Many parents and childcares search every week for new activities to keep their children active. If your child is around 6 to 8 years old, they will probably be reading independently, but if you still aim to help them to learn new words and to speak properly, using games and activities is the best way to do this. How can you do this? Good examples are to play games that help with phonic skills, word recognition and general language development.
It doesn’t matter where you are with your children, every moment is an opportunity to learn new things. If you are out with your children, observing their surroundings and reading the signs or posters will help them to get better and better.
It is true that we need to give our children the opportunity to spend a few afternoons after school doing what they would like, but it is true too that like parents, you need to plan a few activities after school where your children will develop their physical, mental and emotional skills.
Here are 10 games and activities to do with your children after school!
There is no better way to improve your children’s listening than with games. It is important to teach our children to hear what others say to them, so practicing this with games will give your children the opportunity to listen to what their teachers, friends and family are saying to them before reacting. Some of the listening games that you can play with your children are:
-Writing and reading a list of rhyming words - these words need to have the same sounds, such as “train”, “nail”, “snail”. After this, write a totally different word like, “eat” to ask your child which one is the odd one out.
-Playing the famous ‘Simon Says’, but with more complicated instructions than just standing up or sitting down, for example giving between 4 and 5 instructions instead of one, like clap your hands, turn around with just one leg, jump as many times as you can and do a grumpy face.
-Playing 20 Questions. How do you play this? Let your child choose an object, person or animal. Yes/No game is where you ask questions that have only a positive or negative answer, but they are not allowed to answer with Yes or No or repeat any answers…like using “affirmative” instead of “yes”, or “I don’t believe so” instead of “no”.
You can spend 15 min every week with your children improving how they recite tongue twisters. If you are not sure about your child’s level, start with some simple tongue twisters until it is easy for the child to say it, then keep increasing the speed – this will add to the fun. It is an activity that not only your child can enjoy, parents and childcares will too!
-Play ‘Kim’s Game’. Let your children choose some objects around the house to put them on a tray. After talking about them, cover them up and ask your child to remember as many as they can.
-Choose your children’s favourite songs to do a karaoke day. The idea of the game is to memorise as much of the lyrics as your children and you can. Then try to sing the songs without reading the lyrics.
-Use flashcards to help your children memorise those words that they find difficult. Use these cards to play games, like match all the words that start or finish with the same letter, or have the same number of letters, for example.
Nothing is better for knowing if your child knows how to follow instructions than by doing some cooking or baking in the afternoons. There are thousands of recipes that you can make with your children. You can make it a huge event like, Baking Tuesday. Involve your children in the cooking, asking them what they want to bake or cook, then let them be the leaders. Going to the shops with them to buy the ingredients is a really good start to the activity.
If you are planning to do some action games with your children, this is the perfect time to ask your children to invite some friends over! One of the activities that you can enjoy for your children if you want a different sort of afternoon after school is to go on a Treasure Hunt around your home, where your children will need to read the clues to find the final treasure. You can ask them to dress up like pirates or adventurers to make them feel more into the activity.
We cannot deny that technology is becoming a necessary part of our life, and that our children will have much more contact with technology than we had when we were children. This is the reason that it is important to support them as much as we can to develop technology skills. One of the ways to help them with this is practicing how to communicate over the phone. Many children will be used to calling friends and family on video calls for example, but they won’t know how to start a conversation and finish it, or how to be polite over the phone.
If you would like to know what’s going on in your children’s lives, asking them to keep a diary is the best way to know if they are struggling at home, school or with friends. Teaching them how to keep a diary, where they can express their feelings, will help you to learn how to deal with problems. Let them know that the diary is their safe place to write anything that they want. Going with them to buy the diary will get them more excited and into this activity.
Not only will your child be able to express their feelings in their diary, but they will also develop writing and grammar skills by doing this activity every day. Encouraging them to express more than a just few lines and showing them how you would do it can give them ideas of what to write and, at the same time, they will learn new words.
Many families today are blessed with adorable children who are not just in need of attention, but most importantly deserve all the love and support from their parents. As much as the parents want to always be available for their children, the reality is that they also have to work and provide for their financial needs. Thus, parents are keen to have a “support system” that will make their everyday responsibilities much easier.
A great nanny would be one of the most flexible aids that any parents can find out; they do not just look after your children, but also do it with love and full of concern. They are also not just an employee, but are also more likely to be an extended part of the family. You will be surprised at how enthusiastic they are to provide assistance for parents who need help and share their childcare expertise without even thinking twice. We understand that it might not be easy to leave your children with someone you just have known for only a couple of days or weeks of interviewing them.
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