There are hundreds of ways in which the EYFS can be practiced and improved on at home. Below are some simple and cheap activities that can help your child improve various skills. Most of these abilities can’t be learnt in isolation and most of these activities will help advance more than one skill set. The italicised writing will let you know what other capabilities your child will use in the activities. Remember to monitor your child closely during activities with small objects that could present a choking hazard and to always use non-toxic materials. For more suggestions, please look on our Links page. Personal, Social and Emotional Development![]() Holiday CraftsCreativity, Small Motor Skills, Imagination - Cut out a small, medium and large circle from blue sugar paper. Help your child glue the circles together into a snowman shape. Encourage them to paint the snowman with white non-toxic paint, using either a paintbrush or a sponge. Once the paint has dried, help your child decorate the snowman, creating eyes, scarf, hat, mittens etc. Talk to them about winter and things to do when it gets cold and snowy. You can also create Christmas trees, Halloween pumpkins, Valentine’s Day hearts, Hanukkah candles, Diwali lights, Chinese New Year, Ramadan or Eid-ul-Fitr cards and Easter eggs. Use each craft session as an opportunity to talk about your cultural festivals and those of others. Things I Love About YouSelf-esteem – Glue your child’s photo onto the centre of a piece of light coloured construction paper and write at the top ‘Things I Love About You’. While your child watches and listens, talk about, and write down on the paper border, some of the reasons you love your child so much. You might write, ‘Sam is a helper’, Sam is good at sharing his toys’, Sam is kind and makes me feel good’. Post this where everyone can see it and add periodically to the sheet. Sound MatchProblem Solving – Collect five pairs of items that would make a sound and feel different when shaken inside plastic eggs (or other containers). For example, two tablespoons of salt, two jingle bells, some beans, some water and two large heavy bolts. Divide these items between ten plastic eggs. Seal the eggs with glue if you wish. Mix up the eggs and let your child try to match the pairs by listening to the sound they make as they shake them. Sock TwisterColour Recognition, Large Motor Skills, Left/Right Recognition – Put a different coloured sock on each of your child’s hands and feet. Place the pairs for these socks on the floor, slightly separated from each other. Ask your child to place a sock they are wearing onto its matching sock, for example, ‘Place the blue sock on the floor,’ Ask him to remain standing and keep his hand on the sock as you give the next instruction, ‘Place the red sock on your right foot onto the red sock on the floor.’ Simple CharadesVisual Discrimination, Imagination – Act out simple things for your child to guess what you are pretending to do. Try silently pantomiming such things as brushing your hair, driving a car, throwing a ball, climbing stairs etc. Let your child take turns too!
Silly BasketCut a piece of paper into strips and write down an action on each one. For example, ‘Wiggle and jiggle!’, ‘Stand on one foot!’ or ‘Sing a silly song!’ Fold the pieces of paper and place in a small basket and let your child select one. Read it to them and let them be silly! Take a turn yourself! Guess Who? Guess What?Memory Skills – Give your child clues about people or things they know and encourage them to guess who or what you are talking about. For example, ‘I’m thinking of someone who likes football.’ ‘He also has a small dogs.’ ‘He has a red car.’ When your child eventually guesses ‘Uncle Tim!’ congratulate them and start again. Guess What can involve animals or everyday objects, their descriptions and sounds. Grab and MatchSensory Awareness – Give your child a paper bag containing three or more small, familiar items such as a key, spoon and a crayon. Have a bag of identical items for yourself, pull out and hold up one item from your bag and encourage your child to pull out the same item (you can do this with or without them looking inside). You can also try describing what you can feel and see if they can find the item by touch and simple clues. (‘I feel something hard and flat that unlocks doors.’) Follow the ClueSequencing – Tell your child there is a surprise hidden in the house. Hide four or more clues written on index cards around your home. Then show your child the first clue and read Fill In the Blanks StorytellingImagination, Language Skills, Memory Skills – Let your child help you make up a story by ‘filling in the blanks.’ Begin your story but leave out key elements for them to fill in. For example: Once there was a _______ (your child fills in this part – if they say ‘boy’ then you say:) And this boy’s name was ________... (You may need to give them some suggestions/options the first few times till they get the hang of it!) For younger children it might be easier for them to fill in the blanks to a familiar story like Jack and the Beanstalk. This can also be a good travelling game. Communication, Language and Literacy![]() Writing StripsSmall Motor Skills, Creativity – Cut a piece of paper into thick strips and give them to your child along with a crayon or marker and let them scribble away. By encouraging them to keep their marks on the strips of paper, they will learn to use smaller and smaller hand movements. Talk about their writing: ‘These look like small loops and these look like bigger loops.’ This, Then, ThatListening Skills, Large Motor Skills – Your child will learn to follow a sequence of instructions with this activity. Tell them to listen carefully because you are going to have them do two actions in a row. For example, say ‘Touch your feet, then touch your head’ or ‘Jump up and down, then clap your hands.’ Increase the difficulty by adding to the number of actions. Get them to come up with a sequence for you! Magic LiftImagination, Large Motor Skills – Lay out a large towel on the floor and announce to your child that you have found a magic lift! Press a pretend button and start the make-believe fun! ‘Ding! Going up!’ Pretend to arrive at a floor and declare it ‘The dancing floor!’ or ‘The clapping floor!’ When you get out of the lift everyone has to do the designated activity for that floor until you get back in and head for the next floor. ![]() Is it an Animal?Visual Discrimination, Classifying – Lay out a group of plastic toy animals interspaced with a variety of other items, such as a comb, toy train, spoon etc. Now ask your child to point out, or remove from the pile, only the animals. You can also point to each object and ask ‘Is that an animal?’ You can also vary the classification with things like ‘Is it a car/letter/toy?’ Fishing for Shapes and ColoursLarge Motor Skills, Hand-Eye Coordination, Colour and Shape Recognition – Create a ‘fishing rod’ by attaching a 6 inch length of string to a 12 inch stick ( a ruler works well). At the end of the string, use a glue gun to attach a small magnet. Next, cut out different coloured shapes from sugar paper and stick each one to a metal jar lid. Give the ‘fishing rod’ to your child and say ‘Let’s fish for triangles! or ‘Let’s fish for red shapes!’ Imagination – Show your child a magazine picture of an ordinary, everyday event (such as a man running, a child crying, a dog sleeping or a broken-down car). Ask them what is happening in the picture, what they think might have happened to cause this and what they think might happen next.![]() |