At my daughter's new preschool, they have started doing "work stations", which is a modified Montessori practice of allowing the kids to select their own project and work on it by themselves. They must put it away before moving on to the next project. My daughter has really enjoyed this so far, so one rainy afternoon I decided to invent my own "work stations", using stuff we already have. I set up everything at the table while they were having quiet time and they were ready when they came downstairs. Here is what we had:
1. Sand (Great sensory activity)
2. Playdough (Good for strength and sensory)
3. Sensory box (Sensory skills)
4. Buttons/Muffin tin (Math skills via sorting colors)
I let them each choose their activity and they got to spend as much time as they wanted on each one before moving on to the next one. These are all things we do often, but it definitely mixed things up a bit to set them all out at once and let them choose which one they wanted to do. It didn't take very long to get everything set up because I have it all organized already in our craft closet. Also, it was really nice because this kept everyone busy for at least an hour and I was able to get things done while they worked. When they were finished, they also scampered off to play by themselves for awhile so it was a very successful afternoon!
This is Little Buddy playing with the sand. As you can see, I put letters in there and he is making a bit of a mess, but I put some plastic under there and it was really easy to clean up.
This is our sensory box, which we used a few days later for a bean ramp.
You can find out why it's so important for kids to have ample time for sensory skills and strength in my new book! We give you hundreds of ideas on how to keep kids buys, but in a productive way so they are actually getting some benefit out of the way they spend their day. To give you an idea of what you might expect to get out of this book, here is what one reader put on Pinterest.
A MUST read. I've read this book and it has so many great and simple ideas on how to stimulate your children's minds so they will want to play on there own and you will be able to do things around the house or just relax without turning on the TV for the kids.
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