Check out all our thematic center ideas here.
The Inspiration for Learning Centers at Home
Every once in a while I wished that I had some activities that my son could do while I cooked dinner or worked on laundry that related to our weekly theme. Or maybe for some of you, while you worked with another child. You know, something that would encourage him to explore tools or toys for a little bit longer, instead of asking me 10 minutes later what he could do.
So, I started making a list of objects that we had around the home that he could use to do “center-like” activities. (See some of our items below.) Then I scoured the web for free resources that were already developed to stock up on.
Based on what I found I came up with a few of the centers we will be using.
- Play Dough
- Art– painting, drawing or coloring
- Fine Motor- lacing/sewing, tweezing/tonging, etc.
- Writing– stamps, mazes, connect the dots, etc.
- Pretend Play– theme related toys, felt board, sensory tub, etc.
- Puzzles– Pattern Blocks, Tangrams, Geo Boards, etc.
- Magnet Pages (Thanks for the suggestion, Chloe!)
- Educational Games– Computer Games, board games, etc.
- maybe even more to come…
I realize you may not have some of the items needed for each center, but hopefully I will give you enough ideas or links to free resources that you’ll won’t have to buy anything. My goal is to bring you 2 or 3 different center ideas that you can incorporate with our weekly themed printables.
As the year goes on, I will be introducing different type of centers, but also using the same ones with different printables I find from around the web.
I hope you and you’re kiddos will enjoy these activities as additional supplements to our units. 
