How to Entertain Preschoolers without Screentime

As stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 continue through April and into May, we know how hard this is on you as parents and also how hard this is for your kids. They may not understand what a pandemic is exactly or what quarantine means, but they definitely know that right now is strange, to say the least. In addition to the stress, you're probably facing boredom as all your family activities - the zoo, children's museum, and even playgrounds, are closed or unavailable. If you're running out of things to do or need a way to keep your little ones occupied while you work from home and you don't want to rely on more screen time, our preschool in Raleigh is sharing some activities for preschoolers while you're at home.

Yoga for Preschoolers

We all need the opportunity to decompress and de-stress, while getting more physical activity. Yoga is not only shown to be mentally and physically beneficial for adults, it's also great for preschoolers and young children. If there's a time each day when you need a "brain break" and your kids need an outlet for their energy, block out some time to do some yoga.

Even just knowing a few basic poses for kids and transitioning through them a few times will be a great way to start. A quick internet search will show you images and how-to guides (like this one from Yoga Journal) but some simple poses to start with are:

• Cobra
• Cat
• Child
• Downward-facing dog
• Upward-facing dog
• Happy baby

Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be, and the good news is that your preschooler will have fun no matter what. This is a great way to practice skills like colors, letters, and shapes, too. Simply make a list with a theme and send your children off on a mission to gather everything on the list. Great themes include:

• Letter of the day - Finding 10 items that start with a specific letter.
• Rainbow - Finding one item from every color of the rainbow.
• Outdoors - Flower, tree bark, clover, pine cone and other fun things your child can track down in the back yard.

Physical Challenges

Every day, have your preschooler do some physical activities and see if they can beat their own record, keeping track in a notebook, or even just a piece of paper on the refrigerator. Some great challenges include:

• How far can they throw a ball (or, if you don't have a tape measure, if they can throw the ball to reach a certain point)?
• How many times can they hop on one foot in a row?
• How fast they can run the width of the yard/do a lap around the house/touch a point and run back?
• How long they can stand on one foot?

Some of these activities will also increase fine and gross motor skills as well as provide a good outlet for physical activity.

Indoor Obstacle Course

When it's raining outside and hard to get out, turn your home into a safe, preschool-friendly obstacle course. Like the physical challenges, they will be able to work out their gross and fine motor skills while getting out some energy. Some preschool-friendly ideas include:

• Crawling under a piece of yarn stretched across a door frame (or limbo under it!);
• Setting up a piece of plywood on the ground as a safe balance beam;
• Putting a hula hoop on the floor or making a circle out of yarn and jumping in and out of it five times;
• Climbing across couch cushions on the floor;
• Designate spaces between "events" to do a dance, strike a pose, make an animal sound;
• Walk from one area to another balancing a book on your head or carrying an object on a spoon.

Our Preschool is Reopening May 11th

We know how challenging this time is for you and your family. While we are closed right now, we are looking forward to opening back up in a few weeks, on May 11th, 2020. If you’re interested in enrolling your child in a 5 star child care center in Raleigh, contact us today at our North Hills Drive location at 919-785-0303 or our Spring Forest location at 919-790-6888 or schedule a tour!