What to Teach your Little Ones, before they sit down and do school!!!!

What to teach your little ones! Before they sit down and do school work!! (months-4)

Teaching children with joy will enable the kids to love learning!!! Have fun teaching them, don’t make it an effort! If they don’t want to do it, then stop and do something else.

When the kids are younger (months – 4), they have a very short attention span.
Here are some of the things I would do with my kids when they were younger; I guess you call them pre-schoolers.
We’d dance, sing, run, and jump! memorize
Go on nature hikes, count bugs, rock, flowers, berries, etc! They learned to count, add and subtract this way (no paper and pencil involved) and it was fun.

Be sure to always read to your child, they do enjoy it, and if they are able, have them tell you about the story you just read them.

Let them help you cook! My kids loved mixing and washing the dishes.
Play games with them!!! one of our favorite ones was the Concentration game(I call it that) I’d make up on recipe cards 2 matches of something, could be pictures, letters, colors, numbers, flowers, etc. and then we’d lay them out on the floor, and the kids would take turns finding matches. They sure loved that game! We continued to use this format even with our times tables as the kids grew older.

Just sitting a child down on a big piece of paper and giving them a crayon then letting them color and scribble is very helpful. Not forcing them to do anything, just letting them feel free to scribble. Eventually you can show them what the first letter of their name is and let them draw it, then the second etc.

Digging was other things the kids loved to do when young; they’d help me plant and dig my garden. Great for eye and hand coordination!! Then counting the worms we found! Making sure they don’t eat them of course!!

Another good thing for hand eye coordination is using a play hammer and those bolt things, and when they get older getting them a real hammer and nails, I think that’s what made my sons handwriting so good, pounding all those nails in wood when he was younger. He could print or do cursive better than the girls.

You can teach them letters or numbers in sand or dirt, finger paint, etc!!
Coloring on large pieces of paper they loved, I’d draw a large circle or something big and they’d color inside it! Or outside it! Haha
Teaching them to write their name on a large piece of paper was fun. They loved to print big.

Letting them cut or tear pieces of paper up and using the cut up or torn paper for making one of those hanging Chinese fish things. Or just gluing the pieces of paper inside something I made out of hard stock.

Another thing I’d always taught the kids was about chores, all the kids had their own squirt bottles and rags, while they were younger all they’d get in the bottle was water. Everyday they would have their chores to do. Like cleaning the frig, they’d squirt it and wipe it down, or the washer, or some other area that could handle water.
Their chores for the day would be to clean their room, make their bed, and use their squirt bottle. Of course they weren’t the best at it, but they were learning that we all had chores to do everyday to keep a house running.

debbie