las vegas Archives - Grateful Hearts Preschool

Help Bored Kids With Activity Jars

Posted on May 6, 2025May 6, 2025 by admin

As we creep ever closer to summer, it’s time for children to respond to longer days with statements such as, “I’m bored!” It’s not always easy to keep children busy when they feel like there’s nothing to do, but you can help bored kids find some relief with Activity Jars.

Activity Jars are a tool parents, teachers and other caregivers can use to redirect bored kids. All you have to do is get a bunch of large popsicle sticks and a jar. On each popsicle stick, write an activity on it. When a kid says they are bored, they can take a popsicle stick and do the activity on it.

It’s good to have several activity jars, with various themes on the front. Kids can choose between categories such as imaginative play, water play, messy play, and more. This way, the kids will have an idea of what sort of activity they might pull out of the jar before drawing an activity stick.

Not sure what to write on the popsicle sticks? Here are a few fun ideas:

Make a Playdough Sculpture

Often kids may want to play with playdough, but they don’t have an idea of what to create. Feel free to be more specific on this stick, such as building a caterpillar, or trying to make a teacup. Children can have fun trying to shape a specific object, or perhaps just getting the playdough out is enough to spark their imagination.

Pretend Play

You can set up a whole jar full of pretend play scenarios to help spark ideas for kids. This might include setting up a pizza store, a coffee shop, or a fancy restaurant. They could play firefighter, police man, or doctor.

With a variety of different shops or jobs they could play, they’re just a dress up chest away from hours of fun.

Crafting

Crafting is another fun way to help kids with boredom. Here, you’ll need to customize the sticks to craft options you have available. It can be helpful to have the pieces needed for a particular craft presorted into a ziplock bag, so all that is needed if they draw the stick is to give them the correct bag.

Ideas for crafting could be seasonal, like coloring and decorating a Christmas Tree, or it might be something a bit more messy, like decorating slime. It depends on the child and the availability of items.

Write Your Own Book

It’s easy to make a blank book for kids to write in. Simply fold 3 pages or so of regular printer paper in half, punch a hole at the top and bottom, and tie it with string to hold all of the pages together. Now, kids can write or draw their own stories. The activity jar can be filled with prompts such as Cinderella, or Dragons, to help get kids going.

Once you’ve gotten the idea of how to make activity jars, the sky is the limit. Make a jar with ideas for different things to draw or color. Make a jar for fashion shows, or what ever else is popular with the kids. Often all children need is something to spark their imagination before they have lots of new ideas of their own. Activity jars are a great way to spark those ideas.

Preschool: When Are Children Ready to Start?

Posted on March 26, 2025March 26, 2025 by admin

The studies are in. Preschools have been shown to help children throughout their life, from their first day of school all the way to adulthood. Most parents probably realize that preschool is beneficial to children, but when are children ready to start?

Preschool is good for children under the age of five. Every child is unique, so it’s important to pay attention to your individual child’s readiness signs to decide when they should take their first steps through preschool doors.

Transitions

A big part of a day at preschool is transitioning from one activity to another. They transition from being in their parent’s care, to being in the care of their teacher. They may be asked to transition from play time to lunch time, from circle time to outdoor play.

Many young children struggle with transitions. While it’s not a requirement for children to handle transitions well, especially if they are not neurotypical, coping well with transitions is a great sign of readiness.

If you’re not sure, you can practice transitions at home. How well does your child respond to being moved from one area to another, even if it’s in your own home? Practicing these transitions is a great way to help them prepare for preschool and give you an idea of how they’ll respond.

Communication

How well can your child express his or her needs? Can they ask for more food if they are hungry, or let the teachers know if they feel too hot and need to cool down? Even if your child isn’t very verbal yet, if they can sign for what they want or communicate their needs in another way, it can make preschool much easier for them.

Following Directions

If you ask your child for a specific toy, can they bring it to you? It’s extremely helpful to your child’s experience if they have practiced following instructions before. Luckily, practicing following directions is easy.

All you have to do to ensure your child has learned how to follow directions is to practice, even if it’s a very simple direction. It could be putting on their socks and shoes, being asked to bring their coat, or any other small thing. As long as they have been asked to do something in the past, and were able to follow through with that, they’ve had some practice on following directions.

Learning how to follow directions makes their experience so much easier during their first few days at preschool.

All of these things are signs that your child is ready for preschool, but don’t worry if they don’t have these things mastered yet. Some children may not meet all of these signs of readiness but could still be ready for preschool. An example might be a child who is otherwise ready but has a speech delay.

If a child is speech delayed, they may actually benefit from preschool since they will spend their time in a more language rich environment.

There’s also good evidence that even young infants can benefit from being in an enriched, learning environment. Young children who attend a daycare or preschool are typically more adaptable, have better immunity, and learn more appropriate social behavior than those that don’t.

If you’re unsure, call your local preschool and ask about whether your child may be ready for preschool or not. They’ll be able to help you figure out if your child is ready to begin their journey into early learning.

5 Ways Daycare Promotes Number Literacy

Posted on March 5, 2025March 5, 2025 by admin

Math is a critical part of our lives. We use math every day to pay bills and manage our finances, and many jobs require math skills to perform them. Math is one of the core skills taught in school, and having a good handle on how they work before reaching school age can be a big benefit to children.

Luckily, it’s easy to incorporate math skills into preschool without making it a chore. Math can be fun when presented in the right way. Here are 5 ways daycares can promote number literacy.

Counting in Sensory Play

Sensory play is a popular way to help kids perfect their gross and fine motor skills, but it can also help with math. Teachers can have children try to estimate how much rice is in a container, count beads, and compare quantities.

These moments can make playing with beads and rice even more engaging for children, while helping them develop critical thinking skills and numeracy.

Board Games

For children almost ready for school, board games can offer valuable lessons in taking turns and being patience. Many board games such as Shoots and Ladders are all about numbers, while many of the other simpler ones still require a child to count how many times their character moves.

While board games may be difficult for the youngest children, it’s a perfect opportunity for older children almost ready for school.

Number Safari

Look around, and you’ll probably see a number close to you. There are numbers on calendars, sports t-shirts, and blocks. One fun way to help kids recognize numbers is to go on a number safari and hunt for them. Kids can explore their preschool or daycare looking for numbers and see how many they can find.

Numbers can also be hidden around the preschool for children to find, if there aren’t enough easy to find ones already present.

Connect the Dots

A classic game children adore are mysterious pages with just numbers on them. By connecting the dots in numerical order, they can complete a picture. These fun pictures can be very simple or highly complex, depending on the age of the child.

Connect the dots work wonderfully to help kids notice numbers and their order.

Bubble Wrap Pop

Bubble wrap has been irresistible to kids since it was invented. A fun way to help kids learn numbers is to draw numbers on bubble wrap bubbles and then ask the kids to find the right number and pop the bubble.

This simple game can be very engaging and help kids with their learning recognition. When they’re excited to pop that next bubble, they’ll be looking closely at those numbers to try and figure out which one is next quickly.

Math is a critical skill for children, and it’s never too early to start building those basic skills. When math is fun, kids are more likely to learn and retain that information. Fun math games can help encourage kids to think critically, notice numbers more, and develop those vital skills.

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