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A few months ago, I wrote a post on using quiet time boxes when a child stops taking naps. I like to call these quiet time boxes a sanity saver! It is so nice to have peace and quiet for at least an hour each afternoon. Since we’ve started using quiet time boxes with my 4-year-old, I have realized that after a while, he gets bored with the material in each box. So, I have switched material out and changed things around so that he still enjoys quiet time and can work well independently.
As I was switching activities out, I realized that it would be helpful to have a list of lots of items that would be good for quiet time boxes. So today, I am sharing with you 75 quiet time box ideas for preschoolers. I hope that this list will be helpful to you! I am not telling you to go out and buy ALL of the material I suggest, but hopefully several of these activities will be helpful. Of course, please use discretion when deciding what to put in the quiet time box. If your child is young and puts items in the mouth, then do NOT give your child something with small objects. Also, at the bottom of the list includes more than 20 FREE resources you can print for quiet time boxes. Many of them can be printed on cardstock (and even laminated or placed in plastic sleeves) to be used again.
Here are 75 quiet time box ideas for preschoolers…
Kumon ABCs Uppercase Write & Wipe Flash Cards
Letter Construction Activity Set
Melissa & Doug Alphabet Stamp Set
ABC Playdough and Tracing Mats
Crayola Dry Erase Activity Tablet — Numbers And Counting
Melissa & Doug Magnetic Number Maze
Melissa & Doug Water Wow Numbers
Melissa & Doug Wooden Bear Family Dress-Up Puzzle
Match It! Puzzle Games for Spelling
Melissa & Doug Alphabet Peg Puzzle
Melissa & Doug Farm Sequencing Storytelling Puzzle Set
Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards
Mental Blox Critical Thinking Game
Buki Activity Books
Melissa and Doug Reusable Sticker Pad
Magnetic Pattern Block Activity Set
Preschool Color & Activity Book
Melissa & Doug Magnetic Picture Maker
Crayola No Mess Marker and Paper Set
Melissa & Doug Color Blast Artwork
Melissa & Doug Jumbo Coloring Pad
Hot Dots Jr. Patterns Card Set
Educational Insights Hot Dots Jr. Cards – The Alphabet
The Splendid Spotted Snake: A Magic Ribbon Book
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Brown Bear and Friends)
6,000 Printable Mazes – would be easy to print and put into plastic sheet protectors and use dry erase markers.
More Free Mazes (kindergarten age)
18 Easy Dot-to-Dot Activity Sheets
18 Hard Dot-to-Dot Activity Sheets
Mystery Image Printable using Do-a-Dots
Ocean Animals Do-a-Dot Printables
Farm Animals Do-a-Dot Printables
Writing Skills Dry-Erase Cards
Ice Cream Color File Folder Game
I hope these ideas help when it comes to quiet rest time for your little one! 🙂
Wonderful list of activities for children. These activities will be useful for older children to be able to do when younger children are resting. It will allow me to switch activities so that child doesn’t become board.
The list of activities are wonderful. This provides me with quiite time tasks that older children can do while younger children are resting. The variety of activities allows me to switch out activities so the child is not bored.
So many ideas. Will be useful when young children are asleep and older children need to be quiet but can have some alone time. Thank you for sharing these wonderful tasks.
I Love The Quiet Time Box Idea. I plan to tell my Director about us making some for Heavens Angels. Great Idea
This is a great list, however many of the links are no longer active.
I’m sorry for the trouble. They are fixed now!
Quiet time boxes were so perfect when mine stopped taking naps! In fact, I still use some “quiet time box” ideas for them now when they need a bit of downtime. Pinned!
What an exhaustive list! pinning for later.
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I read the original post and it inspired me to make boxes for my 2 children to use when I am coaching my high school colorguard. I told my 8 year old that if he played w each thing for about 15 min it would fill up most of the practice. Great ideas!