Homeschool preschool: Table time!

Table time is something that I have start to bring into Girlgirl's day. I do it most the time when I am helping the big kids do work. We are all at the table then and she enjoys being with us. I give her a quite thing to play with. She will sit at the table for 30 min. She does two different things at table time things everyday. I don't just put something in front of her and walk away. I help her get started and show her what I would do. I then for the most part let her do her thing. There is no right or wrong way to play. Here is a list of things she does:

• bean & rice bucket-I just got a small plastic bin from the Dollar Store and filled it half way  dried beans and rice. I put a few little cups, old caps (like from the milk) and a few brushes.  Some times I do add small toys in it too.
• letter and number magnets- Again I got a small cookie sheet from the Dollar Store. I got a hug bag of letter and number magnets from a garage sale. With this one I often ask a big kid to sit with her and tell Girlygirl the letter and the sound. (this has helped Five learn her letter sounds)
• other magnets- when at a toy store on our last vacation I found some old ball magnets Grilygirl loved them. I have add more to them now. I give her the container (a small cream cheese container) and the cookie sheet and let her play.
• puzzles- We have gotten them as gifts, and passed down to us from friends with older kids. Girlygirl loves them. I give her one at a time and try to change them before she gets bored with it. When we do puzzles it is for the whole 30 min. but she gets about 5 different puzzles. (if you need to just go between a few it works good too.)
• the jar-I will do a post  about what the jar is soon. But is a cookie jar filled with stuff I found around my house. No toys.
• color-I sometimes just give her one pen and one paper and let her fill it up. Other times I give her a coloring book and her box of crayons. When she is really lucky I give her makers. (be ready for a mess with them)
• books-I just give her two or three books to look at and play with. Hey maybe she will teach herself to read. (lol)
• play dough-I use a place mate and try to get her to keep it on the mate. 
• stickers-I don't do this much because of the cost buy Grilygirl loves it. I give her a few sheets of stickers and let her put them in her note book. Girlygirl is still young and can't get the stickers off if the background paper is still on. I take the background paper off all but one sheet. That way I can see when she doesn't need me to do this any more.
• cards-I use a few different Sesame Street cards we have as well as a real deck of cards. It is fun for her. I am not sure why. We keep cards in her pack back too for when we are out.
• beads-I bought a some big beads (made for kids) she can string them. Girlygirl is not really ready for this. If she does something for a long time I will bring them out for a few min (5 max). She gets mad because she can't do it.
• lacing cards-we have truck ones that where given to us. I have not used them yet. I will let you know how it goes when we do.

I am sure there are many more things you can do. I will be adding to the list later in latter post if you add more things.  I will also be adding picture of Girlygirl at table time in the next few weeks. Keep you eye out for them.