2. Learning is fun!
• Learning is fun and can happen
anywhere
• Informal exploration
• Concrete experiences
• Low pressure
• Praise!
3. Pre-reading/Reading
• Read to your child!
• Ask your child to “read” to you
• Letter identification, letter sounds,
short words
– Magnets
– Letter/sound/word hunts
8. Language Building
Through Imaginative Play
• Kitchen
– Food names, health, appliances, opposites (more and less, hot
and cold, wet and dry), actions
• Blocks/Legos/Lincoln Logs
– Math vocabulary, comparisons, colors, architecture
• Dress up
– Synonyms, jobs, body parts
• Puppets
– Modeling social skills and character
• Bathtime
– Types of watercraft, animal names & body parts, travels
around the world
Notes de l'éditeur
Learning doesn’t just happen at a school or in a classroom.
These suggestions should be done informally and only if they don’t turn your child off. See what works for your kid(s) and modify as needed
Hands on at this age! Not screen time or worksheets
Praise creativity, hard work, growth in learning
Reading to your child teaches them fluency modeling, left to right, expression, comprehension
Them reading to you encourages a love of reading and builds comprehension
Magnets: individual letter or word
Hunts teach to see letters/ assoc a sound, or comprehend meaning (Can be active hunt or circling from newspaper, magazine, mail)
Drawing in early writing
Cards and Invitation: Picture with one or a few words – teaches that writing is communication
Name: One capital letter
Tweezers: cotton balls, strings, frogs,
Eye droppers: tub shapes, coffee filter art, color mixing
Scissors: thumb on top, “Shake hands”, cut away from body, helper hand
Ripping: Difficult b/c opposing movements
Beading: Noodle necklaces, beads on a pipe cleaner or straw
Lacing: make your own with cardboard/old boxes- tape on end
Tools: Let them hammer! Tool sets (screw, pliers)
Sensory tubs: scooping with spoons, pouring, squirting with basters,
Kitchen: also math like counting, character (serving others, teamwork)
Blocks: Taller, lower, wide, short, shapes, house, tower, skyscraper, arch, walls, roof, chimney, Factories and machines, come up with a problem and ask them to invent something to help you and explain it
Dress up: Jacket/coat/shawl, hat/cap/helmet, stockings/tights/socks, clothing/attire/dress/costume,
Puppet show: Asking someone to play, practicing kind words
Bathtime: Sailboat, speed boat, submarine, birds (wings, feathers, beak), whale (spout), colors, Traveling: how, where, what does it look like, why is it going there (hauling, cruising, pirates!)?