into a 'safe' place to play is still fine too.
Thanks Holly! I am amazed at your quick response. I do like some of the ideas and I know this is an area I need to work on. I have a 5 and a 2 year old. The kinder. work lasts only so long. They do play well together and I just need to put a litle energy into it and not worry about all the clean up involved. I am schooling a 2nd grade and a 4th grade boy as well.Could you possibly star activities that reinforce kindergarten level learning?
God Bless.
Sorry - I can't go back into these posts and 'star' them - I can't access them
However - kindergarten stuff - cut and paste, tracing and printing and labelling things, coloring within the lines (or trying to) - these are all fine motor skills.
ANY topic your older children are working on can be adapted to make an activity for the younger.
If the older are studying castles - have the little ones build castles out of boxes, or trace and color a castle and hang it on the fridge, or make playdough knights or draw and paint full size shields...
If the older are studying bugs - the little ones will join you getting bugs from outside. They can cut out pictures of bugs from National Geographic magazines and make posters for the wall. They can make playdough bugs showing the different types and paint the wings etc; they can cut out drawn and colored bugs and hang in a mobile from the ceiling...
All of the kids can do these activities together and love it - it's just that there are requirements for the older ones - certain terminology to learn, concepts to remember - and quite frankly,they remember them far better when the DO stuff like this!
Little ones can trace and color maps even if they can't fully understand them. I often just make an extra copy of something for the younger children.
Does this help any? If not, contact me directly and I will see if I can explain further.
Yes it helps. Some. My older ones use Seton curriculum and rarely it seems I can have everybody doing the same thing. I'm not very hands on. I like the (take out the books , get the work done ,check it off, yea were done.) Not working very well for the 5 yr old.
But I can get her busy doing more of those types of things. Cutting,paste, etc... Thanks.
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