Home : Books by Valerie Bendt : Making the Most of the Preschool Years

Educational psychologists claim that more than half of a child’s learning occurs in his first few years. Valerie discusses how you can make the most of these important years. She also offers tips on multi-level teaching, including teaching school-aged children with a toddler in the house, as she draws from her own experience in teaching her six children. Valerie offers 100 activities to encourage independent play. Complete with illustrations, patterns, and diagrams! 176 pages Valerie and her husband, Bruce, have homeschooled their six children all of their school lives. Valerie has written the following books of interest to homeschoolers: How to Create Your Own Unit Study, The Unit Study Idea Book, Success with Unit Studies, For the Love of Reading, Creating Books with Children, The Frances Study Guide, Successful Puppet Making, Reading Made Easy, and Making the Most of the Preschool Years. Valerie and Bruce’s three oldest children have graduated from homeschooling, and they continue to homeschool their other children. The family resides in Tampa, Florida.

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Stretch a piece of yarn or string from one chair back to another. Secure the yarn to the chair backs. Clip clothespins to the string, and show the child how to clip the doll clothes or other small articles of clothing to the clothespins.

The child can hang dry articles of clothing on the line, or she can hang the wet clothing that she has washed.

A variation of this activity is to have the child hang paper doll clothes on the line. (See Paper Doll Play on page 39.)

You will need a pillowcase – preferably not one of your best! Help the child step into the pillowcase. Have him grab hold of the top edge of the pillowcase and hop around the room. Be sure to move dangerous objects so the child has a safe place to hop.

Obtain a large roll of butcher paper or bulletin board paper. Roll out the paper on the floor. Have the child lay on his back on the paper. Trace an outline of the child’s body. Have the child move off the paper, and draw simple clothing on the body shape. Then draw a face and hair on the body shape. Allow the child to color his clothes, facial features, and hair.

Show the child how to color with the flat side of a crayon from which you have removed the paper. This will enable him to more easily fill in large spaces. He can also add designs on the clothing rather than color in all the space. He can make squiggles, stars, hearts, flowers, and so on.

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Dear Valerie,

Making the Most of the Preschool Years has been a wonderful addition to our year with AWANA Cubbies! My daughter and I really enjoyed helping the kids make the bear puppet for our annual Cubbie Bear Party. We used your idea for putting a bow at his neck. This of course was much easier than making little Cubbie vests! We explained that Cubbie bear wears a fancy bow when he dresses for a party! The kids were thrilled to be able to take home their own Cubbie bear. We also used your treasure hunt idea to hunt for gummy bears. Making a map of the room for each child, we made a red X to show where their prize was hiding. This turned out to be the most exciting game of the party. Thanks for helping us “make the most” of our time with Cubbies. We will definitely be using these ideas again!

Adriane Giles

Review of Making the Most of the Preschool Years by Virginia Knowles author of:
The Real Life Home School Mom and Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade.
Virginia Knowles


Valerie Bendt’s Making the Most of the Preschool Years is a collection of 100 educational activities that will keep preschoolers busy and happy. Most of the ideas are not “academic” in nature, but more subtle in their teaching value. For example, you won’t find stuff on how to teach your toddler to read, but you will find activities that help him discriminate between shapes and colors. If you’ve read Valerie’s other books, you know that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand her clearly written instructions. She even includes patterns for such items as puppets, puzzles and felt shapes. You will appreciate a table of contents which lists each activity, and an introductory chapter on her philosophy of education for young children (don’t push academics, but don’t neglect your preschooler either). Physically, the book consists of about 175 comb-bound,
double spaced pages attractively illustrated with simple line drawings.

The activities have names such as: Lace the Shapes, Sort the Mail, Make a Teddy Bear Puppet, Flashlight Friend, Let’s-Set-the-Table-Placemat and much more.

I have seen many of these ideas in other resources, but she puts a twist on them. For example, many of us have asked our children to guess, by touch, the identities of objects in a bag. Here is Valerie’s easier version, which she further adapts for those younger ones who need a little extra help:


Match the Objects

Find ten or more household objects -- two of each kind. For example: spools of thread (preferably the same size), small plastic container lids, measuring spoons, cotton balls, small balls (not small enough to swallow), small packages of candy, pocket combs, napkin rings, small plastic toys, blocks, erasers, a drinking straw cut in half, and cotton-tipped swabs.

Place one of each kind of item on a tray or cookie sheet. Place the other identical items in a paper bag. Have the child select one item from the tray. Encourage him to feel it carefully and set it aside from all the other objects. Then tell him to reach inside the paper bag without looking and feel around for the same object.

Have him remove the object from the bag and see if it matches the object he set aside. If the objects match, he can put the two objects together on the table. If the objects do no match, have him put the object back in the paper bag.

Then he can try again by feeling for the correct object in the paper bag. He can try until he finds the matching object. Once this is accomplished, he can choose another object from the tray and try to find its mate in the paper bag.

Variation: A young child who finds this activity too difficult can have fun matching the objects by sight. For example, set up the activity as directed above, but have the child select an object from the paper bag first. He can then hunt for that same object on the tray. Once he finds it, he can place the two objects together on the tabletop.

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Beans Beans Beans
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Wash the Doll Clothes
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Color Me
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