Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
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Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
BOB Books
Reading Rainbow App on iPhone
Keyboard piano
Train sets
Chalkboard
Phonics Cards
Nursery Rhymes
Silly Dances
Reading Rainbow App on iPhone
Keyboard piano
Train sets
Chalkboard
Phonics Cards
Nursery Rhymes
Silly Dances
G.E. Box "All models are wrong, but some are useful."
Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
Afty wrote:This is a great observation. I think there's benefit in letting kids get bored sometimes so they learn how to entertain themselves.staythecourse wrote:p.s. I don't remember my or any parent doing as much as we do with our kids and we turned out just fine. I've been debating it may be more beneficial leaving the kids alone more and just letting them imagine may be better then ANY structure activity. Too much structure I don't think allows for imaginary play which seems to be great for spurring abstract thinking.
When I was a kid, I loved to play with "color forms" (anyone remember?). I would create stories about the characters.
Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
Do kids play dress up any more? We also used to play Bonanza - the big wicker rocker was the stage coach.
Reading with and to kids is great.
Reading with and to kids is great.
- ClevrChico
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Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
Go for a car ride and have them give you directions on where to go. See where you end up.
Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
Balloons..They love balloons.. Buy a bag of them and use them when you need. Blow it up and immediatley let the air out of the balloon and let them chase it (gets a laugh every time). Also just playing catch or soccer with a balloon, or my daughters favorite game which is trying to keep the balloon from hitting the ground.. Good times..
- market timer
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Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
This was a good suggestion. I had just been reading the words, and that gets boring. Tried the new method, and my son really enjoyed making up his own story based on the pictures. I also asked him to match the words with the pictures.celia wrote:Change HOW you read. Don't read the words that are printed. Make up a story as you look at the pictures with you making up the story for your half (left/right page) of the book and let him make up the other half. When you get a new book, read the book without looking at the words. Eventually get him to tell you the whole story.market timer wrote:I do this now, but could do more. Usually I'll buy a book or two every week for $10/book. While it's not a major expense, I wonder if there is a more efficient investment, like a subscription to an online library, that we could use instead. Unfortunately, where I live, there are no libraries.mak1277 wrote:Read books to him
- market timer
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Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
Thanks, all, for the suggestions. I've bookmarked this page. There's enough ideas to last through childhood.
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Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
We did that with our daughter for Corduroy. The only problem is now she refuses to let us read her Corduroy. Now it is "The Bunny that Lived in a Day", and I fear Corduroy is ruined for her. She is 2.5, so maybe she will forget eventually.market timer wrote:This was a good suggestion. I had just been reading the words, and that gets boring. Tried the new method, and my son really enjoyed making up his own story based on the pictures. I also asked him to match the words with the pictures.celia wrote:Change HOW you read. Don't read the words that are printed. Make up a story as you look at the pictures with you making up the story for your half (left/right page) of the book and let him make up the other half. When you get a new book, read the book without looking at the words. Eventually get him to tell you the whole story.market timer wrote:I do this now, but could do more. Usually I'll buy a book or two every week for $10/book. While it's not a major expense, I wonder if there is a more efficient investment, like a subscription to an online library, that we could use instead. Unfortunately, where I live, there are no libraries.mak1277 wrote:Read books to him
“The strong cannot be brave. Only the weak can be brave; and yet again, in practice, only those who can be brave can be trusted, in time of doubt, to be strong.“ - GK Chesterton
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Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
Big Legos, hide and seek, organizing animals, dancing, karaoke, Play-Doh, drawing, painting, reading, practicing writing, learning about weather, looking at maps, encyclopedias with pictures, practicing colors, counting, practicing basic math (1+1, 1+2)
Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
I once read a Reader's Digest article about a program in Appalachia, where literacy is dismal. Many parents don't read to their kids since THEY can't read themselves. So the program has them borrow library books anyway (from a traveling library) to just look and talk about the pictures. The parents are encouraged to make up a story. The kid will never know. The librarian illustrates this for them.market timer wrote:This was a good suggestion. I had just been reading the words, and that gets boring. Tried the new method, and my son really enjoyed making up his own story based on the pictures. I also asked him to match the words with the pictures.
The point in pre-school is to expose them to a wide vocabulary and frequent two-way conversation. An illustration is that some people tell their kids to go get ready for bed. But for pre-schoolers, you can ask, do you want us to take off the right shoe first or the left shoe? (The child can gain a sense of being able to make their own decisions.) Do you want to wear the red flannel zip-up PJs or the floral cotton snap-ons? What kind of "flower" is this on your slippers? Is there a lion on your PJs? Where do you see some others? (Avoid "yes"/"no" questions.)
All of life can be a learning experience for kids. You don't have to go anywhere or do anything special, but you need to keep teaching them by talking.
I spoke with a kindergarten teacher once who told me she can tell on the first day of school which kids will go to college and which will be high school dropouts. Some kids had never held a book (properly) before or didn't have much of a vocabulary or couldn't use scissors. Another kindergarten teacher who had taught in the inner city as well as in an affluent neighborhood noticed the difference in the kids on Monday morning. In the affluent area, they came in tired since they had so many weekend activities. In the inner city, the kids sat and watched a lot of TV, so on Monday morning, they were all eager to do something new!
Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
I am also wondering where is this place that there is no library. I have probably led a somewhat sheltered life.
Re: Indoor activities for a 3-year-old
Definitely work in some physical activity- running, jumping jacks, maybe an indoor children's basketball goal. 3 year olds think calisthenics are fun.
Don't overlook simple activities like coloring with crayons.
My kids are grown, so I haven't had to think about screen time issues in the age of iPads and kindles. It seems to me that these could be much more interactive and engaging than passive screen time and I think that complicates the question.
Don't overlook simple activities like coloring with crayons.
My kids are grown, so I haven't had to think about screen time issues in the age of iPads and kindles. It seems to me that these could be much more interactive and engaging than passive screen time and I think that complicates the question.