Many parents ask how they can support what happens in Nursery in their own homes.  Here are a few suggestions that may be helpful to you but please remember that learning should be a pleasurable experience.    

Talking and Listening

Children need lots of encouragement and practice to LISTEN as well as TALK!

• Talk to your child, and listen to them when they are talking to you
• Name objects when you show them to your child
• Talk to your child about colours and numbers in the World around them
• Rhythm is important.  Use words of varying length and perhaps play clapping games to “clap” words (e.g. NUR-SER-Y)
• Talk about what you can hear when you are out and about with your child or in the home
• Play silly rhyming games e.g. make up silly names for one another e.g. maddy daddy, Hanna banana etc
• Play memory games

Moving and Doing

• Clapping helps the hearing and memory.  Let your child copy simple clapping rhythms
• Play lots of movement games such as Simon Says
• Encourage games which use positional language such as on top of,  underneath, next to, beside as these are words which children can often confuse

• Dancing helps rhythm

 Hand Control

Encourage the muscles that will eventually allow your child to hold a pencil by allowing your child to participate in activities such as:

• Playing with water, sand and playdough
• Writing or drawing with a variety of pencils, pens and crayons
• Gluing and other craft ideas
• Threading beads, making jigsaws, using peg patterns and other games which use counters and dice
• Supervised cutting activities with scissors

Help with Reading

• Encourage positive reading experiences by setting aside special times for the purpose.  Create cosy reading situations where you will not be interrupted or distracted

• Let your child choose books that he/she wants to read
• Talk about the front cover, what might happen in the story?
• Use books with flaps
• Continue to read aloud to your child, providing a good model, long after your child learns to read.

Social Skills

• Play games with your child which encourage turn taking and sharing
• Encourage your child to listen to and carry out simple instructions
• Encourage your child to become more independent by doing simple tasks by themselves (even if it takes longer to get the job done!) such as putting their own shoes and coat, buttering their own toast, tidying their toys away etc
• Encourage your child to play and interact with other children.