Hellobee Boards

I use the Kumon or Spectrum workbooks...I tried looking for free printables and it's a lot of work that I don't have time for.

In addition to what you've mentioned above, I got my son the mazes books, and the cutting and folding skills books. It's always good to work on fine motor skills.

In addition to the workbooks, I have things like math dice, story cubes, number tiles, appleletters and pop for sight words games. Amazon is a treasure trove.

Unless these are activities that your child really enjoys, I would suggest just readibg books together, playing board games, going for a walk, or other activities that require waiting, turn taking, and following directions. Those skills can be taught through play and are much more important for school readiness than academic worksheets. If your child likes activities like that, they arent harmful, but they also aren't necessary.

Oh additionally, what you could do is tracing letters by hand in sand or sugar. That's a great sensory activity, but you have to be ok with a little mess.

Another idea is to do play dough mats. You make an outline of a letter or word, slip it in a wipeable pouch, and use play dough to fill in the white space.

@Mrs D: The independent time for a 3yo could be tricky, but I think it depends on the child and how tired she is at that point. With practice and encouragement, I bet she could be happy looking at picture books, playing with Legos/dolls, and generally being quiet enough for little sister to get to sleep for 20-30 min. I'd probably dump some nice books and Legos/small toys/drawing paper and markers in a basket and only get it down at that point in the evening, so it's sort of a treat. Maybe put on an audiobook or soft music for her, too.

Personally, I think guided or semi-guided activities at that point in the evening would be a headache rather than a helpful exercise, so I'd give her open-ended toys/books and pitch it as 'special' big sister time. And then cap it off with a special reading time for you two.

So this is some screen time but we've really been loving the show Ruby's Studio on Netflix and there is a simple craft with each episode you can usually do with supplies at home!

We also have been doing Koala Crates which are kind of expensive but I'm not Pinterest-y enough to do crafts another way.

There's always sticker/activity books or Playdoh!