Mary, a few more ideas.. we cook with our daughter also, and she particularly enjoys cracking the eggs. We have her decide what to put, how many, in a smoothie then blend it up for her, that type of thing.
I fully agree with getting a decent laminator. I figured with two kids and plenty of crafts and projects for years to come it was a reasonable investment.
I don't know how I feel yet about workbooks, but I pretty randomly grabbed one at Target several months back (I really didn't even look at it when I got it, long story) which turned out to be Pre-K same and different concepts. Finally decided to try it, and I had her point to the item instead of circling etc. I have been meaning to go back and see what else they have.
We also have the crayola gel fingerpaints which require special paper but don't make much mess. She likes those a lot.
I constantly ask her questions about what she is thinking about, things she sees, etc. Figure it's only fair for the questions I get
