AD | Collaborative post
Although a lot of us are looking at children going back to school in a couple of weeks that doesn’t mean that learning at home has to stop. We are always looking for ways to play with Erin at home with some kind of educational aspect attached, even if she might not realise it. Here are some of the things we do with Erin, both at home and while out and about.
Scavenger hunts
Over the course of lock down we spent quite a bit of time at our local woods. It was somewhere to escape to and to spend some time outdoors, that wasn’t our own back garden. To make the walks a little bit more interesting I found quite a few different places online where I could print off already put together scavenger hunts.
A scavenger hunt is a great way to get children talking about their surroundings and maybe about some things that they’ve never seen before for example, different kinds of leaves, animals or maybe footprints.
Imaginary play
Imaginary play is one of our favourite things to do in the garden and it’s something that can be done in lots of different ways. What you can do really depends on the space you have available. There are larger pieces of equipment available such as sand and water tables or mud kitchens if you have a larger garden or maybe you could use small trays and tubs if you are a little more limited.
We also have a Tuff Tray that gets used quite a lot and we have done lots of things with it in the past such as playing ice cream shops, making witches potions and doing experiments like sink and float. The possibilities are endless and you can come up with loads of different ways to play while sneaking in a lot of educational elements.
Grow your own
This year Erin has become quite interested in what we can do in our own back garden. Her Grandma has been growing various plants and flowers in our back garden and Erin loves helping out. You don’t need a large area to be able to grow something with your children and in fact, you can get small pots and grow things like cress on the kitchen windowsill. Children will get a real sense of achievement when they grow something successfully.
Use your surroundings
Educational play doesn’t have to cost anything at all and you don’t even need to buy any equipment if you don’t want to. If you have a garden you can use anything there to help your child to learn. This might be from counting flowers, learning the colours of things on the trees or in the sky or maybe it could be to pick out different shapes. Of course, not everyone has a garden so maybe you could do this on the way to the local park, or during a walk around the block.
Do you do a lot outside with your children? Let me know what works for you!
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