early help for children from 0 to 7
Who would have thought there was play and learning to find in a cutlery drawer?
First of all, there is curiosity to develop – many children love to have a nose around in a drawer
Then there is classifying, describing shapes, learning to be safe with sharp things, how to wash dishes (that’s a useful skill …)
All by helping you with a boring chore – do it for as long as you or your child is interested
You can never have too much fun in the snow, and the learning never stops either while you play and talk together
Today, many of us have lots of snow around, so some sledging is great to learning about balance, speed, slipperiness – and the words to describe them
For those who like building, there are some ideas for snow castles – whole snow villages, why not?
Or for the artistic, some ideas for creating beautiful sculptures and patterns with things you can find around outside
Today’s idea is to turn your home into an island full of treasure that children can hunt for
You can send them off to look for items, and while they burn off excess energy they will be learning all about attention and searching, and developing their memories.
You can make the searches as easy or as tricky as suits your child. How many blue things can they find? Can they bring you two things at a time?
Or you can play online with family, friends or anyone your child might be missing seeing or playing with
Make a walk a treasure hunt – can you spot a traffic light? A bird? A cloud?
Snow is forecast for today and tomorrow, so hopefully you will get some (but not too much!)
We don’t often get enough for a full size snowman, but that does not matter. There are smaller things to make – how about a mini snowman, snow cat, snow dog, snow mouse, snow “not sure what it is”?
A chance to explore and see what you can find to decorate – sticks, pebbles, leaves …
It is fun, and there is lots of learning about different feels and textures and how we describe them. Also about estimating, and talking about concepts like more, enough or less. And lots of maths too as we explore the shapes we make and chat about them.
And a final part can be watching your creation melt in the next few hours or days, saying goodbye – it may not seem much, but this can helps build resilience to change and loss too.
But mainly it is about having fun in the snow. Just make sure you find somewhere clean and safe to play.
Making a mess and getting all messy can be great fun. Clearing it up, less so! Sometimes parents worry about messy play – is it really worthwhile, what about the carpet or the dog?
But there is so much learning that happens through mess and exploring different textures and effects. Foam is also great for developing mark making and understanding shapes – all of which is part of getting ready to write
Today’s idea is very clean messy play as it involve soapy foam. Make sure you use a source for the foam that is OK for your child’s skin – if they have a favourite bubble bath, that is ideal
Never mind the Tiger who came to tea, how about an elephant?
We have a couple of elephant songs today that will get your child moving about, learning about words, coordination – but hopefully not knocking things over
Words and music videos are on the sheet and some play ideas to take the learning further – dress up as an elephant, look for big and small things, or see how much you can find out about animals!
Today’s idea is to turn your home into an island full of treasure that children can hunt for
You can send them off to look for items, and while they burn off excess energy they will be learning all about attention and searching, and developing their memories.
You can make the searches as easy or as tricky as suits your child. How many blue things can they find? Can they bring you two things at a time?
Or you can play online with family, friends or anyone your child might be missing seeing or playing with
Make a walk a treasure hunt – can you spot a traffic light? A bird? A cloud?
bumps to bairns 