Toddler and Preschooler

We found an easy and pretty inexpensive way to solve the problem of being scared that something was under the bed. We found under the bed storage containers at the discount store,

When my daughters were as young as 4 and 5 years old, I wanted them to learn their phone number and remember it. What worked great was to teach them the seven digit string

You can take a little container of yogurt and mix it with Koolaid. It will make a colorful fingerpaint that won't taste as bad as the other fingerpaint does. :)

A inexpensive game you can create for your students who need some help learning how to put words in alphabetical order.

Many moons ago when I was teaching pre-school and pre-K I had a reward system which worked great for me and the kids loved it.

I use a deck of cards to teach my almost 5 year old granddaughter math. She matched the numbers, matched the shapes and number order when she was 3-4.

Potty-training a boy? Take a small stack of baby wipes and place them behind the toilet seat on top of the hinges. If the little guy misses (like in the night), the wipes

When my oldest son was little, he use to be scared to sleep in his room. He thought there were monsters under his bed, or in his closet.

For kids who like to dress up you can fill up a box of dress up items from a thrift shop. Also add some accessories from the dollar store. You can also find Halloween

If you are having trouble getting your young children to bed without a fight, try this bedtime shopping game to solve nightly struggles. Half an hour before bedtime, set a timer

Many address labels have a small picture to the left of the address. By carefully cutting between the picture and address, we salvage strips of picture stickers that

When we would go out to eat with our kids when they were quite young, most of the time, they would fuss and not finish their meals. So we decided to let them eat their

I own a Home Day Care and can not keep up with enough baby bibs. It works out for me to grab a wash cloth and wrap around child and clip in the back with a small chip clip.

Because I am always anxious about getting veggies in my toddler, I devised a new way to get them in his mouth! I bought several popsicle trays at my local dollar store.

Back when my son was in band and my youngest child was very small, we spent a lot of time at the football field. Our daughter would get so bored and would be a real nuisance.

I take care of a couple of preschoolers a few hours each week. Lately they are into "lacing". I made my own lacing boards. Store bought ones run from $2 to $12.

I'm a grandma of 4 now, but when my own 2 children were growing up, I had an apartment that had carpeting in the dining room area. Eating time was messy on the carpet from

When my two year old daughter was sick with an ear infection, her doctor prescribed oral medication that she hated the taste of and gave me a real hard time when getting

This is in response to things to do with old keys - never give a small child keys to play with! When our second daughter was about 15 months old, I let her play

I filled a tray with snow, which then became my cake. I filled containers with a few drops of food coloring and some water. I gave my 2 year old a paint brush and told

My toddler grandson loves puzzles. We have many boxes of them - 35-55 pieces each. So the pieces don't get mixed up with other puzzles, I bag each puzzle in a zip locked

I have always saved soap scraps and wondered what to do with them. So when I had my son, I figured that because all children love to try to wash themselves in the bath, these

When my daughter was little, she went through a phase where she would try to annoy me by parroting everything I said. I used that to help her learn things I wanted her to know,

When my four kids were little (2-6 years old), they loved to sleep in Dad's t-shirt. I went to a yard sale and found 10 T-shirts with some business logo on them for $.10

Instead of buying expensive decorations for a toddler birthday party, put your child's crib mattress inside a small tent for a play area. For safety reasons, don't zip up the side

Now that is is getting so hot and also rainy here, I am going to buy a dishpan at the dollar store and some play sand at Walmart (the $2.50 kind) and give it as a present

To keep a preschooler amused and creative, you'll need a gallon press-lock bag and a couple different colors of finger paint. Put a tablespoon of each color in the bag

My littlest granddaughter (4) likes to have a washcloth for her eyes when she showers during the hair washing time. I took some washcloths, folded them in half, and stitched two sides

Toddlers pants keeps falling down and they are much too young to wear a belt for safety reasons. My tip is to make what I call an elastic clips to hold up their pants.

My son had difficulty sitting up in his high chair without sliding down during meal times. I applied a piece of carpet tape on his chair seat and he never slid down again.

When my son was very young, spaghetti was difficult for him to eat. I would use my pizza cutter to cut his spaghetti into bite size pieces, which he could then eat with

When my son began climbing out of his crib, I took off the front side rail and made it like a daybed. This saved us from buying another bed for a few years.

When you need to protect your clothing while eating, use a towel with binder clips as a "bib".

A friend just recently attended her nephew's 15 month old son's funeral. The 15 month swallowed a push pin that was lodged in its throat, the baby died on the way to

It is hard to get the house clean with little ones under your feet. I put my 2 year old daughter, standing in a chair, at the kitchen sink, with old towels all around

After kids parties, there are inevitably left over themed plates, napkins, cups, and decorations. I saved these all together, then one rainy day we had an impromptu

When my son turned 5, he wanted to have a moon party. So we found all the sheets and blanket in the house, turned our furniture in the living room upside down and transform

Let your small children clean the tub! when they are taking their bath at night, they love to play with something in the tub, give them the little tiny sponge paintbrushes,

I was trying to graduate my young son from the potty to a stand-up position. He loved being a "big boy" like Daddy but his aim wasn't good and I was washing down the toilet and 

This is a potty training tip. I never realized the importance of using a potty chair. My nephew was taught to use a regular toilet, not a potty chair. As he grew older, he was

While sitting down with our granddaughter, Shayla, with a box of crayons (not the baby ones), a coloring book about going to the apple farm, I told her "to color within

My two year old granddaughter was here overnight and after finding her trying to open a bottle of liquid paper, I decided to childproof our home computer room.

I did this when my kids were small, the youngest is now 32. I did it for my older grandkids, and I am now doing it for the younger grandkids and greatgrandkids. I have saved the

If you have children at your home whose clothes are strung and strewed all over, crying because they aren't old enough to find something to wear themselves, here's

This tip is regarding the use of alcohol based hand sanitizers. Be very, very careful if using this near children. If a child uses this on their hands and then licks

As the mother of a teenager, an 11-month old, and the owner of a home medical transcription service, I stay pretty busy, and I'm always looking for shortcuts. One thing I do to save

A piece of duct tape securely sealed over the speaker holes will lower the decibels to a level that you can tolerate yet still be audible enough for the child who's playing

When it comes to restraining a child, there are good restraints and there are bad restraints. Obviously, tying a child to a chair is a bad restraint, but when a child is riding

We have a lot of toys for my 16 month old son. He's really rough on them, throwing them around and stepping on them. While we have bought a few toys brand new, we prefer to buy

Teach your kids colors by letting them choose a little bit of food coloring for their baths. With a regular box of blue green yellow and red, you can make a lot of colors. It

Being the first girl out of five grandchildren, my daughter received a lot of dresses in her first year of life. Rather than wear them once and pass them on, we are re-using

Do you have a hard time getting your child into bed for the night? Then you need a "sleepy time pal". All you do is buy any stuffed animal (that has no metal zippers, eyes,

Little hands seem to have a hard time holding on to and using sponge or other type erasers that come with chalk boards. Slip one of the child's old socks (or new!) over the

To get space from my toddlers when I am on the phone, I sit with a wet facecloth and wipe their faces whenever they come near me. Now I can chat without them being

My little one doesn't seem to like board books with drawings for pictures, and rather than go out and buy more books, I decided to make them. I used ziplock bags (not the