The question of how to help a child with number recognition came up recently on social media. These are my ideas. In my experience, most children start recognizing numbers by their age. Many youngsters are given birthday cards with their age on ( usually the number is large and brightly coloured) Some children walk around…
Helping or encouraging your child to learn her colours, should be both fun and light hearted. My eldest son, learnt his colours from playing with his toy cars, he would ask me, “What colour is this one, mummy?” He learnt very quickly and I remember when we were in the library and he referred to…
Regular readers will know that I have worked with ichild for a number of years. This is a selection of their winter activities and crafts which will be suitable for a variety of different aged children: Winter olympic wordsearch: This is great for alder children, there are 12 winter Olympic themed words to find. The…
The first thing that struck me when I received this book was the brightly coloured front cover. Then to my delight, I discovered that the text is written in rhyme, my absolute favourite for children’s literature , as it not only makes the story more fun, but any early readers can often predict the next…
Once again, I am sharing some of the activities that ichild are offering: BUNNY PAPER CHAIN: This is simply a case of concatenating some paper and cutting out the bunny shape; children can then colour or use different mediums to decorate their bunnies before hanging them up as bunting. BUNNYCOLOUR-BY-NUMBERS: Is exactly what it says;…
The simplest and most effective way to teach children how to count is to count everything aloud with them. Start from a young age by counting their fingers and toes with rhymes such as this little piggy and 1,2 ,3 ,4 .5 once I caught a fish alive to make it fun. I always used…
I was recently asked by a parent what her child will be expected to do before starting school. My answer was as all children are individuals and therefore different there are no set rules, as such. I suggest that a child should be toilet trained ( could be difficult for a child with special needs)…
This is a small selection of activities that ichild offer:- EASTER COLOUR AND COUNT: This is exactly what it says; an Easter picture to colour and related images to discover and count, great for helping children with learning about counting and numbers. Number recognition here. EASTER CROSSWORD: 10 clues with the answers at the bottom…
When my children were young and when I was working as a registered child minder, I was always looking for simple, cheap activity ideas that the children could do. Now that the corona virus is forcing some people to self isolate having things to entertain children is even more important:- One of the most popular…
Because child minders have fewer children in their care than larger settings, such as nurseries and pre-schools, they should have more time to be able to tailor activities to suit individual children. When I was a registered child minder I felt that I knew my children very well. As I was in receipt of the…
This was a topic being discussed on a daytime television programme this week. Personally, I think that too much tech can have a negative effect on children. My eldest son loved his play station and would become moody when told to turn it off. A friend has told me that her son would trash his…
When I was working as a resisted child minder, like most other child minders I looked after a variety of children of different ages, stages of development and some with special needs (often all at once). My favourite activities which can be enjoyed by everyone, with maybe a few adjustments to suit special needs are:-…
Once again ichild have come up with some wonderful activities for children; this is just a selection of some of the ones for autumn:- ADD THE AUTUMN LEAVES is quite a straightforward activity suitable for children who are learning to count, it would also help with learning number recognition (I have written an earlier post…
I came across this company on Facebook and they agreed to send some magazines for a review: I received 3 magazines; as follows: Favourites (:issue 414) This is jam packed with fun learning opportunities; dinosaur stickers and story. a simple recipe ( for children to create with an adult’s help. a word search and colouring…
As a former early years practitioner I know that children learn a great deal through play, I don’t really agree with the idea of having a curriculum for children under the age of 3; I don’t think it is necessary. When I was a child minder all my under 5’s learnt to tell the time…
A Family reunion is a major event that comes in every summer vacation, in which the members of the family comes altogether to celebrate. Having a family reunion takes time, commitment, and planning. The family reunion is perceived as a time for a vacation and family members want to enjoy a nice setting. Planning a…
ichild have a wide selection of children’s activities that can be downloaded. Here are just a sample of the ones with a spring/summer theme:- Missing numbers This sheet has 16 rabbit outlines – some are numbered and a few have numbers missing meaning that children could be encouraged to count out loud and say the…
Boolino books sent a set of 4 Toddlyworld books for a review, these brightly coloured board books are suitable for ages 2-5 years and come with an accompanying audio compact disc. These books feature Toddly and his teddy bear, Toddlybear, the books I received are titled Summer, Spring, Numbers and Stars and each tell a…