My oldest daughter is currently enrolled in an online school for First Grade. Working alongside her to keep her on track can make it difficult to devote time to my youngest daughters (age 3) preschool activities. In which often times I turn to simple art based activities that give both my daughters a chance to create as my youngest daughter can practice basic skills. In which we recently made shape monsters in order to incorporate shape learning, creativity, colors, alphabet recognition and scissor practice all within one fun activity.
My oldest made her shape monster whichever way she felt. I often don’t give her strict rules when it comes to creating art because I allow it to be a place in which she can freely create and express herself. My youngest is still learning how to properly hold scissors therefore we created the monster by working together. I asked her what shapes she wanted to use for different body parts. Then we added a pipe cleaner to the top so she could hold on to it, in which she ran around the house flying her monster all around. When it got hungry we cut out the letters that make up her name and fed them to the monster.
I have found the simplest of activities tend to be the most useful for us. As a parent that works alongside her children I often get flustered trying to make every activity the best it can be. The truth is regardless how fancy or sloppy an activity is put together it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they’re learning. In which I often turn to simple activities I can slap together last minute that don’t always have to be printed out. I also found that my children work best when they’re not given strict rules and are allowed to create what that want rather than an exact replica of something. Such as lets make a shape monster and then they decide what shapes they want to use and what their monster will look like.
Learning with Nana Hedgehog 