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Learning Activities For 3 Year Olds

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Although my oldest is currently enrolled in Pre-K, I still consider us to be a homeschooling family. Every day is a learning opportunity with these little ones and whether they’re in a formal school setting or 100% at home, I aim to infuse our days with learning activities. I bet you do the same with your kids; we’re all homeschooling moms because learning is always happening at home!

While sister is away at school 3 mornings a week, my 3 year old son and I have found many chances to explore things specific to his age and development stage. He is not yet potty trained so preschool wasn’t an option for him this autumn. Truly, I’m thankful. The one-on-one time we get each week has been such a blessing! Especially since a new baby is joining our family in December. As my second child, we haven’t ever had consistent mother/son time and while my daughter is in school a few hours each week, my 3 year old and I get just that. I’ve seen him flourish during our solo time as we “date” at the grocery store, go on walks and find ways to grow his curious mind.

Below are three activities he considers a big win when it comes to “doing my school things” these days!

learning activities for 3 year olds

COUNTING BEARS

I’ve shared about our love for counting bears before and they continue to be a huge hit! Pinterest is also a consistent source of homeschool inspiration for me and that’s exactly where this free rainbow printable came from. With our bears and rainbow we practiced counting, talked about colors, and focused on one to one correspondence.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES PUZZLES

In the beginning, puzzles were a big source of frustration. It takes a lot of concentration and my son growled quite a bit when I first introduced the concept of them. Since, after some team work with mama, they’ve won a place in his heart. Goodwill is the best place to find puzzles in your kid’s favorite characters. For just 99 cents we have a decent collection of 12 and 24 piece puzzles that are just perfect for his age. He flips all the pieces to the right side, chooses one face to begin with, and the box acts as a “map” to the picture he is creating. I’m so impressed with how he has gained confidence in his abilities through puzzles! Now instead of saying “I can’t do it!” he says “I can try!”

LETTER FACTORY

Screen time as part of learning? Why, yes! Especially when it’s a video with a specific lesson. Leap Frog’s Letter Factory (and others in this series) are absolutely amazing. At just 3 my son can identify all of his letters and 90% of the time can tell me the corresponding sounds! Yay, Letter Factory!

What learning activities does your 3 year old like best?

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abedabun dawn

Tuesday 27th of October 2015

I have already taught my 2 y/0 grand daughter her alphabet (big and little letters). We are still working on the sounds, but we know most of them. She can not only say them but she can name them all (out of order). She knows her numbers 1 - 22. I spray painted dried beans and paper cups to teach her basic colors. Ex. we put blue beans in the blue cup lol. For counting, I cut pics out of mags and pasted them on card stock. I ask her how many ducks do you see. She will put that number of beans on the paper. I know its silly, but it is working.

Gretchen Bossio

Friday 30th of October 2015

Love the bean idea! All those things that get them engaged provide learning opportunities ... you've got one smart little cookie :)

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