By the time you finish reading this, you will be on your way to organizing and planning birthday parties for preschoolers.

Preschool age children are limited in what activities they can do. Harder games can be too much for them to understand. They also have shorter attention spans then older children, which is an important thing to keep in mind.

So what should you do? Well, I suggest that if you are planning a party for preschoolers, you should keep them busy. Always make sure that they have something to do.

It can help to always have some back up activities in case an activity does not work out. A good back up is a coloring table or a movie. These things are usually always a hit with preschoolers and can serve to occupy them if needed.

Another thing to take note of is that you should set up the activities even before the party starts. You should make sure that you have enough supplies of everything because the last thing you want is preschoolers fighting.

Now that you have understood that these preschoolers may not understand complex instructions, what you can do is that you should plan out good activities for them. What are good activities? Good activities would allow the preschoolers to be independent and have minimum parental involvement.

So, what activities can be considered good activities? I suggest that you have activities like bubble blowing, face painting, bean bag toss game and also water balloons. There are several party games which you can use but you should change some of the rules as some of them are quite difficult for preschoolers to understand.

You want to keep the activities flowing. You never want a time when everyone is just standing around. Preschoolers are not very patient and they like to stay busy, so if you are not keeping them busy they will definitely find something to keep themselves busy and that could spell trouble.

if you think that a big group is difficult to handle, you can consider breaking them up into groups. by doing this, it will reduce waiting time and also keep them busy. The backup activity can be used during intervals.

If you are intending to include bubble blowing or even water balloons in as one of your activities, you need to make sure that everyone has the same amount of supplies.

Some activities can be very messy, especially bubble blowing and water bombs. Well, if you are thinking of including these activities, you need to make sure that you inform their parents so that they will bring a new set of clothes.

Now that you know this, you should take into consideration that these kids like to act like their grownups. They want to be independent but you have to make sure that what they are doing is within their capability.

Source: Recreation-and-Sports

The spring rains have finally come to northwest Ohio. After all the snow and rain we had in February and March, it was hard to believe that it was actually getting a little too dry. But now everything is greening up like it’s supposed to.

Hope we haven’t put some kind of jinx on ourselves by wishing for rain–next thing you know, we’ll be backing out of our driveway in a boat. Be careful what you pray for…

Some of our newsletter readers have asked: How do you teach older children when you have one or more toddlers demanding your attention?

This is obviously something that adds to the stress of a home schooling day (as if there wasn’t enough stress already from trying to squeeze everything into your daily schedule).

Here are a few simple tips that can help make life easier:

1. If you can, have one of the older children play with the toddler
while you teach the first child, then switch and let that child play
with the toddler while you teach the second.

2. Have someone (maybe Grandma or a friend) watch the toddler
while you teach.

3. Enlist the father of these children to teach some of the subjects
and/or play with the toddler.

4. Do a fun activity with the toddler before starting class.

5. Don’t try to have a solid block of “school” that lasts four or
more hours. Divide up the time. Do an hour in the morning, maybe
two in the afternoon (during naptime) and finish in the evening.

6. Don’t think you have to do every subject every day. For example,
you can double up on science on Monday & Tuesday, then do history
Wednesday & Thursday and review Friday. Enjoy and take advantage of
the fact that your home “school” does not have to resemble public
school.

7. Use curriculum or an online academy that allows the older
students to work independently.

8. Have special toys and books your toddler can play with only
during class time. Make sure these are quiet toys

9. Don’t allow yourself to become agitated by interruptions (we
know, this is easier said than done). They are going to happen.
Pray BEFORE they happen.

10. Take one day at a time. It can seem so overwhelming if you think
about how many weeks and months of teaching there are ahead.

Source: homeschooling with toddlers