Sunday School: Resources for toddlers and preschoolers

If you have a little one under five at home, Sunday School is your ultimate resource for activities, projects, and resources from our pre-homeschooling home to yours! Whether you plan to homeschool/unschool or not, here's some ideas for the week. Check back next Sunday for more fun ideas and information!

Projects

Toddler-friendly crayons
We recently featured this tutorial on making crayon discs - your toddler will love them!

Story Blocks from My Magic Mom
Make these darling story blocks with your little one and encourage them to use them to tell stories with you!






Activities
1,2,3 bowling - Using bottles from your recycling bin, set up "pins" and bowl with your little one! Count how many they knock down and how many are left standing. Start with 3 and add more as your child becomes more comfortable with her numbers. Not only is it a great way to learn numbers, it helps teach basic addition and subtraction, and it's great for a rainy day.


Observe, Compare, Contrast - Find two similar, but different items in your house. We used bowls.

Observe - What color is it? What shape is it? How does it feel? What is it for?

Compare - What is the same? Lead more to help them discover the differences. Point out the same colors, same uses, and same shapes.

Contrast - How are they different? Lead your toddler. Is one rough and one smooth? Are they different colors? Are they different shapes?

Left foot, right foot - Ever get to the grocery store and realize your son is wearing his shoes on the wrong feet? Who hasn't? This activity is fun and will help them remember which foot to put shoes on. Trace your little's ones feet onto a sheet of paper and let them color it or decorate, then label it left and right. Hang your sign on ground level in his bedroom for easy consultation. Your toddler can use it to match his feet and his shoes correctly.


Instrument Dance Party - Pop in a toddler friendly CD and dance. Help your child identify instruments being played in the songs and mimic how you play the instruments as you dance.


The Letter "A" is the official letter this week. We're building a letter border in our sons room using fabric art. Each week, we'll make one letter, hang it and use it to guide activities. What are some great letter "a" activities?


Resources
Create a streaming, kid-friendly radio station on Pandora. Ours is based on the music of the Laura Berkner band!


Toddler Tube

Other than being a deconstructionist's nightmare, Word World on PBS Kids gets a stamp of approval here. Unlike many so-called educational shows, Word World delivers actual educational programming. Kids actively build-a-word with characters to create needed objects on the show. P I E becomes a blueberry pie for instance. You can easily extend the build-a-word idea into early reading activities. Big Bonus: it's low on the annoying factor!

Website of the Week

An incredible resource for parents of preschoolers and young children. Hundreds of activities and ideas! I know we'll be using this site a lot in the Connected house!