‘Home-schooling’ during lockdown is tough, especially when you are juggling work and other demands (have a read of my blog post all about making homeschooling easier here) but one thing that many parents are finding doubly challenging is trying to entertain younger (non-school age) children at the same time!

If you’ve got pre-school age children at home and you’re looking for ways to keep them entertained, have a look at our suggested resources. One thing I’ve personally found helpful, is setting up ‘special’ activities for them to do each day, during their older sibling’s live online lessons. Not only does it help keep them from interrupting, but it also helps you focus on them too and provides them with fun, educational activities that they can do to learn through play.

If you’re looking for ways to help children ‘prepare’ for school, have a read of my blog post on Top Ten Resources for Preparing for School .

Here are some useful and popular resources for pre-schoolers:

• Early Year’s Resources’ People Shapes Project Kit– This kit is absolutely wonderful, especially for adding structure/inspiration to craft activities. It’s now one of my favourite activities to set up to keep preschoolers happy and busy. It contains a whole range of interesting craft materials as well as cardboard people. Children can personalise their cardboard people adding clothes, hair, eyes, mouths etc. So much fun! What I particularly love is the attention to detail, there’s even different coloured googly eyes to make sure you get the right eye-colour for your person!

• Twinkl – Like many parents, I’m not sure where I’d be without Twinkl Resources at the moment! There’s an endless supply of fun activities for preschoolers and what’s even more fantastic is they are all educational! If you type in EYFS into the search bar on their website you are given so many fun activities for little ones. The scissors skills and sorting activities are some of our favourites.

• Coding Critters– If you’re after something that looks like a toy but is actually super educational..then this toy is perfect! Children can use it to learn to code through play, getting the dog to move around the obstacles using the remote. So much fun!

• Phase 1 Phonics Activity Pack– The first stage of phonics, Phase 1, is introduced when children are at nursery/preschool (if applicable) and at the start of reception year. My Phase 1 Phonics Activity Pack is full of fun activities you can do with your children to help develop their speaking and listening skills to help build the foundations for learning to read and write in the future. In Phase 1 children are introduced to environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and oral blending and segmenting. Download my activity pack here and find out more about Phase 1 phonics here. If you’re child is now onto Phase 2 Phonics, there’s an activity pack for that too here.

• Who’s in the Jungle? I couldn’t write an article about resources for preschoolers without mentioning one of Orchard Toys vast range of puzzles and games! They are always very popular and great fun. We particularly love this one, with its gorgeous animals illustrations.

• Look and See ABC– This book is wonderful for reinforcing the letters of the alphabet for children. The illustrations are beautiful too!

• Kinetic Sand Folding Sandbox – Ever since coming across kinetic sand a couple of years ago (read my full review of kinetic sand here) we have been huge fans of it! It’s a wonderful sensory resource and great for keeping little ones happy. As I wrote in my review ‘Kinetic Sand is like some sort of super toy! One minute you’re moulding it like play-dough..then the next you’re sprinkling it like sand!’ This new set below is even better as it folds neatly away, keeping the sand from escaping!

• Play Doh – My ‘go to’ resource! You can’t beat it! Great for creativity and fine motor skills. It’s also just really fun to mould, roll and squish! There’s a vast array of Play Doh kits but we still really like the basic sets.

• Learning Resources Magnetic Letter Construction– This resource is amazing! If you’re looking for something educational that helps children learn to construct letter shapes, this is for you! It’s brilliant and really fun.

• Felt stickers Dinosaur Play Scene Book – Imagine that have some really lovely activity books at the moment that are fantastic for preschoolers. Firstly, their Dinosaur Felt Sticker Play Scene book– is brilliant! The stickers are really tactile and can be put on scenes and then removed, making them great for imaginative play.

• Lets explore the farm– Secondly, this book by Imagine That is so much fun! Throughout the story children have to stick on these rubbery stickers into the scene to complete the story. The stickers then easily peel off so they can use them on the next scene.

Still not found what you’re looking for? Head over to The SEN Resources Blog’s Amazon Page for more suggestion here. Or search for a specific theme like ‘dinosaurs’ on the search bar on the site! You’d be surprised how many resources we’ve reviewed!