Help around the house:
- Dust furniture
- Push vacuum
- Match socks
- Empty small trash cans
- Help put away groceries and dishes
Cook together:
- Mix, pour, stir, and count
- Wash dishes
Cognitive/Language skills:
- Have them pick from two choices
- Count items and show the matching number or number of fingers
- Put numbers in order
- Work on prepositions- put a toy in, on, under, behind, next to, around, and over a basket, box etc..
- Have child go in, on, under, over, behind, next to and around a low table, box or laundry basket
- Copy patterns of objects, working from left to right (buttons, coins, Legos, etc…)
- Play imitation games like "Simon Says" or games that require turn-taking and asking or requesting such as “Go-Fish.”
Outdoor fun:
- Squeeze sponges or Nerf balls
- Blow bubbles
- Draw pictures with sidewalk chalk
- Read under a tree
- Go for a walk and talk about the sights & smells
Phonics/Reading skills:
- Phonics hunt- walk around the house and search for items that begin with a specific sound (B - bone, bush, boy, baby, bathtub, banana, boat, etc… choose a different letter each day.
- Use alphabet cards to:
- Match upper to lower case letters
- Play memory with upper- and lower-case letters (start with 5-10 pairs of letters). Alternate turns choosing 2 cards to make an upper- and lower-case match.
- How many letters can he sequence from memory?
Fine Motor (hand strength, finger skills):
- String beads, large noodles, cereal or straw pieces on yarn or shoelaces- go over the colors together
- Squeeze wet sponges or washcloths
- Crumble old papers and throw to target
- Finger paint in shaving cream or sand - use whole hand and individual fingers
- Play with refrigerator magnets
- Water plants with spray bottle
- Scoop items from one bowl to another
- Place coins or buttons into a piggy bank or cut slot in plastic lid
- Practice cutting skills by cutting pictures from old magazines
The 3 “I”s:
- Intrude on their play
- Imitate their play
- Interact with them