Letter I is for Independence. Q-Tip Painting for Preschoolers.

Growing Independence: Tips and Activities for Little Kids

Preschoolers want to do everything by themselves. Developing life skills is the base of gaining more independence in every day activities... And so are support, encouragement, sharing the excitement of growing confidence and self-sufficiency. For the letter I, we have learned the word Independence and celebrated the Independence of a person and a country - the first history lesson for our little preschoolers. This post is a part of our "Creative ABCs" series found here: Creative ABCs.

All by Myself

Our favorite book of the week was "All by Myself" by Mercer Mayer. I think, this is the best one from the "Little Critter" series. The critter tries to get out of bed, go through his day, and go to bed all by himself. He tries to stay courageous, but the challenges he faces are often impossible! Hence, the pictures that my 3 year old found very laughable and silly.

The critter could do things by himself - he was "independent". It is so nice to have "independence".

The realization that she could do something better than the critter already gave her more confidence and encouragement to get more independent in her tasks!

Also, check out our new Practical Life Skills through Play collection: 10 Fun Ways to Promote Life Skills.

 

Independence - a New Word Kids Learned!

Independence starts with the short /I/ sound and is such a long word. We practice saying it again and again - with lots of laughs in between. Clapping and tapping the syllables - one of our favorites at this time - are great with this awesome word.

My Firefly learned that as much as she loves to be independent, so do all the other people in this country. We live in the United States (see our intro to US Geography with Melissa & Doug Sound Puzzle here: US States Learning Games for Kids).

It wasn't always this way. Once upon a time, there was a king and his strong army of kings' men who told people what to do. People had to be independent and to decide what was important to them by themselves. They scared that king and his army away!

Nowadays, people have the rights to say what we want, go where we want and meet our friends as we want to, pray as we need to, read books and watch TV as we want to, play the way we'd like to.

For that reason, people love to celebrate their independence! They have the special day called Independence Day.

Painting with Q-tips

Using Q-tips for painting turned out to be a wonderful idea! It is so difficult for the little fingers to stay within the lines when coloring. My Firefly often gets frustrated with the result of an occasional awkward move of a crayon or a brush.

But not with Q-tips! They allow for much more accurate painting and coloring, and give the paintings the beautiful colors and texture. We started with painting the fireworks (see above), and have to have paint and Q-tips every day since then!

Here are the links to some wonderful free printable coloring pages made for Q-tip painting.

Valentine's Day Q-Tip Painting Printables from Totschooling.

Sofia the First Printables from 1+1+1=1.

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