Check out this simple game from Five Minute Mum to help your child get used to recognising letters. It can be done with foam letter mats, pieces of paper, kitchen roll – whatever you’ve got lying about.
Also, consider train alternatives if your child isn’t a fan of trains. Five Minute Mum has some great suggestions, such as a pirate ship or a princess carriage – but use whatever your child likes to inspire the game.
Please remember to use the phonics sounds for the letters, rather than the letter ‘name’. For help pronouncing the phonetic sound of each letter as your child will learn them in school, check out this helpful video and phonics guide from Oxford Owl.
Help your frustrated child calm down with this series of yoga poses specifically designed for reducing anger. Visit Kids Yoga Stories for 5 different safari animals that your child can pretend to be, while letting go of their frustration.
While your child is practicing, head over to National Geographic Kids for some fun facts about elephants, hippos, and lions.
Grab your favourite cuddly toy and join Dantastic and Gran for a pyjama party! This 30 minute video features songs, dancing, and a children’s story acted out by Dantastic Productions – with plenty of help from your kids at home.
This activity from the Woodland Trust is a great way to get your kids active, using their imaginations, and learning about nature! Challenge them to:
1. Lie on the ground and wriggle like a worm
2. Flap their arms like a butterfly flutters it’s wings
3. Put their hands on the floor and scuttle about like a spider
4. Do some giant leaps like a cricket
5. Crawl on the floor, then curl up into a ball like a woodlouse
Then, head over to TheSchoolRun.com for lots of interesting minibeast facts, photos, and a video.
We can’t go out to eat in a restaurant at the moment, so why not create one at home? Plan a special family dinner with your kids. Write out menus for the meal and let your children decorate them. Think about how you can make the meal feel fancy by offering multiple course, such as carrot sticks for a starter and fruit & yogurt for dessert. Talk to your children about making healthy food choices for the menu. Let your kids think up a silly name for your restaurant and for each item on the menu.
Get your kids involved in setting the table nicely with cutlery for each course and napkins (or kitchen roll) at every place setting. They can even make some 3D paper flowers to put in a vase as a table centrepiece and design their own placemats.
During the meal, talk about table etiquette. Let them try laying their napkin in their lap, practice saying ‘Please pass the…’ instead of reaching, and explain about using different pieces of cutlery for each course.
Join Popcorn the Dolphin in an adventure to follow the map and find the treasure before the pirates. Get your kids stretching and moving with this pirate-themed yoga from Cosmic Kids Yoga! This video is 15 minutes long, so your child may not be interested in completing the whole thing in one go, and they might not be able to copy all the moves perfectly. It’s okay to try a couple of moves, and then revisit it another time to do a bit more.
Don’t throw your empty tissue boxes into the recycling just yet – turn them into monster feet… or dinosaur feet, giant feet, robot feet, astronaut feet. Let your child decorate their feet with whatever craft materials you have available, and help them glue on some claws (cut pieces of paper, felt, or sponges for these). This craft would be a great aid to some imaginative play.
Photo courtesy of PBS.
Do your children love Disney’s Frozen movie? Try getting them stretching and moving with some Frozen-themed yoga from Cosmic Kids Yoga! This video is 30 minutes long, so your child may not be interested in completing the whole thing in one go, and they might not be able to copy all the moves perfectly. It’s okay to try a couple of moves, and then revisit it another time to do a bit more.
Can you spot any butterflies out your window? Use this as an opportunity to talk to your kids about a butterfly’s life cycle. Watch the below video together, then get your kids to act out a butterfly’s 4 life stages.
1. Start out as tiny eggs, rolled up in a ball on the floor.
2. Next, wiggle around on the ground like hungry caterpillars looking for leaves to eat.
3. Then, stand with your arms touching above your head as you hide in your chrysalis.
4. Lastly, spread your wings and fly away like a butterfly!
This is also a great opportunity to talk to your child about their own life cycle, as we often do at Pippins. Look at baby photos of your child together, talk about your child learning to crawl, then walk, and growing into a preschooler. Can your child come up with some actions for their own life cycle?
