Photo courtesy of Andrew Malone
Whether you’re a home-schooling mom or a parent simply looking for creative and diverse ideas for teaching your preschool-age child their numbers, animals, letters and colors, the internet can be a great resource. There are plenty of free and fun activities that can be found at thousands of sites on the World Wide Web. Here are my top five favorite websites (so far!) for preschool educational activities. All of these pages are kid-friendly and safe for young eyes.
Please check out the links included here to make sure they are websites that you want your children to visit. Please know that sites can change, and if anything is found to be inappropriate, I will remove it from the article.
A Kids Heart
This theme-based website provides an enormous array of preschool and kindergarten age printable activities. The Sunshine Room includes online activities and plenty of printable coloring and activity pages in a variety of themes, from nursery rhymes to shapes to colors. A Kids Heart also has a section specifically for teachers that include downloadable math and spelling programs, as well as numerous themed resources and photos of various animals and nature objects to use in lessons. There is an excellent Bible learning section on this website, as well.
DLTK’s Printable Crafts for Kids
This particular site, run by a woman and her two daughters, focuses on crafts for children at various ages and skill levels. This website features animal, Bible and holiday crafts among other things. I love the preschool section called “Favorite Friends for Preschoolers,” which provides hundreds of craft ideas that preschoolers can make with their favorite book or TV characters. You’ll find everyone from Thomas the Tank Engine to Raggedy Ann and Andy on these pages (my favorite is the Raggedy Ann Toilet Paper Roll Craft). DLTK has several other websites including “Fun Facts for Kids” and a Bible activities site.
Starfall Phonics
This website is a free service designed to “motivate children to read with phonics.” The site features a number of different printable activities for teachers or homeschooling moms to use in their classroom or home. The Starfall Store provides low-cost phonics and reading materials that can be used both for older preschoolers and grade-level children. Starfall also has colorful interactive online activities that teach alphabet sounds, words that begin with the letter and pairing them with pictures.
First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts
On this website, you will find free preschool lesson plans that are adaptable for children from ages two to six. Themes include Season, Shapes, Environment, Multi-Cultural and Music. There are also printable bookmarks, calendars, color and number games and a section of ideas for making homemade toys and games. Of all the websites I’ve used so far, this has the biggest variety.
Christian Preschool Printables
If you are looking for Bible-based or simply wholesome activities, make sure to check out this website! Whether you’re in search of Bible story worksheets, free homeschool curriculum or printable sticker charts, this site will guide you in the right direction. The best part is the link to their sister site, Lapbook Lessons, which offers free lapbook templates.
Make learning fun for your preschooler with these no-cost activities, and enjoy spending some quality time with your little one along the way.
