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Every 6th day of December, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Saint Nicholas was once a priest who later on became a bishop. He had always loved children and the poor. Saint Nicholas Day is a great opportunity to teach the child about Santa Claus’ origin. Surely, with these preschool activities, children will enjoy the celebration of Saint Nicholas Day.

St. Nicholas’ Story
Read stories about St. Nicholas to the children. Saint Nicholas lives around 300 years following Jesus in the town of Myra. He grew to be a priest there. He had always loved children. One time, he knew about some poor family in Myra who has not enough money for clothing or food. One night, he left money inside a bag on the family’s doorstep. Twice did he come back there and on his third return, the family’s father saw him leave money inside a bag.

Later on, Saint Nicholas became Myra’s Bishop. He continued caring for the children and the poor. Because of the great acts he did, he was canonized as a saint. He later on became known as Santa Claus. After telling the Story, the children can be visited by Saint Nicholas during their sleeping time. Near their sleeping mats, you can leave them chocolate coins. And when they get up, they will see the “money” that Saint Nicholas gave them.

Children’s Letters for Santa Claus
It has been part of the tradition every Christmas for children to write letters for Santa Claus. There are a lot of ways for the children to do this. One way is for every child to tell you his wish list while you jot it down for them. The children can also decorate their letters’ pages with drawings about Christmas. Then ask them to sign the list with their names after. Using a big box of cardboard, create a mailbox where children can mail the letters.

Another way is for you to distribute toy advertisements and catalogues to children. Let the children find the toy they want the most then cut out those pictures. Glue the pictures on a picture and have the children decorate the letters. Then ask them to sign the letters with their names. Place the letters inside envelopes then put them in a mail box where children can mail the letters.

What Is Saint Nicholas Bringing?
With this game, the children can have fun pretending like he or she is Saint Nicholas. All you need are a sack and a whole lot of different toys around the room. For the sack, you can sew one using a velvet material that is red. Or if you don’t want to make your own sack, you can just use any bag.

At the center of the room, lay down different toys. For how many minutes, let the children look at the toys then remove them after. Pick a child who will play Saint Nicholas. Ask the other children to have their eyes closed while Saint Nicholas picks a toy. Put the toy inside the bag after. Then, ask the kids to guess what toy is inside the bag as Saint Nicholas gives them clues about it. A variation of this game is to let the kids touch the bag and guess what’s inside it. The kid who correctly guesses what the toy is will be the next Saint Nicholas.

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Making finger paints
Even when there are a lot of nontoxic and enjoyable finger paints at the market available for children who belong in different age groups, fun and safe finger paints can also be made at home. Prior to the discussion of this project, one should first select a location to be painted. It is best to choose an open space far from carpeting, furniture or walls since finger paints are capable of creating a mess. Children should wear old clothes or old, adult shirts (e.g. button-down long sleeves) that are to be put on backwards to be used as protection against paint. Newspapers or drop cloths should be used to protect the area where they are painting. After that, one can start making finger paints. Almost certainly, the needed ingredients can be found in the kitchen. Be sure that a lot of glossy papers are available since finger paints work best on this kind of paper. Butcher and shelf papers do just fine. In a pan, combine 2 cups water and ¼ cup cornstarch. Let it boil until it becomes thick. Let the mixture cool, after that transfer into storage containers such as jars. Every jar should have an added food coloring that is different from the other. For finger paints to dry faster and to avoid them from wrinkling, they should be hung on clothesline using clothespins. Once dried, you will be able to help the kids in decorating their own rooms with their latest finger paint designs or put the artworks at the refrigerator to be admired by everyone.

Creating musical instruments

Creating musical instruments is one simple and entertaining craft project kids can take pleasure in at home. Aside from being convenient, these instruments can be kept as toys that children can enjoy for the coming years. Certain projects might need adult supervision. The materials needed in making finger cymbals are: 2 jar lids, hammer, a nail and ¼ to ½ inch wide elastic. Two pieces of elastic measured in four inches should be cut. With adult supervision, the middle of every jar lid should have a hole made using the nail and hammer. Both ends of an elastic piece should be pushed through every hole. A knot should be made as the elastic’s ends are fixed. Finger cymbals are slipped on both pointer finger and thumb; one can start making music after that. A humming flute can be made using the following materials: a pencil, rubber band, wax paper and a cardboard roll from paper towels or toilet paper. Using a pencil, 3 to 4 holes are made straight into the roll of cardboard approximately an inch apart. The wax paper should be cut in a square which measures four inches. Use rubber band to fasten one wax paper above one cardboard roll end. The flute is ready to be used. A kazoo is made by using the following: scissors, crayons, paper punch, wax paper, tube of toilet paper and rubber bands. Wax crayons are used in decorating the tube. Halfway through the tube, a hole is made using paper punch. After placing the square-shaped wax paper around the tube’s end, it should be held in place using a rubber band. Placing your mouth on the kazoo’s open end, you can now start to practice humming. Different sizes of kazoos can be made using tubes of Christmas paper or aluminum foil. Sounds may vary depending on how large the tubes are.

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Making crayon rubbings
Making crayon rubbings can be a fun way of letting your children show their artistic side without necessarily creating too much mess. One project you can make your child do is the nature rubbings collage. The first thing to do is to provide the child with any kind of white paper and crayons. Put the paper over a rough surface like a leaf or a big rock. So that the child can use his both hands, lay a weighty object or use a tape in holding the paper in its place. After that, take off the crayon’s paper wrapping, then using the crayon’s side, let the child rub the crayon over the paper to and fro. By doing so, you print the rock’s texture or the leaf’s veins and outline over the paper. You can also find other nature rubbings ideas outside your house so it’s a good idea to go out with your child so he or she can look for other objects which have a texture which he or she can use for this activity. Examples of which are the sidewalk, the fence’s wood and a tree’s bark. Other objects which you can use are household items such as floor tiles which have patterns, bottle caps, keys and coins. If your child wants to have a big and a colourful collage, give him a bigger paper like a butcher block type. By using like materials for this activity, you can turn this project into an educational one. For example, by creating coin rubbings, your child can learn about currencies.

Making sponge gardens
Creating sponge gardens is also a fun at the same time educational craft for children of whatever age. This project can teach children regarding germination and the necessary conditions like moisture, sunlight and warmth that seeds need to have for survival. To start creating your sponge garden, you need to have a sponge, mustard or radish seeds, a string, water, a glass, a clothesline indoors where you can hang the sponges, a string, markers or crayons, posterboard and drawing papers. The first thing to do it to put the seeds inside a glass of water, let them remain there overnight and place the glass in room with warm temperature. The day after, soak the sponges in a sink or a bucket of water. Make sure that the sponge is still saturated while you squeeze off the extra water. Tie a string round the sponges then tie them on a hanger or a clothesline. Hang those sponges near the sunlight, but do not dry the sponges out by not putting them in direct light. Remove the water of the cups which have the seeds. Get the seeds then place them inside the sponge’s holes. Tada! You now have a sponge garden! After 3- 5 days, you can already observe the germination of the seeds. Roots will already start growing, little leaves and stems will start appearing and reaching toward the sun. Water the plants if the soil is already dry. Make your child record the daily growth of the plants through growth charts which you can do using markers or crayons and posterboard. Place the plants into the soil once they have already sprouted and grown for them to be able to manufacture food on their own.

How to make modeling clay
A fun and easy way to keep children entertained for hours is to make modeling clay at home. In fact, making the clay can be just as fun as playing with it. The ingredients you’ll need are very basic baking ingredients that can be found at most any grocery store. The recipe only takes about 15 minutes to make. You’ll need a mixing bowl, a cooking pot, and several spoons. Ingredients include three-fourths of a cup of flour, one-half of a cup of salt, one and one-half teaspoons of powdered alum, one and one-half teaspoons of vegetable oil, and the food coloring of your choice. Make sure that you don’t use self-rising flour. First, combine the flour, salt, and alum in a mixing bowl. Add vegetable oil and some boiling water as needed. Stir vigorously with a spoon until well blended. You’ll know the clay is ready when it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl and is cool enough to handle. Add food coloring and knead the clay until the color is well blended and the clay is the desired tint. For different colors of clay, you’ll need to make several batches and add a different color every time. Avoid mixing colors into one clay mix. You may wind up with a very uncommon or unattractive color. This recipe makes about one cup of clay. You may double the recipe for larger projects. Now, you’re ready to make creative clay projects with your own homemade modeling clay. Store the clay in a jar with a tight lid. It should keep for several months without refrigeration. If you expose the clay to air overnight, it will most likely dry to a hard finish.

Making play dough
If you’re children don’t have play dough anymore which you bought on a store or maybe they just feel like doing some fun activity, what you can do is help them create play dough of their own. You would need some common kitchen ingredients to do this. Mix together flour (1 cup), salt (1/2 cup), water (1 cup), tartar cream (2 teaspoons), salad oil (1 teaspoon), and any choice of food coloring. Cook them together for 3 minutes but just in low heat temperature. Stir well then add the food coloring. You can also make scented play dough by adding powdered drink to it. Not only will this add color to your play dough, this can also give it a scent of the drink’s flavour like cherry, grape or orange. In between uses, place the play dough inside a container. You can also help your child do play dough which is edible thus they can eat it while they cook and play with it. Mix peanut butter (2 cups), rolled oats (2 cups), dried milk (2 cups) and honey (2/3 cup). You can also add tasty extras like red hots, chocolate chips, coconut sprinkles, or rice cereal. Mix the ingredients until they are thoroughly combined. You can cover the countertop or cover the table using wax paper so you can work there as you create your play dough. In between uses, put the play dough inside a container which is airtight.

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At present, daycare centers are not only places wherein children are cared for while their parents are working during the day. Daycare centers, nowadays, are places for children participate in some activities so as to free them from boredom and make their day recreational. The activity that you plan to give to the children will depend on their age. To be successful in taking care of the children, you should be able to teach them new things and let their potentials be developed. By giving activities, the children become more active and become more comfortable in socializing with other children.

Giving enjoyable activities for the children is very simple. Purchasing expensive toys and educational materials for the children in your care to have fun is not a necessity. All you need is a simple and fun exercise. Children learn more effectively while at play particularly for children below 6 years of age. Doing this not only make the children have fun but can also entertain and give you a fun time.

There are four things to bear in mind in planning your activity for the children.

• Get to know the children who are in your care
• Have fun-loaded activity
• Change and Make it new
• Inquire

Getting to know the children
Being the one who takes care of the children, you should be able to know what their ages are. In addition, you should also know what activities do other children their age do. This will become your basis in creating an activity for them. The activity that you will give should suit their ages. You can teach the kids how to count and how to recite the alphabet. You can also let them learn how to recognize shapes and colors. If you want to let them play, organize a game wherein they can jump or clap their hands and stomp their feet. This will make them exercise their motor skills. If children with different age brackets are in your daycare center, give them an activity that suits their age.

Having a fun loaded activity
One of the fun filled activities that you can do is to make the kids draw or paint and let them make their own story out of it. Having a show and tell session is also a very good activity. Letting them do this enhances their creativity while having fun. Not only that, you will also be entertained as they tell their stories from their imagination.

Change and Make it New
List down all the activities that you plan to give to the children for about a month. Rotate the activities so that the children wouldn’t get used to the activities that you give. Determine which activities are mostly enjoyed by the children and put them aside for future use.

Inquire
Before the child attends the daycare regularly, an interview with the parents of the child and the child is done. During the interview, it is a must to ask what the child loves to do. This will help you design the activities that you will give to them. In addition to this, you also ought to ask the child’s parents what they want their child to do. Considering the parents’ views and visions for their child will make the planning of the daycare activities a lot easier.

There are two ways by which you can plan your daycare activities. You can plan them monthly or yearly. Planning the activities ahead of time will make your load a lot easier since you will not be bothered every Sunday night for the next activity the next day. Planning on a weekly basis also makes your design more flexible. You can rotate the activities the way you like it.

SIMPLE DAYCARE ACTIVITIES
Being in daycare means fun. As the caretaker of the children, you need to have lots of activities that will bring the child’s creativity and potential to the fullest while having fun. This is why the most crucial thing in the business is during the time of the planning of activities. The children who enter the daycare come in different age brackets. Therefore, it is very important for you to know their ages and give them activities based on their age and make the activities as fun as possible.

It is also important to give the children their own time to play. In this way, they will learn how to socialize with other kids by their own and they will be able to enhance their creativity. Drawing or story telling all the will make the children feel bored. Therefore, it is really necessary for them to have their own play time.

FUN WITH THEMES
Following a theme for the day or for the week will increase the fun for the children. The activities that you plan to give to them can be based on the theme that is set for the day. A theme can be anything around you or any event in the calendar. For example, you can have the Christmas Season as a theme during December or you can have nature like flowers as a theme. The activity that you can give to the children can range from painting, drawing, crafts, and many others.

ACTING
Another activity that brings out the children’s talents is by letting them act a story. You are the one who will conceptualize and begin the storyline. Afterwards, let the children continue the story and them act it out. This will really boost their creativity and confidence. In addition, you can let them make their own costumes and props.

LENDING A HAND
The children can also be involved in your daily chores. Letting them help you clean the shelves or arrange the books will make them feel important. They feel worthy and proud if they are able to do the job of an adult. Aside from helping you out, they will also have fun by doing these simple chores.

Lastly, in the event that you run out of brilliant ideas, just ask your kids what would they want to do. A day can be assigned as the Kid’s Choice day. Let the children propose different activities and compile them to make a great activity plan for the next day. This will not only make the children very interested in the activity but they will also gain self-confidence and a sense of fulfillment.

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A Simple Introduction To Child Care At Home
The activities of a daycare centre are programmed to help your child in his or her development. These activities are often simple things that a parent can do when they are at home. Just remember that when you do these activities to your children, repetition is the key. Repetitive activities are more instrumental in a child’s learning.

An important thing to remember is that not all children in a daycare have the same capacity to learn. The thing is those who are a little advanced in learning can not go one step ahead of the other children. This is why it is important to know that the age groups are the determining factor of a child’s learning ability in a daycare. The interest level of these children may not be at the same level with each age group. Like not all activities done by toddlers work for the babies age group.

The Age Group Pattern
The age groups are arranged in the following manner…

- The babies ages ranges from newborn to a year old.

- The toddler age group ranges from a year old to three

- And the preschool age group ranges from three years old to five.

The good thing about these daycare activities is that they are different from one age group to another. Loud reading activities are very good activities. This is a good activity even when you do this at home because it requires the use if an illustration book which when the child sees, he will identify the words phonetically. Written are more the focus of children in the higher age groups. This will also allow you to interact with the child as you can already ask them to identify in spoken language what these words are. The trick here is to transfer some of the reading process to your child. And soon, your child will start recognizing the forms of the letters and to some extent the whole word. And when she is familiar with a certain word, you can point at it everytime you two encounter that word.

For every age group, the year starts with the listing if what the child has accomplished and what are the behaviours the child has developed. Then you can follow this with another list containing the things that you can do to help your child develop and learn more. Then again, you should always remember that different children learn at different rates and that the age grouping is just a guide.

There are a few tips in doing these activities. First, you have to integrate the element of fun when doing these activities with your child. You can do this by being energetic and enthusiastic about the activities. When the child feels the fun in doing the activity, then the learning will follow naturally. Second, you can do some activities that are designed for a specific age group with children in other age groups. And lastly, it is important that you look for activities that will spark the interest of your child. Do not pick out activities that the child finds difficulty in doing.

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My Books’ Home

This is an activity for children from 2 to 6 years old. Make your child realize the importance of books by setting up a home library. This will encourage your child to read more. In building a home library, one would need books from any source and a bookcase where books can be placed.

• Choose a place which you can assign the book corner so that your child would know where to find or put her books.
• Help her put the books in order. You can categorize the books in any method you want so long as it will help her to easily find a book.
• Proceed to your local library’s children’s section. There, read with and select books which she wants to bring home. You can borrow them and put them in your child’s special place for books for the meantime.
• During birthdays and special occasions, encourage members of the family and some friends to give your child a book as a present.
• You can also place the books that you made with your child in the home library.

Your Baby’s Photo Journal

This activity is fit to enhance the imaginations of your children from ages 3 to 6 years old. By just looking at the pictures, you and your kid can create your own story. For this activity, you would need a pair of scissors, sheets of construction paper, old magazines and picture books with do not have word written on them at all.
• Scan the whole book first with your kid. Then ask him on what, for him, is the story all about. As you go from one page to another, say what you think happens in each picture and then tell your imagined story together.
• For every page, have your child identify people, things or animals. Talk about the pictures together and ask if your child thinks that the pictures he sees can be found in real life.
• Make your child do this activity with another kid or maybe with another family member. Doing so will encourage him to read as it will make it seem like he is the “reader”.
• Get drawing and pictures from magazines so your child can create a picture book on his own.

Come Join Me in Rhyming!

This rhyming activity aims to help children focus their attention to sounds through listening to the words. All you will need in this activity will be books containing rhyming words and songs.

• Sing songs with rhyming words with your kid. These rhyming games might include tossing balls and clapping.
• As you go on reading rhymes for your child, stop before saying the rhyming word that comes next and ask your child to guess the word. If she does, do not forget to give her praises.
• Sing with your child rhymes in songs that you hear from the radio or at family gatherings.
• Point items at home and ask your child to give you names that rhyme with them. For example, if you point to a chair, ask her for words that rhyme with it. Allow your child to give you words that may be nonsense: bed—led, shed, red, sed, yed, zed.
• Give your child three words like cat, bad, and bed and make her give rhyming words to thosesounds.
• If it is just easy for your child’s name to rhyme with words, ask your child ro give you names that rhyme to her name: Mark—bark, dark, lark, hark.
• You can also encourage your kid to play online some rhyming games.

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The following is a list of activities which can help children with ages 3 to 6 years old to enrich their skills in language.

1) The first activity aims to help children focus their attention to sounds through words. In doing so, children realize that words consist of sounds. In the process, the children engage themselves in learning how to read as they match the sounds they hear to the words written. Remember that the benefit of doing this activity is that this can actually prevent problems in reading which may possibly occur in the future. The things you need for this activity include nursery rhyme books, a compilation of tongue twisters, a set of word games or a collection of silly songs.

The following suggested activities can be done with the children. Just make sure that they enjoy them.

• Say the name of your child and then ask him to say the words beginning with a similar sound. For example, if her name is Karelle, make her say words such as kite, key and kiss. If his name is Marcus, you can ask him to say words like mouse, man and mat.
• Every time you read your child a poem or a story, have him listen to the words and give him examples of words beginning with a similar sound. Then, let him do the same by asking him to think and give you another word beginning with the same sound.
• Read out a nursery rhyme like “Jack and Jill” to your child. Play with the words in the nursery rhyme by asking your child to make up word such as “Back and Bill” or “Pack and Pill”.
• Make up silly lines with your child using many different words all beginning with similar sounds such as, “Billy bought blue baby bottles.”
• Give two names that can be used to name an animal. Ask which of the two names starts with the sound similar to that of the name of the animal. For instance, which should be a dog’s name, Dino or Lino? Should the cat be named Candy or Dandy?

2) The second activity aims to make the child understand what a poem or a story is all about. In doing so, the child becomes a better reader as he learns how to connect his emotion with the words written. The things that you must have in this activity are stories or poems written from the viewpoint of a child and also props like puppets and clothes used in children’s play.

• Slowly read a poem to the child. Make sure to read it the words with feelings, making it seem like they seem important.
• If the child has a favourite poem, make her act out the poem while making different faces for the different emotions that the poem’s character feels. Make sure to give her praises after performing.
• Ask your child to perform a poem in front of the whole family. Allot a time when the whole family can sit down together. After the child’ performance, ask her to take her bow while everyone is cheering and clapping loudly.
• Make the child play with her imagination by asking her to create an original play based on a story she has heard or read before. Give her the help that she needs in looking for things like a stuffed toy, puppet or whatever she can use in telling the story. You can choose to write the words down, or if she already can, help her do so. Help her set up the stage for her play for friends and the rest of the family to watch.

3) The third activity makes the child aware of the people important for him. Also, it can give him an overview about how one thing can lead to some other thing in the story. The first few of the suggested activities will more likely be enjoyed by younger children. As a child gets older, the activities in the latter part might be enjoyed by him more. Just keep making him do the first activities while he still enjoys doing them.

• Tell stories about your family and about others close to your family. You might capture your child’s interest more if you put the stories in books then you can add old pictures.
• Relate to your child your own childhood stories which can includes what happened on a particular birthday party or on an out- of- town trip.
• Let your child take his turn by also telling you stories on things that happened during special occasions like birthday and holidays.
• If you take a trip somewhere, create a journal where you and your child can write down your experiences. Add up photos of these experiences. You can pass on all of these to the next family generation. These trips don’t have to be out of town as they can even be at supermarkets or parks.

4) This last activity improves your child’s ability to both read and write. Here, you will be needing art materials such as drawing pencils, coloring materials, a pair of scissors, a yarn, a writing paper, a construction paper and a cardboard.

• Write together with the child. By watching how you write, the child learns to write better too. Make her understand that writing is very useful.
• On making birthday cards or just lists, let your preschoolers sign them her own way, even when they just scribble.
• Put up a message board in the kitchen for the whole family. Offer to be the one to write down his notes there. Make sure that she gets to read the notes for her.
• Have your child tell you stories which you can write down for her. Clarify to her the things that you do not understand.
• Push your child to start writing her name while you practice with her. Remember that at first, maybe the only thing she can write is her name’s first letter.
• Help your preschooler write thank you letters or just simple notes to friends and relatives. Convince them to write back to your child.
• By the time that he is already in kindergarten, your preschooler will start writing words based on how he hears them. For instance, if he hears the word friend, she might write it as frn or haf for the word have. Make him read what he wrote. You don’t have to mind the spellings yet since he can learn them later on.
• Help her in organizing longer stories by asking her questions.
• Compile your preschooler’s writings as books. Glue her drawings and her writings on sheets of construction paper. Using cardboard, make the cover for every book and then design it. Punch a hole in the sheets so you can bind her book using a yarn. Don’t forget to write a title for every book and your child’s name as the author.

All these activities aim to build the language skills of your children. But remember that there still are a number of ways to further your kid’s learning.

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It is important to teach children the letters of the alphabet because this serves as building block for learning to read and other early education milestones. But even if the children already know their alphabet, it is needed that they are still regularly reminded and challenged with the letters in various order.

It is effective to find a way to teach the child that is both effective and fun. You do not need to buy flashcards or expensive educational tools as long as you make learning fun, enjoyable and friendly, then, there is an effective daycare education.

This effective daycare learning can be done with three simple methods: see it, say it, and experience it. First, you need to let the child see the letters – both in order and out of order. Then you must say the letter and he has to say it too. Finally, he must use his senses to experience the alphabet in order for him to really understand the letters. You can use food and crafts to help the child experience the letters of the alphabet. Whit this, he can see and create the shapes in three dimensions as well as eating food which either starts with the chosen letter or is in the shape of the letter.

Example of this is by letting the child munch on carrots and candy while gluing cotton balls into the shape of letter C. or maybe, he has to blow bubbles or glue beans in the shape of B while eating banana split.

You can also prepare snacks that start with some letters. W snacks such as waffles, whipped cream, and watermelon; Y snacks which can be yogurt, yellow cake, or yeast rolls; and Z snacks like zucchini bread, Zesta crackers, and Zwieback toast.

Three dimensional art projects are also enjoyable and exciting to do. It could be kite strings beans for K; leaves, lace lima beans lids letter stamps, and shoe laces for L; and for M can be play money, material, macaroni, and moon shapes.

You will be surprised that there are many ways that you can teach your child the alphabet and once you have started looking around your house and outside like in grocery store. Always remember that you just have to be creative and let your child’s wild imagination explore and roam in your kitchen or around the house for the available craft supplies he can use.

As you can see, teaching your child to read and preparing him for his future education should not be difficult, boring, or expensive. It has to be fun and filled with excitement for him to enjoy fully while learning. You will also find it easy if you will use the world around you by using the foods and crafts available in your house.

See: How to start a daycare center

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Always remember that learning Math is not complicated but instead it is simple and easy as 1, 2, and 3.

This is all you have to do:

You can use concrete items around your house that are familiar to your child. Look for the same items to facilitate easy grouping and sorting activities.

I will be using apples and oranges in my activity but you can use any items that you may want.

My example is applicable for a child around 4-5 years of age. You can change the number of items to be used depending on the age of the child.

Simple adding and Subtracting:

Put 4 apples on the table and let the child count 1, 2, 3, 4. Then put one apple behind your back and let him count the remaining apples 1, 2, 3. Tell him that if you will take away one apple from 4, then there would be 3 left.

You also do this with adding by putting 3 apples out and let him count 1, 2, 3. Add 2 apples and ask him to count again. Tell him that there are 5 apples after adding 2 apples to the 3 apples that you already have.

You can add more items to your activity depending to the number that the child can already count. Be sure that there are no distractions while doing the activity so you can get a focused attention from the child. This activity can be done daily or few times a week, you can also do this to a group especially if you are handling a daycare class.

Sorting and Grouping:

This activity is great for your child because it keeps his little minds working while enjoying.

Get 3 pieces of paper, draw one big circle in each and color each circle with different colors. Then, get 3 items that matches their colors of the circles you have drawn in pieces of paper. Ask the child to sort these according their color.

Example #1: Prepare 3 papers with a drawing of circle on each. The circles are colored red, blue, and brown. Set up a bunch of red pompoms, blue Popsicle sticks, and brown crayons. Then let the child sort the items according to colors. Put all red things on paper with red circle, blue things with blue circle and brown things in brown circle.

Example # 2: Put 2 empty containers on the table. Put a bunch of crayons and makers all mixed together in the middle of the table. Let the child put all markers in one container and the crayons in another.

You can have your own version to the activities I mentioned by adding more and using other available items. Sorting items can also be according to sizes, shapes and textures. Remember that you can turn any simple activity in the house into a small math lesson such as counting the number of bucket of toys that are cleaned up, number of chairs around the dining table, etc.

Lesson on numbers can be incorporated in sorting activities by asking the child to count the items he is sorting and putting them where they belong.

See: How to start a daycare center

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If you are teaching a daycare and you want to make your activities more interesting and exciting and enjoyable for the kids, there are variety of free daycare activities that you can do depending on your location, availability of transportation, and the number of kids in the class.

You may visit local dairy or cattle farms that offer free tours to their facilities. Farmer owners are certainly happy and willing to show the children around the farms. Thus, this trip will be unforgettable to the students.

Another free daycare activity is a trip to a library. Look for a local library with an excellent kids section. There are libraries that offer weekly activities that are designed just for kids such as story telling.

There are also seasonal free daycare activities like visiting pumpkin patches. The children can explore the patch and crawl through the hay balls. Free visit to Santa will also be enjoyable during winter and to Easter Bunny in the spring.

Free trip to local parks and playground is equally exciting to visit no matter how often the children already went there. A bigger local park will give a better treat to them. They may bring their packed lunch and have their picnic while playing outdoor games.

Check also the local papers, Internet, and local bulletin boards for free activities. There could be musical play in the park, talent shows, and art centers which offer free daycare activities.

Learning Games: a Part of Daycare Curriculum

Children, as young as 2 ½ years old up to 5 years are not yet old enough for Kindergarten. They are usually brought to daycare centers where they offer favorable learning environment and part of their curriculum is the daycare learning games. Children in the daycare meet several times a week either in the morning or afternoon where they participate in organized activities which aimed to increase their socialization skills.

Daycare programs are generally play based because children learn best through play. They are most receptive in learning new skills and their brains are like sponge that absorbs easily all what they see, hear, and experience. While playing, children learn social skills like taking turns and working together, they can also absorb the fundamentals of the lesson without realizing that they are actually doing so.

Daycare learning games in the curriculum help foster important lessons which help the children experience a successful Kindergarten and a successful school career in the future. Examples of learning games are play ball, hand-eye coordination; writing games, for gross motor skills; card games, for memory retention; and games focused on books to instill love or reading and language. Many teachers also use learning games to teach the basics like ABCs, mathematics, social science, and history.

Computers are also now used in daycare learning games. Variety of lessons is improved with the use of color graphics, lighthearted music, and some recognized characters to get the attention of the children.

Therefore, when choosing a daycare, choose those that include daycare learning games into their daily activities because researches have always shown that children respond well to this type of environment and they will retain the love for school and of learning that will follow them for a lifetime.

See: How to start a daycare business

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