Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Philadelphia, PA

I'm a firm believer in some of the basic fundamentals of unschooling--basically, I believe the whole world is a teaching tool for my daughter, and I seize every single opportunity I find to teach her something.

Just the other day we were getting into the car and she stopped and stared at the car parked next to us. I was feeling a bit impatient, but I decided to take a moment and see what had her so fascinated. Turns out that she was looking at the car's name, and she pointed at each letter she knew ("T" and "O") and I named the other letters she didn't know for sure ( "A" "H" "E"). We spent five minutes talking about the letters and saying what they spelled together (Tahoe), and then got in our car and left.

I also believe in play-based learning, and we do a fair amount of that with my daughter (who is only two and a half). To learn "up" and "down" we bounce her around. For "on" and "off" we let her flick light switches. While we do a fair amount of scheduled activities such as the zoo, the museums, and more, I want her to always feel like learning is fun and not a chore.

Next year we are going to have to choose a pre-school (I don't want her to continue to preschool where she is currently in morning care; they give homework to three-year-olds), and I am going to search for one that supports this manner of learning. Luckily, Philadelphia offers a wide array of preschools (you can check out our list of preschools here) to choose from.