Developing Your Child

What Kind Of Activities Help My Child To Develop?

• Looking at books
• Singing songs and rhymes
• Listening to stories

All these activities enable them to interact with the world around them, whilst becoming familiar with different sounds and words.

Babies and small children are learning all the time, through everything they do - looking, listening, touching, tasting, investigating, exploring, playing and talking.

You are  your child’s first teacher and you can help them by giving them the opportunity to:-

• look at interesting things, in the garden or in the home
• listen to a range of sounds like songs, rhymes, stories, music
• taste a range of flavours
• investigate things that open, close, float, sink, twist, turn
• explore objects like large boxes, things that make noises and things that move
• play for uninterrupted periods, alone or with others, with help from adults, and in their own way
• talk to other children and adults

The children of parents who help with these skills at home do much better in school. Activities like reading and counting together, playing games or even pottering around the garden can give your child the boost they need to succeed.

How Important Is Reading?

Wherever you go, you have a chance to read together. On the bus, in shops or at the doctor’s, you can point out the words around you and that’s the beginning of reading. Try reading stories with your child, it will help to build important skills, instill an interest in books in your child.

• try to spend ten minutes a day reading together
• talk about the pictures and characters, and make up your own stories
• get your child to spot letters they recognise
• sing nursery rhymes and songs together while pointing to the words in a book
• buy books as presents

How Important Is Learning About Numbers?

Counting things and noticing shapes come naturally to children, so use your child’s interest in these activities to help with maths. Maths skills can be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play. Everyday tasks including telling the time or measuring ingredients for cooking, gives your child the chance to learn maths and counting skills.

• help your child count items around the home: tins in the cupboards, toys in the toy box or pencils in the drawer
• sing rhyming songs like ‘Ten green bottles’
• practice measuring things in the home with a tape measure and write down their sizes
• compare the shapes of the street signs you see on the way to the shops
• have your child guess the next number as the oven timer counts down to zero

What Else Can I Do To Spend Quality Time With My Child?

Here are some suggestions are things to do  when the TV is off. They’re all free, fun and local!

• pottering around the garden together teaches children about plant life, insects and animals
• simple kitchen tasks, like letting your child spread the jam on sandwiches, can give an early lesson in cooking
• playing games together teaches fair play and cooperative behaviour
• family and holiday photos can give lessons in family history and geography

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