I think for many people we look at our printers and see them as a piece of equipment now preoccupied with tasks associated with home schooling and working from home. Even though the girls have their books home from school there is still a lot of extra resources and work that has to be printed out each week – between their list of homework to be done, worksheets to go with this book or that subject it’s a lot. On top of that I have a preschooler who is heading to school this September so she is eager to sit down with her big sisters and feel part of the world of learning and that’s brilliant.
I have an Epson ET-2750U printer and I find it great – the top loader for paper works really well as I use lots of different types of paper from photo paper to card. They have a great subscription service called ReadyPrint that lets you sign up for a printer and a monthly allowance of ink based on the amount of printing you do per month. When your ink is gone it will be delivered right to your door so you never have to go without ever again! I find it useful to have a little list of resources in the back of my head for when they might need a different challenge or they might want to do some colouring and the toddler has scribbled across every page in the thousands of colouring books we seem to own! So while our printers may be earning their keep at the moment with all the homeschooling that is going on I also find my printer gets a lot of use all year round.
For colouring pages I tend to have a list of requests of things they want to colour in – usually Harry Potter, Paw Patrol or unicorns so I generally google it to see what I can find, there is any amount of colouring pages you can download for free online from blogs or direct from the creators so for example on the Nick Jr website you will find lots of Paw Patrol , Peppa Pig and Paddington Bear, among many other, colouring and activity sheets.
Probably my favourite online resource lately has been the Orchard Toys website – we have been huge fans of the games and puzzles from Orchard Toys for a few years now and in the same vein their website is full of really age appropriate activity sheets and colouring pages for preschoolers up to around 6 years old (that’s a vague guide obviously all children are different!).
Twinkl is another MASSIVE online resource, it is currently free at the moment for parents who are at home. You will probably recognise the logo because it is a huge resource normally for teachers. There are so many themes and topics covered from maths to mindfulness it is just brilliant, I dare your kids to say they are bored if you have access to Twinkl because there is no end to the entertainment it provides. I also find the packs really useful, there is a huge amount of variety in them handpicked to complement each other and it’s brilliant to be able to print off a pile of activities to keep you going for days.
And, without making a complete detour from my blog post on resources for kids don’t forget a printer can be a resource for adults too so don’t underestimate the power of your printer to create beautiful things. I have found over the past almost a year now that we have been dealing with the ups and downs of Covid I have used my printer to change up pictures that I have gotten bored of looking at simply because I am home so much. I have also found it great for printing off cards that I love sending to friends – now more than ever it’s important to keep in touch with people and I love maybe hearing lyrics or seeing a quote that reminds me of a friend, I print it off on a card and send a little note to a friend, it’s so easy and simple but it means a lot of the recipient.
