A few tips for managing the things your preschooler works with

Wednesday, 08. December 2010 by Renee Ellison

A good way to control children’s toys that have little pieces to them, or puzzles (to keep the pieces from migrating under the furniture) is to put a large bath towel on the floor and tell the children they must play ON THE TOWEL and keep the pieces on the towel until they are finished with that game, puzzle or toy.  Children like boundaries

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Also, if you want a larger area for the children to work on in your home ...for projects involving paints or glue or play dough, for instance…. purchase a vinyl picnic table tablecloth and plop it down over your coffee table or kitchen table or desk every time you want them to be free to play without worrying about it getting all over your furniture.

In managing your children, staying ahead of them with wholesome activities is one of the finest ways.  Our booklet, Preschool Pizzazz, is chock full of ideas to that end.  It gives you

.  Each box contains the stuff for one type of preschooler activity.  Don’t think you have to actually DO everything that’s described.  The booklet may trigger your own ideas, or make you aware of many ACTIVITIES that you might not have considered before.  The purpose of that booklet is to EASE your load as a mother of young, not to burden you.  One method for DOING the boxes, if you want to fully implement the use of them, is to ask BOTH grandmothers if they ever WANT to help you fill the boxes; over time one grandmother gets the things for 25 boxes, the other for the other 25.

Also, in relation to larger “stuff” for open-ended activities for your children (like

), you might want to read our booklet about training your child to master a musical instrument, as it will show you where you might be headed with a young child’s musical experiences after working through our Quick Piano course.

By the way (having mentioned play-dough), here’s a new and improved recipe for Wonderful Home-made Old Fashioned Play Dough:
2 cups boiling water
Add: 6 cups flour
3/4 cup salt
10 teaspoons cream of tartar
4 Tablespoons oil (use the mildest SMELLING vegetable oil you can find)

Play-doh tips:

Watch how your children or grandchildren LOVE to play with this stuff.  ‘Taint no play dough like it available in any Wal-Mart.