There's nothing quite like the challenge of teaching older children while little ones circle you seeking your attention. What to do? From the home office in Leander, Texas, here are our top 10 ideas for FREE preschool activities you can find on the net:

Color pictures: Make your own coloring book by printing out these free pages and putting them in a three ring binder.

• Dozens of pictures, including many from the Bible
  http://www.coloring.ws/coloring.html
• A variety of coloring pages
  http://www.preschoolcoloringbook.com/color/color.shtml
• Lots of educational coloring pages
  http://www.first-school.ws/theme/cpgeneral.htm

Online Educational Games: Build skills and have fun at the same time!

• abc and 123 games
  http://www.jayzeebear.com/ect/game_list/list_bird_0.html
• Over 35 games to choose from:
  http://games.funschool.com/games.php?section=g1

Musical Fun: Make some homemade instruments and let them pretend they are in a marching band.

• Some homemade instruments can be found at:
  http://kinderart.com/littles/little26.shtml
  http://www.nancymusic.com/PRINThomemade.htm
  http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/musicpre.html
  

Paper Dolls: Boys and girls alike love to play pretend with paper dolls.

• Make Raggedy Ann and Andy paper dolls and clothes.
  http://www.pineblossomswebpages.com/raggedyjanet/raggedypaperdolls.shtml
• American Girls paper dolls
  http://www.americangirl.com/agmg/paperdoll/
• Cindy and Joey dolls and clothes
  http://members.aol.com/derru/toybox/dolls.htm

Dress up: Make a dress up closet. Find clothes at thrift stores and fill up the closet with fun things for your preschooler to dress in.

• Learn how to make a dress up closet at Kinder Art
  http://kinderart.com/littles/dressup.shtml
• You can get more ideas on what to put in your dress up closet at Preschool Education. You will also find dramatic play ideas.
  http://www.preschooleducation.com/dramatic.shtml

Learning Centers: Set up little areas where they can explore learning on their own.

• Learning Treasures - You'll find lots of ideas here. You have to scroll down the page for the learning centers.
  http://www.learningtreasures.com
• File folder games make good centers. Find free games to print out at at Preschool Printables.
  http://www.preschoolprintables.com/filefolder/filefolder.shtml
• Make some felt board stories, including There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly and The Three Little Pigs. All you have to do is print them out, and put them on some felt.
  http://www.preschoolprintables.com/felt/felt.shtml
• More felt board stories from DLTK, includes characters from the stories, "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See" and "The Gingerbread Man". Several other stories as well.
  http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/felt_board.htm

Play with playdough: Kids love this stuff, and it keeps them interested for hours. Just be sure to keep it from getting ground into the carpet.

• Edible playdough recipes
  http://www.childfun.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=269&mode=&order=0&thold=0
• Lots of different types of dough recipes from the Idea Box
  http://www.theideabox.com/ideas.nsf/craft+recipe

Crafts: Let kids explore their creative side with some fun, simple crafts.

• Kinder Art craft ideas
  http://kinderart.com/littles/little13.shtml
• Edible Crafts from Child Fun
  http://www.childfun.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=269&mode=&order=0&thold=0

Puppets: Make your own puppets and put them in a special box that's just for playing during school time.

• Legends and Lore has a papersack puppet, a stick puppet and a sock puppet to make
  http://www.legendsandlore.com/mkpuppets.html
• Nestle's Very Best Kids has juice box puppets
  http://www.verybestkids.com/item.asp?itemid=2001102415455344067125
• Enchanted Learning has several puppets
  http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/puppets/
• Lots of puppet ideas at Family Fun - check these out!
  
  • Corn Husk Puppets
    http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10749
  • And a Corn Husk Puppet Stage to go with them
    http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10758
  • Or try a finger puppet stage
    http://family.go.com/homegarden/building/feature/famf0502_proj_puptheat/
  • If you really want to go all-out, check out this collapsable plywood puppet stage
    http://family.go.com/homegarden/building/feature/famf0502_proj_puptheat/

Go outside and play: Get those kids into the sunshine!

• Bubbles are a great thing to do outside. Find a recipe to make your own bubble solution at Bubblesphere:
  http://bubbles.org/solutions
• Make your own spray paint and sidewalk chalk. From Homeschool Forms; click on craft recipe cards:
  http://www.homeschoolforms.jesusanswers.com/page14.html
• Set up some outside games:
  http://www.preschoolexpress.com/toddler_station03/toddler_station_jul03.shtml