Preschool Education & Everything Preschool

Fall is a terrific time to incorporate leaf crafts into kids’ daily activities. You can take kids outside to get some fresh air and physical activity while they collect the leaves. Then you can come indoors again and keep them busy with the crafts. Leaf crafts are fun and they also help to build motor skills in young children. Plus leaf crafts can be used in conjunction with learning other lessons like how the seasons change.

There are many different leaf crafts for kids and you can probably think up many more on your own but here are a few to get you started:

• Leaf rubbings. Take a leaf and place it on a table or desk. Cover it with a blank piece of paper. Kids can use charcoal or crayons to rub over the paper and the impression of the leaf will come out. This will seem magical to young children who can then draw or decorate the new leaf. A variation on this is leaf tracing.
• Leaf scrapbook album. Use construction paper and yarn to create a scrapbook. Kids can glue their leaves to each page to create their own album. One variation on this is to create a fall story, writing the text underneath each leaf on the page. Another variation is to have children glue one leaf on each side and to describe what is the same and what is different between the two leaves that are facing each other.
• Leaf Strings. For this you’ll need string or yarn and the leaves as well as a hole puncher. Punch holes in the tops of the leaves and then string them to make a decoration. Eventually, the leaves will crumble and fall off; you can use this to reinforce lessons about the changing of seasons and the way leaves fall off of trees.
• Leaf Wreath. All you need for this one is the leaves, some glue or tape and a paper plate or other round shaped object. Have the kids glue or tape their leaves to the plate to create a wreath (cut out the center to make it more wreath-like). Add decorations such as ribbon, glitter or coloring. Variations on this leaf craft include the Thanksgiving Wreath in which you write “things you’re thankful for” on the leaves or on the center of the plate where there aren’t any leaves.

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What better time to teach your child about fall than when we’re right about to enter the midst of it? Fall is a great teaching tool because it applies to so many different areas of life. Not only do kids learn about the seasons, but they also learn about the nature behind the seasons changing. As kids get older, these lessons can be used again and again in different ways. For example, as adolescents, they will learn about literature and poetry and the images and lessons of fall will play a big part in that. And when it comes time to learn hard lessons about death and loss, your kids will have a better grasp on it if they can compare it to the changing of the seasons.

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Here are some of the things that you need to do when preparing your child to start preschool:

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But what really matters more; that the laundry all got done and folded or that you got to spend some time with the people that you love? Making time for your family is not only possible, it’s necessary. And it doesn’t take another twenty four hours in the day to manage it. It just takes a little bit of organization, a willingness to let a few things go sometimes in order to be with your family and the will to make it work.