We have found ourselves in very strange and uncertain times. It is hard for Parents not to get stressed about the home learning situation they are finding themselves in with their children. However, don’t stress. Remember you are and have always been your child’s first educator. Before your child started school, they already had a wealth of knowledge which they had learnt from you.
Children will also be finding these times unsettling so if possible, set up some sort of routine. Any routine will help children to feel safe and secure and give them a little insight into how their day will look.
Young children learn best when they are up and moving and having fun. Any form of active learning is great. Children also learn through hands on sensory experiences.
Talking and spending time with your child is one of the great things you can do. Have conversations about things they like, don’t like, how they feel about things. Tell jokes – this is a skill that is being lost and a lot of children know longer know how to tell a joke.
Read with your child as much as possible. Read familiar books and also try some ones they may not have read before. When reading ask questions like – what do you think will happen in the story?, what did the character do?, how will the story end?, if you wrote the story what would you change? Also try reading together some simple nonfiction texts about topics they are interested in. Don’t forget poems, rhymes and even raps. There are lots of different children’s raps online. Rapping helps children to understand the beat of reading.
Set up a shop using household items. Ask the children to write price tags for the items and then use real money to buy and sell the goods. Take turns being the shopkeeper and customer. As well as using money, count how many items you have in the shop, group the same items together or put them in order of size. This is a fun way to learn Maths.
Use an old sheet or blanket to make a den over furniture. Encourage the children to use torches inside the den. They can be explorers and decide where they are going to explore, make a map and a list of things they will need to take.
Listen to different types of music. Talk about how different music makes you feel and what it sounds like? Draw or paint to different types of music – it is a very relaxing thing to do.
If you have a garden you can use encourage a lot of outdoor learning. Listen to the sounds in the garden and ask children to write down or draw a picture of the different sounds they hear. Being able to hear and distinguish different environmental sounds is a great help when children are learning their phonic sounds.
Set up a digging patch or a place where children can use small sticks to write in dirt/mud. This will help to develop the muscles needed for writing. Throwing and catching balls and climbing will also help with pre writing skills. Give children a small bucket with water and paint brushes and let them paint away. They usually will do this for ages and the movements they are using to do this, you guessed it, will also help with writing development.
Make sure you take photos and with your child keep a journal or some sort of record of everything you are doing together. Who knows, in time to come, you may look back and see all the wonderful memories you created together.
Most importantly stay safe and keep well.