Being a stay at home mom of 2 kids less than one and a half years apart in age has forced me to be creative in finding ways to keep them busy and entertained. In this article you will find fun activities for your pre-school age children to do in the home. Watch for another article on having fun with kids outside the home.

Living in the Northeast, the winters are relatively long and cold and sometimes it's not easy to get out to do fun things with the kids. It's also important for children to learn to have fun at home. Kids at this age are little sponges and soak up everything you tell them. It's important to let the learning be a fun part of every day activites. Most of the things I'll be discussing can be done with everyday items you have in the house.

1. Stickers: Buy these whenever you see them on sale. I used to find books of them in craft stores for $1. Or, go to your local dollar store and stock up. Pull them out and have the kids decorate pictures.

• Just the act of getting the stickers off the sheet and putting them on another piece of paper is helping to develop fine motor skills.
• Draw large bubble letters and have the kids use the stickers to decorate the letters. This way they were practicing letter recognition at the same time.

2. Old Magazines and Scissors: Save all of your old magazines for lots of fun activities for the kids. The learning possibilities are endless with magazines. Here are a few of my favorites.

• Pick a letter a day and have the kids go through magazines and find pictures of everything that they can that starts with that letter. Make a book or hang your letters on the wall to look at often and practice letter and sound associations.
• Or, have your kids cut out pictures from a magazine and glue them onto another piece of paper creating a new picture. Give them a few pieces of paper folded into a book and have them create a story with the pictures. Make sure to have them tell you the story when they're done!
• Another activity to do with old magazines is to pick a category, Food for example, and have your child go through and find pictures of food. This helps your child learn grouping.
• Teach them about colors by having them go through and cut out everything Red and glue them on a sheet of Red items. Do the same for all of the other colors.
• Mix it up! Have your child cut out pictures of people and animals and then cut the heads off and have them create pictures by mixing them up. This can be very funny and encourages your child to use his imagination.

3. Post It or Sticky Notes: My kids LOVED playing with these and there are lots of fun and educational things that you can do with them. Just the mere task of sticking them on and taking them off of things can entertain kids for quite some time!

• Use the sticky notes to lable things around your house. Write the words of different objects like Bed, TV, Chair, etc. each on their own sheet and have your child try to figure out what it says and then stick it on the object. This is a great early reading activity and is a lot of fun for the kids!
• Give a stack to your child and have them draw a picture on each to decorate a door. This can keep them busy for hours because they need to fill the entire door with pictures.
• Write the numbers 1-20 each on a different sheet and stick them to a door in mixed up order and have your child take them off to put them in order.
• Do this same activity with the letters of the alphabet.
• Practice counting by putting dots on the sheets and have your child put them in order by counting the dots.

4. Envelopes: These can be lots of fun for kids to use to sort items and group them into different categories putting them in different envelopes.

5. Pots, Pans, Plastic Containers and Silverware: Endless hours of fun can be had with these simple household items! Here are some of my favorites.

• Make music! You can play music in the background and have your child play along or just have him create his own tune. Show him how to make different sounds with the different items. Or, make a beat and have him copy you. Then have him make one and you copy him.
• Sort by size. This is great to do with different size bowls. Have your child sort them from smallest to largest and then largest to smallest, or shortest to tallest and then tallest to shortest. This is great in teaching opposites as well as size.
• Have your child fill one of the small bowls with water, sand, rice, or other small item and dump into a large bowl to see how many times it takes to fill up the larger bowl.

6. Socks: It sounds so simple, yet my kids used to have tons of fun with socks! There are also lots of great ways for your child to learn with the following activities.

• Dump a big pile of socks onto the floor and have your child help you sort them. You could sort by color or size.
• Make patterns with the socks, for example, red, red, blue, red, red, and then have your child tell you what color comes next by finding the appropriate sock to finish the pattern. You can do this same activity with different size socks.
• Roll the socks up into balls and have the kids toss them into a bucket. Make it a game to see who can get the most in.

7. Blankets: My kids like to get really creative with blankets. Here are a few ideas.

• Build a fort! Put a large blanket over a table and the kids have an instant fort that they can hide in and play for hours.
• Let the kids use blankets to play dress up, tie one around their neck and they are transformed into a superhero!
• Teach them Over and Under by putting objects on top of the blanket and hiding some under the blanket. Name an object and have them tell you if it's over or under.
• Grab one end and have your child grab the other end, put some of your rolled up socks on top and bounce the blanket up and down and see how long you can keep the socks on without letting them fall off.
• Let your child hop on and take them for a ride by pulling the blanket around the room. Of course kids LOVE this one!

8. Tape: I find that kids love playing with tape, something about pullling it out and ripping it off is entertaining all by itself. Here are some other things you can do with tape.

• Have your child practice wrapping a "present" by giving them a box and some old newspaper to wrap up.
• Make a house or letter on a piece of paper using the tape and have your child color the entire paper over the tape. Once she's done, remove the tape and she'll be amazed at what happens!
• Take a very LONG strip of masking or duck tape and stick it to the floor or rug and have your child practice balancing by walking up and down the strip without falling off. Or, let them hop from one side to the other without touching the line.

9. Boxes: My kids, still to this day, LOVE playing with boxes!

• Let them build a house for their stuffed animal with old boxes.
• Give them colored paper and let them decorate the box by gluing the paper on.
• Let them make a "treasure box" and decorate it any way that they want and then search the house for "treasures" that they want to put inside.
• Use rubber bands around a small tissue box to create an instant musical instrument.
• Let them make a car out of a large box. My kids used to love doing this activity. They would glue paper plates for the tires and steering wheel and draw all of the controls on the inside. We would then attach string to the car so that they could hold it up with their shoulders and they would "drive" it all over the house.

10. Hole Punch: Enough said with this one. Just letting them punch out holes of paper will keep them busy forever. You can also have them save all of the tiny circles to glue onto paper, creating a one of a kind picture.

11: The Bathtub: Most kids love playing with water and here you're killing to birds with one stone by getting the kids clean and letting them have some fun.

• Get some bathtub crayons and let them create a masterpiece all over the shower walls. Then give them a wet cloth to clean it all off and start over.
• Bathtub paints are also lots of fun for the kids. The act of using both the paints or crayons in a vertical motion helps build strength in the forarm which will help your child with writing.
• Bubbles are also a sure fire way to get your kids having fun in the tub!
• Foam letters can teach your child to build words in a really fun way in the tub.
• Put shaving cream on the shower wall and have your kids draw letters and pictures in it.

12. Food: Yes, let kids play with their food!

• Kids love to help you cook! Cooking is a great way to teach your children so many things from reading, to following directions, to measuring! Let them help you in the kitchen!
• You can also make lunch time lots of fun by having them use their food to make silly faces and other things. Then they'll eat their creation!

Well there you have it! Lots of ideas to keep you and your little ones busy through a long, cold winter or for many a rainy day! Make sure to check back as I'll be adding new ideas to the list!