Gift giving to young children can be challenging. At Children’s Center Preschool, there are some favorite toys and activities that children really love that we thought you would enjoy knowing about. Each offers many opportunities for imaginative, open-ended play, hours of enjoyment, and, except for the Magna-tiles, are fairly inexpensive.

• Manipulatives area-Children aged 3-7 years old  play over and over again with the MAGNA-TILES available from Amazon.com.   These square and triangular plastic tiles have magnets along their edges, allowing them to connect and create structures in an amazing array of shapes. You will want at least 50 and probably a hundred. They will last for years of use.  I love these! Bristle blocks and Medium-sized Legos are also very popular and can be added too as time goes on.
• Sensory area- Playdough is always popular and you can get big tubs of it in a range of colors . Add some rollers, garlic presses, plastic knives, rubber stamps, etc. However, the current favorite is IncredibleFoam. It is made of tiny beads and bound together so that it can be gently molded into many shapes. Ty says it feels like soft Rice Krispy Treats.  Both are available from  Discount School Supply . It is very, very fun!
• Sensory possibilities additionally can be found on this website. Directions of how to make Flubber, Playdough, Clean Mud, and Cornstarch Goo are given. These can be made and put into fun containers.
• Art  projects are  always a favorite thing to do. Several years ago, my husband and I put together CREATION BOXES for all of our grandchildren. Our main source of collage materials, fabric, paper, tubes, ribbons, stickers, and other great stuff was Trash for Teaching in downtown LA. We get our recycled materials for the school from T4T. They have more than a hundred bins of manufacturer’s leftovers and other new but repurposed items. It is a bonanza of great stuff and you pay $2.00 a pound. Check your previous email or the website for more information.To make the boxes, Stephen and I first took large cardboard boxes and covered them with holiday paper. Then we filled them with different colored paper, glue sticks, tape, hole punches, markers, and lots of the items from T4T. They were a favorite present that year and still get lots of use. They are easy to refill with new materials that keeps them fresh and interesting.
• DRESS-UP BOXES are another gift that gives hours of play. At the school , the children spend many hours putting on the dress up clothes and acting out roles from mother and baby to doctor and train conductor.  Thrift stores are a great source of clothes, shoes, jewelry, purses, capes, ties, etc. Hats (police, fire, etc. ) are great props; they can be enough to create the character and are cheaply purchased online. Scarves are very versatile as well.Once you have the basics, you can be as elaborate as you want. You can buy a ready made doctor’s kit or for a doctor coat, buy small short sleeved white  shirt and put a red cross on it. Add some doctor play equipment from the 99 cent store. Or add a few children’s cooking tools, some food boxes,  a pot and a pad of paper and pencil  and  the kitchen or restaurant have their beginnings. Ask children what they want later to create a more complete set of supplies.
• Books are universally popular at the school and availalbe through Amazon.com. The current favorites are : Read More | Comments

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