Preschool Scheduling: Free Time With Art

Most children love art activities. Art activities are a great way for your child to have a time to explore and create without a parent instructing them on what to do and how to do it. It is important that you do not make this into a "craft" time with required projects and results. Give your child the opportunity to have unscheduled time to develop their creativity!

Some important things to allow your child to choose:

Have a selection of art supplies and allow your child to choose to do whatever he wants. Collect a variety of items for art and put them into a storage box. Then pull out a selection of materials for your child to use that day. Do not plop the box down in front of them and let them "have-at-it!" Most children will either get overwhelmed and use nothing or open every marker and glue bottle you give them. Just take out a few items and do not give any instruction. If they squeeze all of the $.20 bottle of glue onto a piece of paper, don't worry. Squeezing glue is a great way to increase fine motor skills and eventually he will learn how to squeeze the right amount. Walk away and take a deep breath... it will be okay! (Use caution with scissors or your child may have a brand new haircut, or the younger sibling will!)


Some ideas:
1. Have him use the glue, tape, scissors, and paper to make a creation.
2. Have her use markers, crayons, or color pictures with plain paper to draw or write.
3. Give a selection of color sheets to color with crayons, markers, or colored pencils.
4. Give lined paper with pencils or crayons with no instruction.
5. Have old magazines around with scissors to cut and glue pictures.
6. Use water colors or paint by number per colored books for painting.
7. Ask your local decorating or paint store for old wallpaper books and use those for cutting and tearing projects (they don't always have to use scissors- tearing is important too!).

Most of all, try to limit your instructions and let your child explore. Messes will clean up easily!

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.

Preschool Scheduling: A Lenient Model

A sample of “working in” preschool activities, a more lenient schedule:
• Wake up
• Breakfast
• Have get dressed and tend to personal care (brush teeth, brush hair, wash face)
• Chores
• Child plays or attends a group class or activity
• Have books available for the child in the home, encourage a book time some time throughout the day, reading aloud and retelling, along with the child looking at books independently. This may be a bed time ritual.
• Have an art station for the child to choose to create an activity when he displays an interest.
• Have puzzles available.
• Outside play time.
• Ask child about things that have happened throughout the day or week. Discuss things that the child sees from the car, outside during play time, or reads in a book.
• Play music throughout the day, sing songs, and recite rhymes.
• Help in preparing meals.
• Get ready for bed, brush teeth, change clothes.
• Read books before bedtime.

Check back for tips on free play and the importance of unscheduled time.

A Preschool at Home Schedule

If you are teaching your preschooler at home, you have many options to choose from with your scheduling.

Here is a sample schedule for 3-5 mornings of preschool at home- allow for flexibility!
• Wake Up
• Breakfast
• Have get dressed and tend to personal care (brush teeth, brush hair, wash face)
• Read a story and have the child retell the story to you (10-15 minutes)
• Allow the child to choose what to play with inside or out, read books, or color/draw/write (20-30 minutes)
• Craft time (20-30 minutes)
• Outside Play (30-45 minutes)
• Chores (10-15 minutes)
• Lunch
• Look at books for quiet time
• Child chooses activity from planned list (details later)
• As the day progresses, ask reminder questions about things that have happened through the day. You may even want to keep a journal and write down things that were said and have the child draw a picture.
• Dance or sing to a cd or make up your own songs.
• Dinner
• Get ready for bed, brush teeth, change clothes.
• Read books before bedtime.

Watch this week for more scheduling ideas.