Sandra
04-06-2005, 09:44 PM
Helping your child to learn (under fives)
Reading to your children, exploring shapes and numbers together or just spending time with them all help to develop young minds.
Babies and young children enjoy looking at books, listening to stories and rhymes and joining in with songs. As they do so, they become familiar with different sounds and words. They’re 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 understand them better than anyone else. You are helping your child to learn by making sure they have opportunities to:
• look at interesting things, in the garden or in the home
• touch a variety of objects
• 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
Even though schools teach children how to read, write and do maths, research shows that 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.
Reading together
Everywhere you go with your child you have a chance to read together. Whether it’s 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. Reading stories with your child, even if just 10 minutes a day, will help to build important skills, as well as capture your child’s interest in books.
To make a fun and effective reading routine for your child:
• spend 10 minutes a day reading together, and make it fun by choosing books you both enjoy
• talk about the pictures and characters, and make up your own stories
• get your child to spot letters they recognise (like the first letter of their name) in words
• sing nursery rhymes and songs together while pointing to the words in a book
• look at brochures and catalogues together, and point out words printed in bold or with unusual fonts
• buy books as presents
Learning about numbers and shapes
Counting things and noticing shapes come naturally to children, so you can use your child’s interest in these activities to help with maths. Maths skills can be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play. Even helping in everyday tasks like telling time or measuring ingredients for cooking, gives children the chance to learn new maths skills.
You can further encourage your child’s interest in numbers and shapes through these activities:
• 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
Reading to your children, exploring shapes and numbers together or just spending time with them all help to develop young minds.
Babies and young children enjoy looking at books, listening to stories and rhymes and joining in with songs. As they do so, they become familiar with different sounds and words. They’re 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 understand them better than anyone else. You are helping your child to learn by making sure they have opportunities to:
• look at interesting things, in the garden or in the home
• touch a variety of objects
• 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
Even though schools teach children how to read, write and do maths, research shows that 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.
Reading together
Everywhere you go with your child you have a chance to read together. Whether it’s 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. Reading stories with your child, even if just 10 minutes a day, will help to build important skills, as well as capture your child’s interest in books.
To make a fun and effective reading routine for your child:
• spend 10 minutes a day reading together, and make it fun by choosing books you both enjoy
• talk about the pictures and characters, and make up your own stories
• get your child to spot letters they recognise (like the first letter of their name) in words
• sing nursery rhymes and songs together while pointing to the words in a book
• look at brochures and catalogues together, and point out words printed in bold or with unusual fonts
• buy books as presents
Learning about numbers and shapes
Counting things and noticing shapes come naturally to children, so you can use your child’s interest in these activities to help with maths. Maths skills can be developed through stories, songs, games and imaginative play. Even helping in everyday tasks like telling time or measuring ingredients for cooking, gives children the chance to learn new maths skills.
You can further encourage your child’s interest in numbers and shapes through these activities:
• 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