Literacy – read books with rhyming words such as “Barnyard Banter” by Denise Fleming and “Jamberry” by Bruce Degen. There are many more which your local librarian can recommend.
Mathematics – play domino dots with your child. Place dominos face down. Each person turns over a domino and counts the dots. Decide which domino has the most dots.
Language development – Sing your conversation. For example, you sing, “Are you ready to leave?” Your child sings back; “Yes, in just a minute.”
Learning development – go on a walk and look for shapes in the environment. For example, look for a circle shape on a manhole cover, a rectangle doorway, a diamond shaped road sign.
Problem solving – place seven objects on a mat. Let your child look at them for 5-10 seconds. Cover them up and ask your child to name all the objects. Sneak one item out, remove cover and have child guess what’s missing.
Personal information – add more pages to your child’s “All About Me” book. Add a page upon which he’she writes the month and date of his/her birthday. Add a page about friends.
Small muscle development – spread paint on a smooth surface such as a plastic cutting board or a cookie tray without sides. Give your child cotton tipped swabs with which to draw on the painted surface. Lay a piece of construction paper onto the painted picture, press all over and lift off to make a lovely print.
Large muscle development – provide a pail of water and house painting brushes of various sizes and together “paint” the sidewalk, driveway, outside walls with water.
