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Support your child’s learning at home
Do you wish you had more time to support your children with creative play, reading, writing and number practice? Although I’m often relieved when their day ends to hide toys, pour a glass of wine and have some adult time, I’m sure I’m not the only parent who finds myself secretly wishing for more hours in the day. Living with young children is so hectic and it’s easy to feel you are rushing from one thing to the next. We all want to do the best for our kids but it’s not always easy. So how can you support your child with their learning?
Firstly, think little and often. Perfect for young children. Capture their attention and whilst you have it focus it. Five minutes here and there are helpful.
Keep them motivated. Find out what appeals to them and make it fun. Children are like sponges and will soak up their new found knowledge, so try to channel their endless energy at this critical learning stage then your child can really benefit. Try to work out how they learn and what makes them tick then use a mixture of activities.
With very young children, handprint a personalised placemat or cards so they can learn to recognise their name. Make an alphabet book – we have one you can make yourself – free with our alphabet stickers! Find pictures in books, or on a colourful, write on wipe off ABC placemat. Say what the picture is. Encourage them to listen for the initial sound. Make up silly rhymes. Draw letter shapes and pictures in sand. With older kids, make it fun – make a times table grid with stickers, use number beads or stickers to practise times tables, give them something that interests them to encourage them to write, etc. Don’t forget kids’ motivation changes all the time, so if something’s not working just now, try something different and give plenty of variety.
Give loads of encouragement, however small an achievement may seem to you. As soon as they start showing an interest in holding a pencil, encourage them to draw pictures. Ask them what they have drawn. Praise them and they will want to do more and more. Don’t forget to label the picture with their name and show it off or give it to a relative as a thank you ‘card’.
Stay one step ahead. This is tricky when you feel like you have less time and energy than your child. But a few small details can really help. When your child is starting to hold a pencil or crayon, encourage them to use a tripod grip and think about the next stage. Teach yourself how to form letters ‘correctly’ so that they can do that right from the outset. Form letters eg an ‘a’ in one pencil stroke, rather than as a ‘ball and a stick’. Even if your school teaches lead in strokes or varies a couple of letters your little one will still have an early grasp of the basics. Start with their name and encourage them to learn those letters first. Use lower case letters only except to start their name. Watch your child is making a letter shape in the right direction. Try our write-on wipe-off placemats. It takes ages to learn to write but if you are a bit prepared you’ll help save lots of unlearning later.
When it comes to reading and your child is starting to read words, try concentrating on one or two frequently used words at a time. Use keyword stickers to help you and fill an activity sheet. Cut them up into cards and play with the words. Get your child to find a word. Make a sentence with it. Write for them and discuss it. When they can write, get them to write the word, make up a sentence and try to write that. As they progress they can write a story! Stretch them a little if they are keen but never push them.
Numbers are all around – there are endless ways to learn. Play counting games. Count backwards from 10. Blastoff in a rocket. Look at door numbers. Count cars, stones, people, beads, pasta. Buy or make up number cards or mats so you have something to hand. Sort number cards into order, and backwards. Use a 100 square grid to count in 10s, 5s, 2s. Count in odd and even numbers. Share cakes amongst siblings or friends. And of course, there’s shopping.
In these ways you can build their confidence. And finally, don’t worry. If they don’t want to read or write, don’t get hung up on it…..play and have fun. They are only children after all and they will learn when they are ready.
Jackie Allen, Managing Director, AlphaLearners.
See our range of colourful educational products at www.alphalearner.co.uk
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