Larry Stone, a safety expert, provides tips on how to set up your home to enhance a preschooler's development.
- Fill a plastic bin with dried beans, corn or sand, and bury toys so that your the children can pretend to dig for treasures.
- Preschool children (ages 3 and 4) are making developmental strides and beginning to express an interest in the world around them. They want to touch, taste, smell, hear and test things for themselves. Set up play areas in your home to enable your child to learn by experiencing these senses. For example, blindfold them and have them touch, taste and smell various fruits and vegetables.
- Establish a creative area in the home for your child to be artistic. Provide paint, chalk, colored pens, collage materials and modeling clay, and allow them to paint, draw, sing and dance. The best surface is a hard floor or a large sheet.
- Place an old shower curtain under the easel to protect the floor from spilled paint or pieces of clay.
- An easy way to set up an easel is to attach a white board or chalkboard to one side of a small wooden step ladder and hang a tablet of paper on the other side. Hang a piece of vinyl gutter from the bottom step to hold crayons, markers and paints.
- Provide a short chest of drawers that includes everyday objects such as empty paper-towel rolls, egg cartons, buttons and scraps of material. These items, along with glue, are ingredients for creating sculptures like imaginary bugs or spyglasses.
- Running, climbing, jumping and digging are ways for children to refine their motor skills (large muscles). A good active environment provides activities to develop these motor skills. Set up appliance boxes in the house to create tunnels. Let the children decorate the boxes with markers or paints to emulate castles or rocket ships.
- Create a balance beam by placing a 2 x 8 x 8-foot plank on blocks of wood, and cover it with piece of carpet or a blanket for safety. This will help improve the child's coordination and balance.
Guests Larry Stone
Safety Expert, Safety Matters Childproofing Services
478 Barberry Rd.
Highland Park, IL 60035
Phone: 773-281-2229
Toll Free Phone: 800-972-3306
Fax: 847-831-4724
Email:
info@safetymatters.com
URL:
www.safetymatters.com
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