Last night, I was getting ready to make dinner and I wanted something to keep my girls busy besides just turning on the tube.  So, I asked them, “Hey girls, would you like to do Centers?”

“Yeahhhhhh!”

So, I made them go into my bedroom and shut the door, while I thought about 3 Centers I could set up for them to do.  (Centers have to be a surprise.)  I’m a former elementary school teacher and currently teach 3-year olds at my Church’s co-op.  Without a doubt, all my students (past & present) favorite part of the day is Centers, when they get a chance to go to a particular location, sit down with a particular task, and work on their own.

So, I took a quick look around the house and thought about skills I’d like them to work on.  When I’m setting up Centers, I usually try to have something art related, something solely for pretending, and something skills (cutting, gluing, counting, sorting, etc.) related.  Of course, most of the time a Center will encompass several of those. 

I quickly spent about 5 minutes setting up a few things in different rooms.  In my 2-year old’s room, I created a Bear Center.  It had little colored bears that my youngest daughter likes to sort & my oldest likes to make patterns out of, and it had 2 little bear activities for them to dress bears in different clothes.  One was magnetic and one had stuffed bears.

In my 5-year old’s room, I set up a Cutting Center.  In here, they were going to practice using scissors & glue sticks by finding things in a magazine they liked, cutting them out, and gluing the things onto a piece of paper (simple, I know but they love it.).  In addition to helping them learn to cut better, it also helps me learn more about them, because I always ask them questions about what they cut out.

Finally, a corner of our family room became the Kitchen Center.  I put 2 play kitchens in that corner, brought out a little table & chairs, and set some paper & pens on the table.  This center was designed for them to pretend.  They could pretend to be cooks, waitresses, or even customers.

Once the centers were set up, I went into my bedroom and asked them to decided together which room they wanted to go to out to the 3 rooms.  I do not tell them what’s in the rooms, and they aren’t allowed to look.  The surprise is half the fun.  They chose Emily’s room, which had the bears.  So, I led them to that Center & explained to them what was in there, and why.

One of the best things about Centers is that it is an on-your-own activity.  Mommy & Daddy are not involved at all.  So, after I showed them the bears, I headed to the kitchen to work on dinner.  After about 10 – 15 minutes I will go in and tell them it’s time to switch.  They were having so much fun in the Bear Center, they asked to play for another 5 minutes.

It is so worth the five minutes of preparation to get my two girls to play together & learn for forty-five minutes, all by themselves.  We didn’t turn the TV on all night.

Here’s another post I did on Centers if you’re interested.

Visit the new home of Works For Me Wednesday, We Are THAT Family.

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The first is take a die and have them roll it.  Have them tell you how many dots there are without counting.  Once they get the hang of it add another die.  Then they can roll both and add them up.  Let’s say they roll a 4 and a 3, have them start with the 4 and count up 5,6,7.  Once this starts to come naturally to them it will replace them using their fingers to add.  You could turn it into a game by thinking of a number to reach, say 20.  You both keep rolling the dice and adding until the first person reaches 20. 

Another way to get your child to start thinking in groups is a favorite of my daughters.  I draw on a piece of paper dots different ways.  I might draw 3 on the top row and 2 on the bottom.  I give her paper and show her the dots for about 3 -5 seconds.  I take it away and she has to draw what my dots looked like and tell me how many there were.  Have your child explain how they came up with their total.  You will be amazed how there minds work.  My daughter did this problem and she told me that there were 5 because she saw 4 dots that looked like a box (2 on top and 2 on the bottom) and then there was one more so that made 5.  She is learning to group them instead of counting them individually. 

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1. Cut out a turkey shape from brown construction paper.  I traced one that I found online.
2. Have your child color a coffee filter with washable markers.  It really doesn’t matter how they color it but it will look best if they color most of it and don’t leave many white spots.
3. Have them spray the coffee filter with water.  This will allow all the colors to run together.
4. While waiting for the filter to dry, I had my girls draw a face on the turkey pattern that I cut out.  I let Ashlyn cut her own out. 
5. Once the filter is dry, fold it in half and glue or staple it to the back of the turkey for the feathers.  They turn out really cute!

I did a different activity with Emily and I was able to use the same turkey pattern.  This time I wrote her name on the front of the turkey and colored it.  Then I cut pieces of different color construction paper and wrote a letter on each piece that is in her name.  These are the turkey’s feather.  Now she has a game to practice how to spell her name.  I mix up the feathers and she has to put them back together in the correct order.

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 Ashlyn, (my cautious 4 year old) has come out of her shell and become much more daring.  A couple months before summer began we (Chris) taught her how to ride her bike without training wheels.  Now we go on 4 and 5 mile rides on different trails in our area.  She learned how to swim two summers ago but now jumps off the diving board, and dives down to the bottom of 8 feet deep pools.  What happened to my careful, non risk taker?!?! 

The accomplishment that has made my life so much easier is… she learned how to tie her shoes!!!  I’m going to go ahead and take credit for teaching her that one. 

Now let’s talk about Emily, (my fearless 2 year old).  She is now drinking from regular cups, opening doors (that lead outside), and  drum roll please… going to the bathroom on the “big girl potty.”  This one we just started about two weeks ago but she is doing great!  She is talking non stop and loves to ask “Why Mommy?”  She learned to ride a 3 wheeled scooter and ride on Daddy’s surfboard.  Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that she can count to 6 in Spanish thanks to Dora.

It’s crazy to think that just 2 months ago most of these things were unable to be done by them.  They learn things so quickly.  They really are like little sponges.

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We spent the day taking the girls to the zoo, painting a bird feeder, and hanging out at home.  After dinner the girls wanted to play outside with their new polka dotted chalk.  It only took a couple of minutes before Emily was bored with the chalk so I made up a game to keep her interest.  I wrote a letter with the chalk and asked her what letter it was.  I continued this with several letters and we talked about what sounds each made.  Then I asked her to jump on a certain letter.  She loved it!  I would change it up and say, “Can you jump over the A?”  “Can you step on the R?”  We did this for about 15 minutes until Ashlyn wanted to play.

I thought letters weren’t challenging enough for her so I made a hopscotch board.  Instead of using numbers I wrote some of her sight words in the boxes.  She had to throw a stick and read the word it landed on, then hop to it.  I kept thinking of other things you could use.  Shapes, color words, numbers that aren’t in order, and sight words were some examples I thought of.  It was a fun way to spend the evening without them even realizing they were learning.

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You know the old game “I Spy”, well instead of using colors that you spy, try using objects that begin with certain letters. ex. “I spy something that starts with the letter B.”  If your child is older and needs more of a challenge, try ” I spy something that ends with a B.”

Another game is what I call “Mystery Letter”.  Start by saying, “I’m thinking of a letter that …”  Give your child clues about the letter.  ex. what sound it makes, what words it’s in, if it’s in their name, etc.  Once they guess your letter let them think of one to give you clues to.

Both of these games are simple, fun, and are great for practicing letter sounds.

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• Print out the hundred board or the twenty board depending on the age and level of the child.
• Decide what you are going to have the child use to mark the number on the board. I’ve used M&M’s, raisins, Cherios, etc. Using something edible is more fun.
• Write different numbers on index cards and show them to the child one at a time. Have them say the number and then find it on the board. When they find it they can place a “marker” on that number.
• Repeat this as many times as you want. As the child continues to locate the numbers on the chart, they should begin to notice different patterns in how the chart is set up. ex. In this row all the numbers start with the number 4, or in this column all the numbers end in 7, and so on.
• When you have finished, have the child pick up one marker at a time and say the number again before he eats it.

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Make a Mask- Have your kids cut out eyes, nose and a mouth. If you don’t want them cutting holes in the mask they can look through magazines to find different eyes, noses and mouths to glue on the plate. Then have them decorate it using markers, crayons, and yarn for the hair. Let them be creative. They can make animals, people, whatever. Let them cut out shapes out of construction paper to make ears. Then hole punch two holes and tie a string around it to fit around your child’s head.

Sunshine- Have them paint the plate yellow, and while that’s drying trace their hands. Cut the hands out and have your child glue them around the plate to make the sun’s rays.

Tamborine- You will need two paper plates for this one. Let your child decorate the plates on the backside with anything from crayons to sequins or glitter. Then staple the two plates together leaving a small hole to pour either rice, beans, or small pasta in. After it is all stapled together, your child can add tissue paper streamers that hang down. Now they have a musical instrument to play.

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Rainbow Writing- This can be done with paint, markers, crayons, chalk, etc. Just have your child write the word and then copy it using different colors.

Hang Man- We play this on her easel and use her word wall words. I don’t really like the name of the game and we only draw the man when we play.

Guess the Word- I would give her clues such as, this word has three letters and rhymes with fan. Then she had to guess the word I am thinking of… can. This game is great in introduce vowels too.

Word Puzzles- I write her words on index cards (one letter per card) using a different color for each word. Then she had to piece them together and spell the word. You can have your child glue them onto a different piece of paper or store them in an envelope to be used over and over again. This is a fun activity to do with your child’s name also.  Ashlyn loved spelling all the names of the people in our family.

Find the Words- I type up a very short paragraph using as many of her words as I can. Then I would give her a highlighter to find her words. Then she would illustrate the story.

4 In a Row- I stumbled across this idea by a man named Adrian Bruce.  I printed a couple of different game boards and had them laminated. The directions are on the website and it’s a simple game for any age. We used coins as game markers so Ashlyn could learn the different coin names and amounts as she was practicing her words.  She still loves to play this game.

Magazine Hunt- Have your child go through an old magazine or newspaper and cut out their words. Then glue them on a different piece of paper.

There are lots of other ideas but this is a good start. Hope it helps!

Check out my sight word list.

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