Monkey Preschool

Abigail is 3 and LOVES to do "school work" like big brother and sister.  She has lots of workbooks, color books, sticker books and water color books to help keep her occupied.  However her favorite thing to do is hands on work that I give her. 

Here she is above working with little bugs and tongs (ours are all from old bed bug game).  She is working on her hand/eye coordination, sorting skills and colors.

Next she works with pom poms of different sizes and bowls.  She made us go and get more color bowls so that she could sort properly.  

See her with all of her bowls! 

She even cleans up her mess when she is done.

Above is a video of Abigail working with her tongs.


 

Next Abigail works on a file folder game that is a first grade level.  It is a puzzle with letter/number combination on each piece.  She looks at each card and finds the letter and then number.  I took a video of her working on this with me.  She impressed me with her skills at 3 years old.
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The above video is a little shaky since I was trying to video her and help her.  Sorry!  She is adorable when she tells me ,"This one silly!"

Writing Skills

 

Last Abigail worked on her "writing" skills.  As you see above I made these pattern cards myself.  I had a Scholastic PDF book that I got a few weeks ago.  It had patterns to use with cutting, clay or other activities.  I printed them off and laminated them.  After I laminated them I put a ring on them to hold it all together.  

Things you need to make these yourself are:

• Pictures/letter cards/number cards.  You can buy a book with this in it or google for them online.  
• Laminator (or go somewhere to print them)
• Laminating pockets
• Metal binding rings
• Hole punch

Laminate pictures (one on front and one on back) and cut it out.  Then hole punch each card.  Put the metal ring on it and PLAY!

My daughter used play-doh today to make her shapes.  You can use a crayon, dry erase marker, wikki stix, pipe cleaners or any other thing that is bendable to move around and make the shape.    This teaches that letters, numbers and shapes all have lines that are curvy or straight. 

Making a 3 with yellow doh.

Making 3 blue dots and putting them on the paper. 

CHEESE!  Isn't she sweet? 

Working on adding the dots to her five.  

Entertaining the younger kids at home can be easy if you plan ahead of time.  As you can see above most of these projects cost little money and are things we already have at home.  I have a bin of file folder/hands on games for all the kids.  I also have a list of preschool activities.  When my little Angel decides she wants to be a Demon and get in our way ... I pull out an activity and let her go to town.