🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 💬 Language Development — Narrating play, hearing new vocabulary, and describing what they're doing dramatically expands children's language range and the sentence complexity they'll bring to reading and conversation.
- 🎯 Focus & Attention — Sustaining engagement with an activity long enough to complete it builds the voluntary attention control that children need for listening in class, reading, and all forms of academic learning.
- 📐 Spatial Reasoning — Thinking about how objects relate in space — fitting shapes together, building structures, filling containers — develops the spatial intelligence that predicts success in mathematics and STEM fields.
- 🔁 Cause & Effect Thinking — Noticing that one action produces a predictable result — mixing colors, toppling a tower, adding water to powder — is the earliest form of scientific and logical thinking.
One of the ways to count down the days until Christmas is through an Advent Calendar, which in the Christian faith traditionally has dealt with the Nativity and birth of Jesus Christ. Modern times have altered this calendar for it signify the countdown to Santa Claus's arrival on Christmas Eve. These simple preschool activities will allow your child to learn to identify and count the number of days until Dec. 25 in both traditions.
Featured Preschool Advent Calendars
Nativity Preschool Advent CalendarFollow Mary and Joseph's journey into the Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus Christ. This fun preschool activity will teach your preschooler this story of Christmas.
Countdown to Christmas Preschool Advent CalendarHas your preschooler been extra good lately? Or do they need help staying focused on that during this festive holiday season? This great preschool activity allows your child to go above and beyond and show Santa Claus how good they can be during the Christmas season.
Around PreschoolRock.com
Good Ole Mapping FunHave you ever wondered what you can do with those old maps? I think every household has at least 2 or 3 lying around in a drawer somewhere. When you get around to it, you'll probably throw out those old maps. Why not make use of those old maps instead of adding to the landfill? Here's a great map activity that your preschooler will love.
Cheerios NecklaceWho said playing with your food is not fun. This preschool activity will keep your preschooler busy and entertained. When they are done playing with their food, your preschooler gets a snack. PreschoolRock.com gives parents of preschoolers information about how to make a Cheerios necklace. They're oh, so fun.
Button SortingEntertain your children with this preschool activity loved by all preschoolers. All Info About Preschoolers gives parents of preschoolers information about how to make and play the button sort game. The Button Sorting preschool activity is one of many preschool activities and games you can find on PreschoolRock.com.
I'm
Mary Beth P. Adomaitis, the Preschool Activities writer and associate editor 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.
Helpful Tips for Parents - Keep activity sessions shorter than you think necessary. Ending while children are still engaged leaves them wanting more — far better than waiting for meltdown. - Keep supplies accessible at child height so your preschooler can initiate activities independently — self-initiated play delivers the strongest developmental benefits. - Sensory activities (water, sand, playdough, rice) are especially valuable for anxious or dysregulated children — they have a calming neurological effect. - Rainy days are activity opportunities, not obstacles. Build an indoor obstacle course, create a fort, or set up a water tray in the bathtub. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How long should a preschooler's activity session last? Most preschoolers engage most deeply in 20–40 minute activity windows. Shorter sessions don't allow for the warming-up and deepening that makes activities richest; longer ones risk overtiredness. Watch the child's engagement rather than the clock — the right time to end is when engagement is still high, before it drops. ### What activities are best for a preschooler with high energy? High-energy preschoolers benefit most from activities that have a physical component: outdoor obstacle courses, dancing, chalk activities, nature scavenger hunts, and water play. When indoor time is required, use the whole body: yoga poses, freeze dance, and rolling/throwing activities in a hallway. Matching the activity intensity to the child's energy level prevents meltdowns far better than expecting stillness. Related reading: See also our sorting activities and our science experiments for more ideas on this topic.
