Having a preschooler is a fun and exciting time. Your little one is a ball of energy. To help you with some engaging, low-cost, and easy preschool activities, we’ve rounded up five of our favourites you can do at home.
From nature hunts to gardening, you can do all these fun activities for kids with things you already have at home. The best part is they will also help kids learn valuable lessons about nature, numbers, letters, and colours. Let’s dive in and have some fun.
1. Fun Gardening Activities for Kids
Kids love to play in the dirt. Gardening is an excellent way for preschool kids to get their hands dirty in a productive way. Kids can have a chance to get outside, put their hands in the dirt and learn about caring for plants, trees, and even edible gardens.
To start, choose seeds, veggies, plants, or flowers you’d like your preschooler to help plant. Choose an area outside or gather some pots. Give your little one some kid-friendly gardening tools or have them help using your own with supervision.
This is an excellent opportunity to show kids how plants can be cared for. You can teach them how plants need water, sunlight, and room to grow. The best part about this activity is that it can be done on a small balcony or even indoors. Your kids will also get weeks of enjoyment out of planting any garden, veggie, or plant.
Kids can check back on their seedlings, veggies, or flowers and see how they grow over time. Your little one will love being able to care for their plants and water them each day. When you plant vegetables, your child will also experience eating something they helped plant with their own hands.
2. Cooking with Preschool Kids
Cooking is an excellent activity for preschool kids. While your kitchen may get a little messy, it’s well worth it to see the smile on their face after they have completed a meal or dessert. Cooking with preschool kids is also an excellent opportunity to go over numbers and measurements.
Have your little one help you count out ingredients and read the numbers on the measuring cup. Your kids will get some hands-on fun with you, and you’ll be able to give them a little lesson in numbers, counting, and measuring.
You may be surprised by how much your preschooler can help in the kitchen. Have your preschooler grab ingredients from the fridge or pantry, count eggs, pour, and stir. Kids will feel a tremendous sense of pride that they were able to cook something on their own.
After you cook, this is a beautiful opportunity to sit down and have a screen-free meal with your little one. You both will enjoy eating something you made together.
3. Create a Reading Fort
If you’re looking to get some more reading time in with your little one, a reading fort is a great way to do this. Your kids will be overjoyed with the chance to build a fort right in their own homes. The best part is that this activity is completely free.
All you need to start your fort building are some sheets, pillows, blankets, and even sofa cushions. Grab all your soft material and start building. Let your kids get hands-on and help with the construction.
Once your fort is completed, you’ll be able to cosy up inside and read some books together. Have your little one choose a handful of books they would like to read with you. Cosy up with some blankets inside your reading fort and enjoy.
4. Go on a Nature Scavenger Hunt
When you want to burn off some energy with your little one, a nature scavenger hunt is a great way to do this. Nature hunts are also great preschool activities for winter. You can do this in the leaves, cold, and snow if you’re properly bundled up. Time in nature is one of the best things for young children’s physical and mental well-being.
To start, get a piece of paper and draw a few simple things found in nature. You can use leaves, twigs, large logs, and birds. Give your preschooler the piece of paper, and you can set out together on your adventure. As you walk along, your little one will have to find everything you wrote down.
They can hunt for rocks, sticks, birds, and leaves. You can bring a bag along to collect all of their treasures. Kids will love hunting and searching for every item on your list. They will burn some energy, and you’ll all get to spend more time outdoors together.
5. Finger Paint Letters and Shapes
If you’re looking for an easy art project to do with kids, finger paint is a great option. Finger paint gives your little artist a chance to get hands-on, dirty, and creative. To start, choose any washable finger paint you like.
To do this activity, you can sit outdoors or at a table with a newspaper or a tablecloth you don’t mind getting a little dirty. Change their clothes into something you don’t mind getting messy as well. To give them a fun alphabet activity, write out the alphabet from A-Z on a piece of paper.
Give your little one a plain piece of paper and help them draw the letters you wrote out. You can go through each letter or choose a few and allow them to free paint as well. Let’s say you start with A, B, and C, for example. Have them paint an A and then paint something that starts with the letter A such as an apple.
Every week you can tackle a few more letters of the alphabet. Hang your letters in their bedroom or a playroom so they can look at them and practice them every day. You can also do the same thing with shapes. This gives them a chance to practice their shapes as well as learn their colours.
Have Fun with These Preschool Activities At-Home
While we do a lot of fun, enriching, and hands-on activities at school, these ideas are great for a little educational fun at home. When the weather is bad, or you’re looking for something to do, give one or two of these a try.
Any activities you can do at home together is time well spent. The best part is that each preschool activity is free or uses things you already have at home. If you’re looking to enrol your preschooler in one of our programs, fill out the contact form here. We’d love to have you in for a tour and tell you more about the activities and curriculum we have for your little one.
