Preschool Scheduling: Free Time with Preschool Centers

Every child needs time to be free: free to choose what they want to do, free to choose to play inside or outside, free to choose art or reading. What you like may not be what your child likes. During these times, you can play with your child or allow them to play by themselves, with siblings, or friends.

A great way to give unscheduled time is to create centers. Just like preschools have centers, you can create your own centers in whatever space you have. Centers can be shoe boxes of different items and games or large sections of the bedroom, playroom, or family room. For those that live in climates with extremes that do not allow outside play, so outside things can be brought indoors like small slides or climbers. Depending on your space, indoor play can look like a preschool or be fit into a small section of your house.

Here are four preschool center ideas (check back later for more ideas):

1. A home center (even for boys!)- have a small kitchen/grill, ironing board, babies, and even a small table for children to pretend to be adults. Role playing is an important part of brain development and language development. Play with your child, have tea, make dinner. Interact with your child in their world.

2. Dress up Center- Again, the importance of role playing. Every child can have an adult pair of shoes, an old shirt or night gown, or even some small sized dress up costumes. This is a great place to use old Halloween costumes!

3. Reading Center- Provide a variety of books and magazines for kids. Books should be about real things like trucks, dinosaurs, bugs, and animals, and fantasy stories. Books should be available for children to reach without asking. You can also include books on tape/CD with a small CD player or cassette player with headphones. You may need to keep this up and away if your child does not know how to operate the player or does not know how to handle CD’s. Remember to offer these occasionally if they do not ask.

4. Puzzles and Blocks Center- Kids love puzzles and blocks, parents don’t love puzzles and blocks. Yes, they make a mess, but a child that can get to puzzles and blocks freely without asking, will play with puzzles and blocks. Make rules about how many can be out, clean up when you are done, and if they need help they ask.