To help you support your child’s development during holidays, we have created a list of activities for children to do at home for your reference.
Children develop most quickly in the early years and the first 5 years are the most significant for their later development. In kindergarten, educators cover childhood development needs every day in class, so, it is very common to notice a child’s development after 1 or 2 weeks of school; when their speech, communication and life skills show a drastic evolution at home.
Support independence
Fostering independence supports children’s confidence, self-help and life skills, which also includes taking responsibility for their actions. Some examples of activities for children to do at home to support independence are:
- Let your children dress themselves
- Encourage your children to prepare their breakfast, set the table, wash their dishes.
- Let them get ready for bath time; prepare their towel, soap etc.
- Encourage them to help with laundry, let them put their own clothes away.
- Make rules about putting away toys after play and discuss the consequences of leaving toys on the floor.
Promote Communication
Kids who can communicate their needs are more confident. Later in life, effective communication skills translate into in a higher quality of life. Storytelling and singing songs are vital for speech improvement in the early years, there are also some other games and activities you can enjoy with your children.
- Read a book with your children every day. Talk about the characters and the story how, why, where etc.
- Play a game to identify an object, providing a description and clues for them to guess and vice versa.
- Encourage your child to give directions to you on how to do something like building a Lego tower or give directions for them to follow (ex: making pancakes)
Work on Motor Skills
Fine motor skills involve activities of the small muscles with the hands and fingers such as gardening and planting or hand-made arts and crafts.
Gross motor skills are movements involving large muscles, such as the arms and legs (climbing, dancing and swimming). Rock climbing combines both, if you get a chance this holiday, check out:
- Hopscotch at home: You can use tape on the floor to set it up.
- The floor is lava: Tape some coloured paper on the floor and shout out colours for them to jump on.
- Make playdough together from water and flour, then let them run wild with their imagination.
- Save toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, amazon boxes, provide some yarn, string, and let them create their own toys.
Enjoy Outdoor activities
Promoting outdoor activities in neighbourhood parks helps the development of social skills and mental health. In addition to supporting gross motor skills, free run and exercise are a form of stress-relieving improving kids’ emotional health.
If you apply these activities in your little ones’ holidays, you will be contributing to your child’s growth and development.
