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