kumon books

I accept the worksheets because I know from being a teacher if worksheets were not sent home....most parents would complain that their paying for their kids to play. "They can play at home for free"

My mom was a high school art teacher before I was born, and yet she bought us tons of coloring books--big black lines and all.

She simply told us to do whatever we wanted--polka dotted hippos or pink and purple striped houses. Since that encourages creativity and allows for a little small muscle control, I think it's a great compromise.

I'd hate to see formal stuff sent home from preschool (although I chose not to send either kid to preschool), but if it was "optional" stuff sent home, and parents understood it was optional, I could live with it.

Thanks MagnetMom for your post. My son does some worksheets at school however he also uses concrete materials. I think the worksheets are nice for the parents because then one knows what concepts the child worked on that day. However sometimes the school sends home worksheets. I look at the concepts the worksheets are covering then go over the same concepts using concrete material.

My little guy does like to color and paint however I just give him a large blank piece paper for him to color. Instead of a ditto sheet where he is expected to use certain colors and stay in the lines. To make this a learning experience I talk to him about his drawing and review the colors he used.
However I do like ditto sheets for concepts like tracing his name and letters.

Hi sunshinemomma and vacekd1001,

I can see both sides of this thread. There are plenty of great, concrete learning examples for preschoolers--following a recipe, organizing toys by shapes, you name it.

However, sometimes little ones can do a little tracing or a little coloring while parents are making dinner, folding laundry, or paying bills. In a perfect world, we'd have the time to make every experience in life a learning experience for little ones, but there are definitely nights I just needed to make dinner, and be done.

Also, it's important to remember that not everyone is trained as a preschool teacher, and books like this become a great jumping off point for families to create educational moments.

Welcome to the community, sunshinemomma! For a list of additional preschool learning activities, visit Preschool Learning Games and Activities at www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/3614