Helpful Tips for Parents

• Celebrate finished projects with an audience — a small presentation to family, a display at preschool, a photograph sent to grandparents. Public celebration of completed work builds the completion habit.

• Document the project with photos and notes. The documentation becomes a record of thinking and process that the child is proud of — sometimes more than the finished project itself.

• Teach the value of revision: show the child how making something better is part of the work. Re-doing a section to improve it is a skill that transfers to writing, coding, and design.

• Projects that cross domains (art + science, construction + mathematics, cooking + chemistry) are the most enriching and the best preparation for the interdisciplinary thinking modern life requires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should adults do projects alongside preschoolers or separately?

Both modes are valuable at different times. Side-by-side making (adult working on their own project while the child works on theirs) models adult creative engagement and normalizes making as a lifelong activity — not just a childhood activity. Collaborative projects (adult and child making one thing together) build shared memory, teach specific techniques, and produce a sense of joint accomplishment. Avoid adult take-over of child projects, where the adult makes most of the decisions and does most of the work with the child watching. The child's project should be primarily the child's work.

How do I teach a preschooler to clean up after a project?

Cleanup is part of the project — establish this from the first session. End each session 10 minutes before you need to stop for cleanup time. Make cleanup as specific as possible: "Brushes go in the cup, lids go back on the paint jars, newspaper goes in the recycling." Specificity prevents the vague "clean up" command that children correctly don't know how to execute. Stay present during cleanup — a child cleaning up alone quickly loses motivation; a child cleaning up alongside an adult stays engaged. Acknowledge completed cleanup: "The space is ready for the next project."

Related reading: See also our cooking projects guide and our salt dough projects for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🤸 Fine & Gross Motor Skills — The physical work of real projects — hammering, rolling, cutting, digging, sewing — builds both fine and gross motor development in an authentic, purposeful context that motivates full physical engagement.
• 🤝 Collaboration — Projects done with a parent, sibling, or group require negotiating roles, dividing tasks, and integrating different contributions — developing the collaborative skills that every complex adult endeavor requires.
• 💡 Design Thinking — Imagining what a project will look like before building it, adjusting the design when it doesn't work, and refining until satisfied introduces the iterative design thinking cycle that underlies engineering, art, and innovation.
• 💪 Persistence & Resilience — Multi-step projects that take real time and encounter real obstacles build the persistence and resilience that research consistently identifies as more predictive of success than intelligence or talent.

Step-by-step instructions for creating this cool racecar bedroom.

Photo Puzzles

Preschoolers love to put together puzzles. Yet, puzzles can be pretty expensive, especially the wooden ones. They are also difficult to store. So why not create your own? I'm sure you have many photos lying around. You can use photos of family members or friends, or photos from magazines, book dust covers, or coloring book pages your preschooler has colored. All you need is a few items.

Materials You Will Need

Large photo of your choice (8x10 or larger is best)

Contact paper

Scissors

Large Ziploc baggie

How to Make it

Step 1:

Trim your photo to the size or shape you desire. If you want to get really creative, you can make a puzzle that is circular, oval or heart-shaped.

Step 2:

Apply the contact paper to the entire photo. Be sure to read the application instructions so you can prevent air bubbles from getting trapped.

Step 3:

Cut the photo into puzzle pieces. You may want to create some with just four pieces and others with many more to accommodate your preschooler's skill level.

Step 4:

Help your preschooler put the puzzle together! When you're finished, place all the pieces into the Ziplock bag for storing!

How to Liven it Up

Use a large family photo for your puzzle. Instead of cutting out puzzle pieces, cut out the heads of each person. Your preschooler will enjoy mixing up the head with the bodies!

My Two Cents

If you plan on making a lot of puzzles and other crafts or projects requiring contact paper, you may want to consider buying an inexpensive laminating machine. It's much more sturdier than contact paper.

Remember...

You preschooler can help in some way with all the projects that you do. For the Photo Puzzle project, let your preschooler choose the photo. Select several that would be appropriate for the project, then let your preschooler choose which one(s). Allow your preschooler to determine the shape of the puzzle. Present him/her with several shapes that the puzzle could be, then ask him/her to choose. Your preschooler can also help by putting all the pieces into the Ziplock bag when you're finished playing.

I'm Stacey Lloyd , the Executive Editor and one of many writers for PreschoolRock.com. I enjoy writing about preschoolers, and reading your ideas and experiences with your preschooler. If you have any suggestions, ideas or questions about this site, please contact me .

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