🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 😌 Emotional Self-Regulation — Managing the feelings that arise during activities — frustration when something doesn't work, excitement, disappointment at the end — builds the self-regulation foundation that distinguishes emotionally ready kindergarteners.
- 🧠 Executive Function — Planning an activity, following multi-step directions, and seeing a project through to completion builds the executive function skills — working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control — that are the strongest predictors of school success.
- 🏃 Gross Motor Development — Large-movement activities develop the coordination, balance, and muscle strength that underpin physical confidence and school-readiness fitness.
- 🧩 Problem Solving — Working through a challenge — figuring out how pieces fit, how to balance a stack, or how to make something work — develops the perseverance and logical reasoning skills children use across every learning domain.
Let's celebrate Valentine's Day all day long starting with a great breakfast. Not only is this breakfast fun to eat, but your preschooler will have a fun time helping you make it for your entire family. A great way to show your family you love them.
What you will Need for Breakfast for Four
Four frozen waffles
Favorite waffle toppings
Heart cookie cutters
Four cups of hot chocolate
Mini marshmallows
Conversation hearts
Red hot cinnamon hearts
Whipped cream
Strawberries
Red and pink cookie sprinkles
How To Do It
Heart Waffles After you cook your waffles, take your heat cookie cutter and cut the image out of your waffle. Cut a strawberry lengthwise and place it in the middle of the waffle. Top with your favorite topping. Surround the waffle with a few conversation hearts.
Cinnamon-y Hot Chocolate
Make hot chocolate any way your normally would. Add the mini marshmallows and some red hot cinnamon hearts. Allow the candy to melt before serving a preschooler or younger child. Top with some whipped cream and a few red sprinkles.
Strawberry Hearts Parfait
In a parfait glass, layer cut up strawberries and whipped cream. Top with either conversation hearts, red hot cinnamon hearts or red and pink cookie sprinkles. Eat up!
Making it Even More Exciting
You can have breakfast for dinner and make this great meal to eat together as a family.
Related Valentine's Day Preschool Activities
Valentine's Day Hearts Hide-and-Seek Preschool Activity If you are planning to host a Valentine's Day party for your child, here is a preschool activity that is sure to be a lot of fun. It's a great game of hide-and-seek but instead of the children hiding, paper hearts are hidden ahead of time. The one who finds the most hidden hearts is the winner.
Ten Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day with a PreschoolerValentine's Day can be a fun and loving holiday -- not only at home, but in the classroom as well. This list of preschool activities will engage those youngsters and teach them a true meaning behind the Feb. 14 holiday.
Valentine's Day Preschool Keepsake Place MatThis easy-to-make Valentine's Day place mat will allow you and your preschool to cherish the memories of such a special day.
I'm
Mary Beth P. Adomaitis, the Preschool Activities writer for Preschoolrock.com. As a mom of a preschooler, I love hearing from other parents and teachers of preschoolers. If you have any preschool activity ideas, suggestions or questions, feel free to
contact me.
New activities need low-pressure introduction. Set the activity up invitingly and let the child approach at their own pace — forcing participation in new activities creates resistance. Joining the activity yourself (playing with the materials in their presence) is the most reliable way to ignite curiosity. A child who watches a parent enjoy something usually wants to try it.
Short attention span for activities is developmentally normal in preschoolers and shortens further when activities are too easy or too difficult. The sweet spot is a challenge that requires real effort but is achievable. Also consider time of day — activities attempted during tired or hungry periods have dramatically shorter engagement windows. After-nap or mid-morning are typically the richest activity windows.
