Preschooler/4yr old boy

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  • Misty
    Participant

    Ok.. so I know get them outside, play with them, etc. etc.  But when a 4 yr old has older siblings doing “work” they want to do work also.  This past year we did the Brightly Beaming Resources and that was perfect for him.  Only did the work (what I felt I wanted to do with him) one day a week and then the rest of the week we did about 5 minutes of review of numbers, letters, shapes.  He also watched a lot (probably to much Embarassed) of the Leapfrog videos on letters and 1st words and a couple times the numbers.

    That said he has all the sounds down, can count to 13..skip a couple…and do 20 – 24?? LOL  Also, says his ABC’s. He doesn’t reconize all the letters or numbers so far so we’ll keep working on that this year.

    So here’s (finally) my question.  Are there any activity books or sources you’ve used for this age.  I don’t really have time to put together a ton of “things” to give him during “independent work” time.  But I NEED things to give him so we works on sitting at the table quietly for 15 min. or so here and there while I”m working with his 6 yr old brother, keeping the 18mo old busy and nursing a baby LOL can it be done??LOL

    So are there idea’s out there that will help me?  workbooks that have tracing, cutting, etc that are worth it?  I have play dough, lego’s, lacing cards, and some matching games he can work on.  And a couple other things.  But I want things that will work on his consintration also for that 15 minute period.

    Ok.. if any of that made sense let me know.  Also, thanks for any suggestions.  Please include where they can be purchases if you have links even better.  Thanks Misty

    suzukimom
    Participant

    Hey there!

    Well, sounds like our family is a bit similar – I have a 6yo (almost 7 now), 4yo, 2yo, and am expecting a baby (3 days overdue….)

    What I did for my 4yo was added in a couple of subjects for her own…. now keep in mind she is pretty advanced…. and was pretty much demanding her own schoolwork…    I did the MEP Reception math with her the last few months…  It isn’t something she can do on her own though…  And we did some reading instruction.  I have just recently started a handwriting program with her, as she was asking for that too.

    Basically, I would do some reading to her, then she would play with the 2yo.  My 6yo son has his work in a “workbox” – so the order varies a bit from day to day…) After my son did his math, he would get a break, and I would do math with her.  She would generally do some drawing then, while I work with my son on more stuff.  After he did reading practice, I’d do reading instruction with her while he had another break.   Same once handwriting/copywork would come up.   She was generally quite happy to play while I worked with the 6yo as she knew her turn was coming.

    I am hoping to get a few montessori activities setup during the summer for the 4yo and 2yo to do next year…. if you have the right activity setup for them they can keep busy with it for a LONG time.  For instance, my 2yo was fascinated with diaper changes, and was pretending to change her teddybear – so I gave her a new diaper (one that was too small for her, but would be too big for the newborn for a long time) for “Fluffy” – and over the past few weeks she has diapered her teddybear for hours – generally a good 30min at a time.  She is also spending a lot of time folding a dishtowel over and over (that is an activity she started on her own – there was a dishtowel out, and she folded it!)

    Whether the workbooks are worth it depends a lot on the child.   I had a couple of those for the 4yo (then 3) at the beginning of the schoolyear – and although she seemed to enjoy them, she didn’t always do it the way she was supposed to and she tended to rush through them.  (ie, we had one that was for colours – so the instructions, which I would tell her, would be something like colour the carrot orange.   She would often do whatever colour SHE wanted to do it, or would just scribble 2 or 3 orange marks into it and call it done.   For the mazes book, she would sometimes do the maze, or sometimes do the maze, but going over the lines….)

    She was happier to be given some water colour paints and a piece of paper.   Or given scissors and a blank page to cut into little pieces.

     

    hth some!

    Esby
    Member

    My younger child really liked the Maurice Pledger sticker books. Here’s a link to one of them: http://www.amazon.com/Bobby-Bears-Sticker-Book-Reversible/dp/1571453849/ref=pd_sim_b_5#noop

     

    houseofchaos
    Participant

    Our family is also similar – our youngest five are 6, 5, almost 4, 2, and 4 months.

    I have some handwriting pages put into plastic page protectors that can be used with a dry erase marker over and over. We have an office printer, since it is used so much, and it equals less than 1 cent per page.  For small children I like cardstock; it is more durable.  Donna Young offers some good pages:

    http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/index.htm

    CurrClick also has some decent printable books for this age, called Preschool Basic Skills for $6.99, but you need to print them out (I like them since I can print as many as I want):

    http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=15396&it=1

    And I like the Rod and Staff preschool books.  You don’t need the Bible Stories to Read if you already have some kind of bible story book:

    http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/item/1-10021/?list=Rod_and_Staff_Preschool

    I also buy cheap bingo dabbers and stamps with stamp pads for picture making.  The bingo dabbers wash out easily.

    That’s what works here.

    Blessings,

    Gaeleen

     

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