Homeschooling is not easy. Throw a toddler or preschooler in the mix, and it can be downright hard. I have read many articles on how to entertain toddlers or preschoolers while homeschooling older children, but I wanted to throw my ideas out here.
Titus is 3, and Silas is 5. Titus has a preschool workbook he "works" in {coloring, cutting, gluing, stickers, etc} while Silas does his work. Silas has Kindergarten work each day, but it only takes him around an hour to complete {with my full attention and supervision!}. Afterwards, they can get quite bored while waiting for the older kids to finish. Here are a few toys and games that have worked for us - by working for us, I mean "held their attention long enough for me to teach a new math concept".
These
Beginner Pattern Blocks from Melissa and Doug are great! The colorful shapes fit into the recessed designs {10 different patterns}. This is great for color and shape recognition and fine motor skill development. I love the wooden crates their toys come in, too!
Also from Melissa and Doug is this adorable
Wooden Bear Family Dress Up Puzzle! What my boys love about this set is that there are so many different outfits, shoes, and even faces to change on this family! The clothes are divided into three compartments, and they only fit the "right" bear. This keeps them entertained for long stretches {by long stretch, I mean 10-20 minutes}!
I can thank my Mother-in-Law for turning us on to these
Bend-a-Roos! You can use these wax strings to make all kinds of creations! We even use them with All About Reading to make letters. They are super easy to use and lots of fun! This 500 piece set will keep your toddlers occupied!
My little ones love stacking these pegs! This
Lauri Toys Tall Stacker Peg Building Set comes with 100 pegs, 17 shape boards and 1 100-hole peg board. There are so many ways to play with this, your child will be entertained for a long time! There are also
number peg boards,
letter peg boards, and
shape peg boards.
You can probably tell we love Melissa and Doug at our house! This
Big Button Number Fun is a great toy to teach counting, sorting and matching. There are 10 different boards, lots of buttons in different colors and shapes, and 10 number cards.
There are many more toys and games that we use at our house, but I tried to pick our favorites. I hope this helped someone!
So many cute ideas!
ReplyDeleteI sooooo need this post! Excellent suggestions! Thank you for this!
ReplyDeleteIm glad it helped! :-)
DeleteChildren can learn a lot from playing. When you give your child educational toys and play with them with her, it gives her a chance to bond with you, learn, and have fun at the same time. And making education enjoyable will help your child retain the things she learns and develop a positive attitude toward learning.
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