The Preschooler’s Busy Book (11 page)

Paper

Pens or markers

Small toys or other treats

Have a treasure hunt in the park, on the beach, in your backyard, or in your house.
Draw a map that leads to the treasure, which can be several small toys, cars, or other items.

Small toy, book, or household object

Show your child north, south, east, and west by using your home as a reference point.
If your child’s bedroom faces east, point out the sun rising in the morning.
Show the sunset through a window facing west.
Once your child has her directional bearings, hide a small toy or household object somewhere in the house.
Give directions to its location: two steps to the north, three steps west, and so on.

Map of your city, town, or neighborhood

Look for your city, town, or neighborhood on a map.
Point out your home’s location and the location of relatives’ and best friends’ homes.
Find the school your child will attend and show your child its location in relation to your house and street.
Find the nearest park, lake, mountain, or other cultural or physical feature on the map and talk about how these features affect your life.
Living near the ocean may make your climate moderate, prairies may provide an open path for high winds, and mountains may block some weather fronts.

Paper

Pens or markers

Help your child draw a simple map of her neighborhood.
Include familiar and personal landmarks on her map: the mailbox, the store, the playground, her friend’s house, the fire station.
Take this map with you on your walks and point out the landmarks as you go.
On your walk, collect natural materials, such as acorns and leaves, to use for an art project.
At home, map the location where you found these items.
You can also draw maps of your yard, your house, or your child’s bedroom.

Take a walk around your neighborhood and look at what makes it unique.
Point out differences from and similarities to other places.
Can your child distinguish various types of homes and shops?
Look at the buildings and talk about their uses.
Are there features built to conform with the weather or topography?
Do the shapes of some buildings indicate how they were used in the past or how they are used now?
These observations help children understand the character of a place.

Disposing of waste is a problem of geographic dimensions.

Bag for litter

Gloves

Stick with pointed end

Go on a neighborhood litter patrol with your child.
You may want to wear gloves and use a stick with a pointed end to pick up the litter.
Talk about litter, garbage, and recycling and how we can help control and take care of our surroundings.

Learn simple words in different languages.
Teach your child to count to ten in other languages and to say simple words like “hello,” “good-bye,” and “thank you.” Have a theme day when you locate a country on the map and talk about the unique aspects of its location.
Talk about the language spoken there and, if possible, learn several words in that language.
Serve a special lunch or snack that originated, or is popular, in that country.

Maps

Go around your house and find the origins of various objects.
Look at the labels of the clothes you wear and think of where your food was grown.
Why do bananas come from Central America?
Why does the milk come from the local dairy?
Maybe your climate is too cold for bananas, and the milk is too perishable to travel far.
Talk about where your ancestors came from, and use a map to find the countries.
Use a map to show your child where family and friends live now.

Coins and/or stamps from your own and other countries

Small box, notebook, or coin and stamp collecting books

Glue and tape

Start your preschooler on a coin and/or stamp collection.
Ask friends and family traveling abroad to collect coins for you.
Compare the coins and see what information they contain about the country.
Stamps tell many different things about a country—from its political leadership to its native bird life.
Show your child how to remove stamps from your incoming mail by soaking them in a small amount of warm water.
Give her special notebooks into which she can glue the stamps and tape the coins, or save them in a small box.

Climate is an important part of a region’s geographic character.
On a warm and lazy afternoon, lay down in the grass with your child and watch the clouds drift across the sky.
Talk about how clouds are formed (water evaporates from the earth and condenses into small droplets) and what happens when clouds touch the earth (fog).
Help her pick out shapes in the clouds and, afterward, have her draw what she saw.

Your child’s early efforts at gardening may be clumsy, but she will learn the basics of botany by getting dirty and having fun.
You can teach your child how seeds develop into four basic parts—the roots, the stems, the leaves, and the flower that, in turn, produces new seed.
She will learn that plants eat minerals through their roots and that earthworms fertilize the soil and aerate it so that roots can breathe better.
Teach your child how the leaves inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, which is why nature needs a balance between animals and plants.
Explain that plants are the only living things that make their own food, chlorophyll.

Use the following activities to teach your child, in an informal and fun way, the basic principles of botany.

Seeds

Shallow dish of water

Planters

Potting soil

Your preschooler will be fascinated to see how plants grow from seeds or cuttings.
Soak seeds from an orange, apple, grapefruit, lemon, or lime in water for a day or two.
Fill several planters with potting soil and place three or four seeds in each one about half an inch deep.
Water the seeds, place the pots in a sunny spot, and watch for the green shoots to grow.
You can try plantings seeds in a pattern or shape: a letter, number, square, or circle.

Garlic clove

Potting soil

Small pot

Plant an unpeeled garlic clove in potting soil, pointed end up.
Cover completely, water every few days, and keep in the sun.

Carrots or beets

Shallow dish of water

Small pot

Potting soil

Cut two inches off the top of a carrot or beet.
Set cut side down in a dish with half an inch of water.
Change the water every one or two days.
When roots appear plant your carrot or beet, cut side down, in a pot of moist soil.
Set it in a sunny window and keep it wet.

Sweet potato

Toothpicks

Glass of water

String

Stick three toothpicks in the sides of an old sweet potato.
Set it in a glass of water with the toothpicks resting on the rim of the glass.
The water should just cover the tip of the sweet potato.
Put the glass in a place where the vine will get filtered sunlight.
Pin up some strings so the plant can climb.

Avocado seed

5-inch pot

Potting soil

Dry an avocado seed for a couple of days, then peel the papery brown skin off.
Plant, base down, about two-thirds down in a pot of soil, leaving the pointed tip exposed until the seed germinates (thirty to ninety days).
You can keep the pot in the sun, or well-watered in a dark cupboard for a stronger root system.
When the seed sprouts, leave one new shoot at the top and pinch off the rest of the new growth.
This will allow all the plant’s energy to go into the one remaining shoot, which should then grow into a lush, bushy tree.

Lima beans

Shallow dish

Water

Put lima beans in a dish and fill with water.
Place the dish in a sunny window and watch how the beans change daily.

This is a good activity to show your child how plants drink water through their stalks and where the water goes.

Clear glass or vase

Water

Food coloring

White carnation or daisy

Fill a clear glass or vase halfway with water and add enough food coloring to tint the water a bright color.
Add a white carnation or daisy and watch the flower change color over the next few hours.
You can also do this experiment with celery.
In fact, this may be great way to encourage a reluctant eater.
After all, purple celery is bound to taste better than the green variety!

“The events of childhood do not pass, but repeat themselves like seasons of the year.”

—Eleanor Farjeon

Music, dance, and drama are an essential part of our children’s general education.
Through the study of music, dance, and drama, children acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes that influence them throughout their lives.
In addition to learning music for its own sake, children learn coordination, goal-setting, concentration, and cooperation.
Dance activities also offer many benefits for children, encouraging mental and emotional development while enhancing motor skills.
Drama involves mind, body, and imagination, and is essential to a child’s full development.

This chapter provides simple ideas that will help you stimulate your child’s development in these three areas.
The following activities will cultivate your child’s sense of rhythm, allow your child to experience movement as it relates to music and rhythm, and encourage your child in creative play.

As a parent, you can encourage your child’s love of music and nurture his musical talents in a number of ways: listen to music programs and recordings together, attend musical events, make music as a family, and praise children for their musical activities and accomplishments.
As a result of music-listening and music-making experiences, children can become better listeners and develop musical intelligence.

Listening to music, moving to music, and playing musical games are the best musical activities for small children.
The following ideas will help you begin to develop your child’s sense of music and rhythm.

Corn kernels, dried beans, small pasta, cereal, and so on

2 paper plates

Glue or staples

Hole punch

Ribbon

Crayons, markers, stickers for decoration

Place corns, beans, pasta, or cereal onto a paper plate, cover with the second plate, and glue or staple the rims of the plates together.
When the glue is dry, punch holes around the rims and lace ribbon through the holes.
Let your child decorate with crayons, markers, stickers, and so on.

2 4-inch pieces of a two-by-four piece of wood

Give your child two pieces of wood to use as rhythm blocks; make sure that the blocks are smooth and the edges are not too sharp.
Your child can bang the blocks together in time to a rhythmic beat.

Aluminum pie plate

Hammer and nail

6 to 8 flattened bottle caps

String

Using a hammer and nail, an adult should make six to eight holes around the edge of an aluminum pie plate, and one hole in the center of the same number of flattened bottle caps.
Let your child pull a piece of string through each bottle cap and thread it through a hole in the pie plate.
Tie a knot tight enough to hold the bottle cap in place, but allow enough slack so that the cap can move freely and hit the pie plate when shaken.
Attach each cap in this way; shake to play.

Plastic medicine bottles in various sizes, soap bottles, small pop-top juice cans, or small aluminum pie or tart pans

Popcorn, rice, dried beans, pennies, and other noise-making items

Glue gun or tape

Collect an assortment of variously sized plastic medicine bottles, soap bottles, small juice cans, or small aluminum pie or tart pans.
Partially fill each container with anything that creates noise: popcorn, rice, dried beans, pennies, and so on.
Use a variety of items, as each makes a different sound.
If the container has a lid, or if using aluminum pie pans, secure them with glue from a hot glue gun.
If the container doesn’t have a lid, tape it shut.

2 4-inch pieces of a two-by-four piece of wood

Sandpaper

Glue

Glue sandpaper onto the wood, and rub together for an interesting sound.

Empty cardboard tube (toilet paper or paper towel rolls)

Wax paper

Elastic band

Crayons, markers, ribbon, stickers, fabric, construction paper, and other items for decoration

Cover one end of a cardboard tube with a piece of wax paper, using an elastic band to hold the wax paper in place.
Blow and hum into the uncovered end to make a vibrating sound.
Older children can make this for themselves, decorating the tube with crayons, markers, stickers, scraps of ribbon, fabric, or construction paper.

Cardboard milk carton (half-gallon size)

Sharp knife

Tape

Yardstick

Saw

45-inch length of nylon fishing line

Make a guitar that your child can really play!
Tape shut the top of a clean, empty half-gallon milk carton.
With a sharp knife, cut vertical slits, big enough to slip a yardstick through, in two sides of the carton, two-thirds up from the bottom.
Cut a notch about a half inch deep near each end of the yardstick with a saw and insert through the carton.
Position the carton near the center of the yardstick.
Make a loop in one end of the length of fishing line and slip it over the notch on the top of the yardstick.
Pull the line over the top of the carton and loop it around the notch at the other end of the yardstick.
Tie securely and pull the carton to one end of the yardstick.
To play the guitar, strum the string near the top edge of the milk carton with one hand.
Pinch the string to the yardstick with the other hand to change pitches.

For young children, dance offers an avenue for exploration, discovery, and the development of natural instincts for movement.
Dance has many physical benefits—among them, increased flexibility, improved circulation, development of muscle tone and strength, and improved posture, balance, and coordination.
But, although dance can be great exercise and an artistic expression of mind and body, for young children, dance is usually just plain fun.
It’s also a great way to help children “shake their sillies out”!

Have your child tell a story by acting it out with body movements, or ask him to move with different types of walks (down-hill, on parade, stiff, up stairs) or pretend to use different kinds of vehicles (bicycle, skateboard, car, horse, and so on).
This will provide your child with the opportunity to explore and invent movement.

Homemade rhythm instruments, real musical instruments, such as piano or guitar, or recorded music

The goal of this activity is to have your child experience movement as it relates to music or rhythm.
Play different types of music and have your child physically express how the music makes him feel: run for fast music, tiptoe for soft music, hop and bounce for happy music, march for a parade tune, and so on.
You can also tap out a rhythmic beat and encourage your child to clap or hop in time to the beat.

Pretend to have an exercise class in your living room.
You can dress in exercise wear if you like, and take turns being the “instructor.” Include both locomotor movements (walking, running, jumping, skipping, and so on) and nonlocomotor movements (bending, stretching, twisting, swinging, and so on).
Vary the size, level, and direction of these basics to allow your child to discover a large number of movements that can be combined to form basic dance steps.
You can also make a point to include these movements in other games you play, such as Simon Says (
page 54
) or Follow the Leader (
page 49
).

Ask your child questions like, “How many ways can you balance yourself besides standing?” and “How many different ways can you move your head (arms, leg, upper body)?” Such questions will help your child become aware of his body and its relationship to other people and the environment.

Circle dances are a great way to stress body movement.
Whether you dance with several children or just one, circle dances can be a lot of fun.
Try old favorites like Hokey Pokey, Looby Loo, Ring around the Rosie, Mulberry Bush, Skip to My Lou, or London Bridge.
For more ideas, your local library will likely have song books, cassettes, or videos by many popular children’s performers.

Children of all ages love to pretend.
As toddlers, they first enter the world of make-believe by engaging in activities they see around them and by putting themselves in the place of others.
This activity involves mind, body, and imagination.
It is a child’s rehearsal for life and is essential to a child’s full development.

As children grow older, their play develops more structure.
They act out favorite stories, create original situations from life experiences, and imagine themselves in fantasy worlds where anything is possible.
If they are encouraged in this kind of play at home, they become ready for creative drama by the time they enter school.

The following activities will encourage your child’s dramatic play.

Unopened “junk mail”

Unused return envelopes from your mail

Stickers from magazine and record clubs

Inexpensive stationery

One-cent stamps (optional)

Date stamp or other rubber stamp and ink pad

Bank slips

Help your child open a post office of his own.
Save unopened junk mail, unused return envelopes from mail you receive, and stickers from magazine and record clubs.
You may want to provide him with inexpensive stationery and authentic one-cent stamps.
Give him a date stamp or other rubber stamp and ink pad, and bank slips for official looking forms.

Empty trunk or large box

Adult clothes and props

You can encourage your child’s dramatic play by setting up a Tickle Trunk full of props for him.
Fill a trunk or box with adult clothes, shoes, hats, scarves, gloves, and costume jewelry to use for dress-up.
Old suits are great, as are Hawaiian shirts, vests, baseball hats, wigs, boots, and slippers (for girls, include old bridesmaid dresses, costume jewelry, nightgowns, and purses).
Great items can be found at garage sales or local thrift shops.
A Tickle Trunk will be an invaluable part of your child’s dramatic play and items can be added for years.