I’m not an artist, and I’m sorry to say that I’ve modeled this inappropriate behavior to my daughter. While I should have been sitting paintbrush in hand in my jaunty beret, I’ve been doing the laundry or reading instead. Woe is us, to lack in artistic endeavors.
Of course, my daughter does exercise her creativity in many ways. For a while she was deeply into making sculptures with found objects and tape. The key was the tape. I’m sure that she could have sold them for some large sums of money at a gallery, actually.
Anyway, one of the areas we’re working on is recognizing shapes.
There are many computer games that help children recognize shapes, in part for reading preparation. Although we limit our daughter’s screen time, she does sometimes play an online game called Starfall. It mostly focuses on reading but does also have a number of shape matching games as well.
Puzzles are a great way to get into shape recognition. If your child is frustrated by puzzles, choose some pictures from magazines and create your own simple puzzle with a picture of his choosing.
Go outside with a camera or a bag and go on a hunt for shapes in nature. Natural shapes are so much more diverse and interesting than the human-made rectangles and triangles.
Any sort of memory game is an excellent way to get your preschooler recognizing shapes, colors and pictures. In fact, you’ll likely feel downright inadequate after a few rounds. I find that my daughter’s memory is much, much better than mine!
We recently invested in a mini Lite Brite, a throwback to the eighties. Using this toy, kids can create shapes with colorful pegs then turn on a backlight to show off the shapes they’ve created.
Make lunch or even breakfast. Using toast and breakfast cereals, make wacky shapes and then eat them. If you’re feeling inspired you can also do this with pancakes, although I don’t think that there are any words for the shapes my pancakes turn into.
How do you and your preschooler play with shapes?