Welcome to day five of our activities for toddlers series. We’ve already looked at sensory play, arts and crafts, maths games and imaginary play and today we have some lovely playful ideas for reading, writing and songs that are just right for toddlers.
My daughter is interested in learning how to read so I’m always looking for ways to add words in to our play. She enjoys reading books, but she’s still at the stage where that can feel like hard work sometimes. Adding words into our play gives her lots of opportunities to practice reading but it feels much more like fun than a lesson. Here’s a very simple but effective way to add in some reading to a story telling and art play time :: we’re using speech bubbles!
A great way to get children writing is to send a postcard – to a friend, to grandma, even to themselves. We found this homemade postcard on the way home from school today and as you can see someone has spent a lot of time and effort designing the front and using joined up handwriting for their message. It was lying on the pavement but the address is on it and it’s on our way to school so we’re going to deliver it tomorrow morning.
Even young children can take part in sending a postcard – drawing, ‘writing’, adding their name, sticking on the stamp, taking a trip to the post office. It helps them understand writing has a purpose. With older children having a penpal or starting a postcard collection can be a fun way to encourage reluctant writers to have a try.
Who could your children send a postcard too?
Happily shared with No Time for Flash Cards and ABCand123
Imagine you’re 7 and you come downstairs in the morning and the breakfast table looks like this:
Are you likely to get yourself some paper and a pencil and practise some writing? If you’re one of the 7 year olds I know, the answer is ‘probably not’.
Now, imagine if before she went to bed last night your mum (or of course your dad) had got out a few things in preparation for the next day – say, a scrapbook, pencils, photos of what you’ve been doing lately, scissors, glue… Now the breakfast table looks like this:
This worked like a treat this morning. Both my girls dived straight in, cutting, gluing, drawing and writing.
So this is my idea for you today to encourage your kids to keep writing.
Give them an invitation.
Make it easy for them to pick up a pencil. Make it relevant to them. Make it enticing.
Why not give it a try in your house and see what happens?
Happily shared with…
Welcome to this week’s #goplay Twitter Tips. Today, by special request from a reader who’s looking for ideas to use with her 8-year old son, we’re looking at :
Ideas to encourage reading and writing
#goplay Tip One: If you want kids to read make sure they have easy access to some fab, inspiring books: fact, fiction, stories, comics
#goplay Tip Two: Reading doesn’t have to feel like school, you can read anywhere: garden, park, beach. Pack a book with your picnic.
#goplay Tip Three: Comics are great for reluctant readers: they’re ‘cool’ & the visual prompts help comprehension.
#goplay Tip Four: Make use of your local library for oodles of new books & activities like the summer Space Hop scheme.
#goplay Tip Five: Give reading a purpose to have fun & make kids keen: read the recipe when baking, read instructions to make a model
#goplay Tip Six: Keep it short and sweet: a little blast each day adds up to a whole lot of reading over the summer
#goplay Tip Seven: Link books to a fun day out. Go to the museum and pick up a book on dinosaurs to read when you get home.
#goplay Tip Eight: Writing doesn’t have to be on a blank piece of paper, which can induce writers block in the best of us!
#goplay Tip Nine: Try writing with chalk on a wall, water painted on the patio, sticks in sand, glitter pens on a cute notepad
#goplay Tip Ten: Keep a multimedia scrapbook over the summer with photos, drawings and tickets – and a little writing each day too.
These are a few tips from me. What ideas can you share with our reader?
Happily shared with…
