[jenny_islander]

1. Dirt, mud, rocks, paint, unbreakable fat crayons, and other messy things.

2. Some storybooks. If you remember them fondly from your preschool years, they're good.

3. A few songs, ditto.

There, covered.

But seriously, if I had 3+ to do over again, I would pick an outdoor spot that was easy to get to/from and visit it at least once a month, all year round, with appropriate clothing and some basic stuff in the car or stroller (like extra socks). My kids kind of picked their own; Sophia insisted almost before she could talk on making regular stops at a great big cottonwood tree that grows at the edge of a quiet parking lot downtown, and when she could talk she named it "Mrs. Tree." All three kids still visit the tree to this day, noting seasonal changes and tracking the progress of the two naturally bonsai-d rowans that grow in a fork in its branches. Keeping a small garden designed to yield through the entire growing season is another possibility if picky little fingers can be kept out of it (grumble grumble this is why I can't have parsley or chives grumble gripe). Whatever you choose, gently and briefly direct your child's attention to something interesting, perhaps tell a little story about what things were like a few months ago and how they may be a few months from now, then back off and leave room to explore.

At home, read storybooks and sing nursery songs. If you are self-conscious about your voice, find simple arrangements of the songs on Youtube (Super Simple Songs has some nice ones) and play them. Slowly and gently practice things like:

*Colors: Crayola makes bath color pills in red, yellow, and blue; this is good for teaching red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, brown. Plus at the end you get a clean kid.

*Numbers: Counting songs like "Five Little Speckled Frogs," giving a finger countdown for transitions between activities, saying "I'm cutting your sandwich into four pieces, look," etc.

*Letters: Think BIG. S-T-O-P, O-P-E-N. Focusing on big letters is less tiring for little eyes and brains. Don't try to teach all of the letters. At home, you might look at the alphabet games section at Starfall.com, which is free, and allow joint or solo exploration for a few minutes a day. But, again, the goal is recognition of some letters, and the bigger the better.

*Place in time: Seasons, the order of holidays, signs of impending weather, and the order of daily activities are about as detailed as you can get.

*Shapes: IME kids like to show off their shape knowledge at this age. Look at the gently presented shapes songs from KidsTV123 on Youtube. They have a lot of good stuff.

Keep it short, keep it simple. Five to ten minutes per day of directed learning--less if there is resistance or lack of interest--plus some good stories and songs and daily outdoor time if possible.