This Week’s Cupboard of Preschool Activities
Last weekend, I went to a great homeschool forum. One of the workshops was called “Ingredient #20: The Closet.” If you’re familiar with Leadership Education, at least the Thomas Jefferson Education version of it, you’ve probably heard of The Closet. The idea is to have an area in your home to store work and activities for younger children. A closet or cupboard work well for this. In a sense, it’s quite similar to the Montessori model of having work ready for the children in a neat and orderly environment that encourages curiosity and a love of learning.
I came away with a couple of great ideas for our closet. First of all, the workshop teacher, Mary Ann Johnson, encouraged us to only give children access to the closet during specific scheduled “school” times. We usually have our activity time around 10 a.m., but up until now, I’ve been letting Pearl work on her activities whenever she wanted. However, Mary Ann explained that saving the closet activities for one time during the day makes them more special and exciting to the child. And I have to admit–she was totally right! I think Pearl got bored by the activities simply because they were available all the time. Now that her time with them is limited, she is much more eager to access them and practically begs to do her activities.
Another great lesson I took away from Mary Ann’s workshop was that I need to be present (as in, engaged) during activity time. This is not the time for me to go fold laundry or catch up on some reading. In the past, I’ve let Pearl do her own thing for a couple reasons. First of all, I thought I should try to encourage independence on her part. Secondly, I had to do something with Monkey so he wouldn’t get into her work. However, now that I’ve tried being more engaged, I’ve realized a couple things. First of all, just because I’m there, doesn’t mean Pearl isn’t guiding her own work. I only help when absolutely necessary and she is still free to choose what she works with and for how long. Secondly, if I am there and present, Monkey can work with the activities, too. As long as I am there to monitor him, he can join in on the fun. Some activities are beyond his abilities right now, but that’s okay. It gives him something to work toward and, in the meantime, there are plenty of things he can do. And it’s been great learning with the kids. I think they really enjoy that time with their mom.
Finally, I realized that I can put lots of different things in the cupboard. It doesn’t all have to be super educational. Some of it can be just pure fun–things that will make the children’s eyes light up when they open the doors. I want them to love learning and I think that includes learning to play and enjoy their imaginations. I can’t wait to get to work thinking up new activities to put in our cupboard!
So, here are some things from this week’s cupboard:

This has been a huge hit with both kids. We checked the set out from the library. Yay for free resources!

See? Like I said, they love it. I'm careful to monitor Monkey just in case one of the magnets suddenly looks tasty.

I got this darling miniature easel from IKEA for like a dollar and picked up the Monet cards at a bookstore sale. These haven't gotten much use yet, so I need to figure out a way to make them more interactive. Any ideas?
I’d love to hear about your experiences. What activities have been real hits in your house? What do you think I should do with the art cards? And what do you think about Mary Ann’s ideas?
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That’s a great idea, Stacy! I’ll have to see if I can find another set to make a matching game. Thanks!
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Sounds like a worthwhile workshop! Good for you for trying to include Monkey- I too am guilty of just trying to keep the little one away to keep the peace! Too bad you don’t have two sets of the cards, you could play memory with them. You could talk about similarities and differences between the cards, you could play i-spy, or you could pick a card and give hints to see if she picks the same card. Ryan is really into playing games with hints and clues right now, and is getting really good at coming up with them.