We haven’t been out and about too much since March, but have found a plethora of sensory bins, subscription boxes, art and crafts, and more! With two kids at home, one virtual learner and one preschooler, we have become quite creative in our at-home learning activities.
Our favorite preschool activities for little learners:
Young Wild & Friedman Sensory Boxes
Quite possibly the cutest and most genius idea ever, Young Wild & Friedman was started by a mother whose child was diagnosed with a speech disorder coupled with severe anxiety. When her doctor recommended sensory play opportunities, she knew what she had to do!
Sensory play helps calm anxiety and encourages language development. She now has oodles of differently themed sensory boxes along with homemade play dough and the CUTEST figurines. We started with the Early Learning Kit and it has made addition, subtraction, and counting fun for my four-year-old! Bonus: The play dough is scented and includes accessories like rolling pins, cookie cutters, cupcake liners, and stamping blocks. These make great gifts and the Christmas sensory boxes just launched!
Fairy Gardens
Every time my kids go on walks in their grandmother’s neighborhood, they are always amazed by the fairy houses that have started to pop up around the common areas. Some houses are solar paneled and even glow at night. Other trees have wooden doors at their base surrounded by mushrooms, tiny benches, and even miniature stepping stones. It was just too cute; we had to keep this going around Collin County. One text message later and our whole neighborhood started putting up fairy houses and miniature gardens. It has added magic and wonder to our long walks. We’ve found some fairy doors on Amazon and at Hobby Lobby.
Taste Tests
I can’t take credit for this as it was my preschool teacher’s wonderful idea. As we learned all about taste buds, we set up a taste testing station: sweet, sour, bitter, salty. We used Haribo gummy bears, sour patch worms, dark chocolate, and pretzels. My daughter has a paper with either a smile or a frown. Of course she colored in all the smiles because she enjoyed tasting them all!
We are slowly but surely learning about geography. Teaching geography and world facts in the same sentence as the word “fun” is something I never thought I’d say. However, by coloring the globe with this illustrated tablecloth we have come to have fun AND learn about our world.
KiwiCo. Subscription Box
The best STEM box there ever was. My son gets a Kiwi Box delivered to the front door once a month. It is usually simple enough for him to do with only a little assistance from me. Most of the time however, they’re so cool I do them with him!
We’ve learned about how flowers drink water simulating capillary action with food coloring, water, and yarn. We’ve coded a robot using squiggle lines and straight lines. We’ve even made homemade launchers, knitted turtles, rolling vacuums, air hockey tables and kaleidoscopes! Bonus: There are always loads of activities within the box, not just the experiment. It can keep them occupied over a few days with different tasks.
Lemonade Stand
“That’ll be 20 dollars,” says my son as I take my tiny cup of lemonade from him. All you need for homemade lemonade is a small hand juicer, 3 lemons, Truvia or your sweetener of choice, and some water! We do this outdoors only obviously because it is quite messy but it takes up hours of creative play. As we start to learn about money and even marketing, the kids choose slogans, set prices, and then accept cash, change, or even “Apple Pay!”
Share your favorite at-home learning activities!
