An Activities Handbook
This Handbook was prepared under Contract Number 105-90-1517 of Department
of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
by Trans-Management Systems Corporation, 1025 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20005.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome to Fun and Learning for Parents and Children!
This booklet contains fun activities for you
and your children. It is a collection of things to do that can be part
of your family's everyday lives in each room of your home, outdoors, and
away from home. Just because an activity is described in one room of your
home does not mean that it could not be done somewhere else.
Many of the ideas in this booklet might be
routines you are doing already. If there are some new ideas, we hope you
will use them. The more you enjoy playing with your children, the more
they may be able to learn. Your children's abilities to learn many skills
in the early years will depend on their stages of development and their
individual interests. In addition, their learning will depend on the opportunities
and support that the family offers them at home and in their surroundings.
Here are a few helpful hints to assist you
in planning and doing the activities with your children.
· Establish some rules with your children and be consistent about enforcing them. Sot limits and be prepared to have them tested!
· Use eye contact and reasoning to relate positively to your children.
· Give detailed explanations to questions and explain the meanings of new words when you're playing with young children.
· Assigning a few simple household chores helps your children learn to follow directions.
· Outdoor activities will give your children a chance to use some energy and stay healthy!
· It is also important to praise your children for their positive behaviors and let them know they are loved.
Children are learning all the time, especially
when they are playing. Learning for children is fun. Learning and playing
with your children can be fun for you, also. You will find that your child
is curious and eager to talk and play with you.
We hope you will find this booklet helpful
and that you will share these activities often with your children. To
help you think about the activities, we've included some questions at the
end of this booklet.
In the kitchen, you and your children can do many things together. put away groceries, prepare meals and snacks, set the table. Every family member can have a job to do! Your children will feel good about their successes as they use their large and small muscles and look for shapes and colors. Be sure the kitchen is a safe place. Keep sharp objects out of reach. Remind your children about family rules in the kitchen.
Help your children become aware of differences in foods.
· Talk with your children about the size, taste texture, and
color of foods. Help them to recognize the differences between rough and
smooth surfaces, salty or sweet tastes, and the odors of certain foods.
· Ask them to talk about changes in foods as you cook them ("How did it look when it was raw?... when we started to cook it?... how does it look now?"). Help your children to compare the before and after.
· Talk with your children about any foods that have special meaning to your family.
Look for shapes or colors around the kitchen in and on the cabinets, refrigerator and stove.
· Play the game, "I see something you don't see and the color (or the shape) IS ." Your children can name the items or foods that are in the kitchen and that fit the description until they get to the item you have in mind.
Set the table with your children.
· Ask your children to make sure there is one plate, one glass, and so on, for each person.
· Talk about how to handle the dishes and silverware, so they stay clean and unbroken.
Involve your children in meal preparation.
· All family members preparing food need to wash their hands before handling food.
· Measure with cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons. Ask your children to guess how many tablespoons make a cup of water. Then, help them check it out!
· Let your children pour water with spoons, cups, and pitchers.
· Involve your children in making part of a meal or a snack.
· Talk about opposites big and small, hard and soft.
Sort and name foods after a trip to the grocery store.
· Let your children name each food, or ask them to tell you something about each food, as you take it out of the bag.
· As you sort the groceries, ask your children to put together all the foods that are the same: fresh vegetables in one place, boxes in another place.
· Talk with your children about the sizes of cans as you put them away--tall and short, wide and narrow.
Name kitchen appliances and their uses.
· Ask your children what the toaster is for, what the oven does. Give safety tips for the use of each appliance, and talk about who can turn them on and off.
· Ask about other ways to toast bread, heat the leftovers. The answers might be very creative!
Let your children help clean up the kitchen.
· Ask them to sort eating and cooking utensils by type or use.
· Let them wipe the table after meals. Encourage them to wipe
the table from left to right and collect all the crumbs in one corner.
The living room can be the place for both quiet and noisy activities. Your children will develop their social skills by learning how to be by themselves or how to be a part of the family group. Tell your child which items in the room are on the "Do Not Touch" list. There are activities to build both large and small muscles. The living room is a busy place!
Talk about sounds
· Ask your children to point to the direction of the sound and describe it.
· Ask you children to tell you about all the things that make loud or soft sounds such as the TV, the radio.
· Sing songs together old favorites, nursery rhymes. Use a wooden spoon or thick stick as microphone.
Talk about:
· The names of all the furniture in the room, such as the lamp, table, and couch.
· Family stories about the children's grandparents, family histories and when your children were babies.
· The things your children make.
· Your children's favorite TV shows.
Develop your children's big muscles.
· Encourage your children to help with household jobs--watering plants, sweeping, dusting, vacuuming.
· You and the children can imitate characters from a story or a TV show.
· Act out what these persons do. Help your children to find things around the house for dress-up or to add to the make-believe!
· Turn on music and march around the house. Or, if your family likes to dance, turn on music and have fun!
Read to your children each day.
· Give your children a chance to imitate reading to you from magazines, books, and newspapers. Have a special place for books and magazines.
· Make a "booklet" with your children by helping them cut out magazine pictures and paste them on paper--a "house book" or "animal book." Use other suggestions from your children.
· Ask an older child or other family member to read to a younger
child and to you.
Talk about what it means to be a family member.
· Ask your children to name the members of your family and draw pictures.
· Discuss how members of the family help each other.
· Invite some older family members to tell stones.
· You may wish to write a story about your family or write down stories your children tell you about the family.
Let your children know that they are an important part of the family.
· Give your children a place to store their special treasures.
· Find a place to display your children's "work," such as hanging their artwork on the wall or a door.
The bedroom can be a special place to play alone or to share some special, private time with your child. You and your children can read stories and talk about almost anything! Your children will learn a lot of self-help skills in the bedroom. They will be very proud of their new abilities.
Read to your children daily.
· Tell a story or read a book to your children at bedtime.
· After you've finished reading, ask your children to tell you all they remember about the story.
· Encourage your children to make up and tell stories or repeat a story you have read.
Let your children know that books are special.
· Make a library shelf or book area with your children.
· Use different print materials often: borrowing from the library, making homemade books, and looking at junk mail, greeting cards, newspapers, or magazines.
Talk about clothing.
· Help your children describe pieces of clothing.
· Talk about the front and back, top and bottom of shirts, pants, skirts, dresses.
· Let your children select the clothes they wear for daytime, for sleeping.
· Encourage your children to dress themselves and their dolls or their stuffed animals.
Have special places for storage.
· Help children put toys away by shape or color, or by use--for drawing, for building, for cuddling, for pushing.
Encourage your children to think, imagine, and be creative.
· Ask questions that have many answers, rather than questions that have right or wrong answers, such as "Where do you think birds sleep? How do you think a rainbow gets in the sky? Where do you think the water goes after it goes down the drain?"
· Ask your children to act out a story you've read to them.
Sort and match clothes.
· Ask your children to sort and stack their laundry by putting all like things together such as underwear in one pile, socks in another.
· Let them sort clothes by "owner" (my shirts, Dad's shirts).
· Ask your children to match a shoe with a shoe, a sock with a sock.
· Give your children a limited choice of what to wear. Ask them
why they chose the clothes they did.
The bathroom is a great place for children to learn hygiene and practice using their muscles by brushing their teeth and combing their hair. While they're taking a bath, they can learn math and science concepts, such as sinking and floating, full and empty Safety tip: Always stay with your children when they're in the bathroom! Put red duct tape on all hot water faucets for safety
Use mirrors to name body parts.
· Make faces in the mirror with your children--move your tongue, make a kiss, wiggle your nose.
· Talk with your children about all of the things they can do with their eyes-- blink, stare, wink.
Look for ways to use different senses in the bathroom.
· Feel and talk about different textures-- soft cotton, hard soap, smooth wall, slippery sink.
· Smell different things--toothpaste, soap.
Let your children play with different things while taking a bath.
· Help your children collect and save things to play with in the bathtub, such as plastic containers, sponges, cartons, and corks.
· Help your children notice which things sink and float.
Practice helping skills with your children.
· Encourage your children to wash their hands and face, brush their teeth, and comb their hair.
· Talk about health and hygiene--such as why we wash our hands and face, brush our teeth.
Practice health and safety habits in the bathroom with your children
· Let your children practice pouring, washing, wiping up.
· Talk about do's and don'ts, such as turning on the cold water first. Tell them what they can touch in the bathroom.
· Let your children make "warm" water: turning on the cold water first and adding very little hot to prevent burns.
Talk with your children about how it feels to "grow."
· Hang a growth chart on a door and keep track of their height and weight. Show them how they are growing.
· Ask them what they can do now that they couldn't do when they were younger and smaller.
Talk with your children about opposites in the bathtub.
· Encourage them to pour water into and out of containers, making them full, making them empty.
· Discover things that are hard and soft, warm and cold, wet and dry.
Every family probably has a surprise drawer--the one drawer where all the odds and ends are put. When the surprise drawer is for children, it should be in a safe and accessible location, such as a bottom drawer. This drawer (or a surprise box) can be a treasure chest! It can be a special treat for a rainy day. Make sure all the items are safe before you give them to your children.
Explore the surprise drawer.
· Ask your children to put all the like things together, such as corks or rubber bands.
· Ask your children about the uses of the items in the drawers.
· Your children can draw around some of the items to make pictures with the shapes.
Play guessing games with things from the surprise drawer.
· Hide things in your hands ("What do you think I'm holding in my right hand?").
· Let your children guess amounts ("Will all these corks fit in the cup, or will we need the large bowl?").
Talk about the contents.
· Help your children name all the items in the surprise drawer.
· Talk about the sizes, shapes, and colors of the items.
· Ask your children about the "feel" of the items--rough or smooth, slippery or sticky, hard or soft.
Create a surprise. Is there anything your children can make from any items in the drawer?
· What about making a collage picture or sculpture with some of the leftover items?
· Let your children surprise you with their own creations.
· Make a mobile by hanging some items from a coat hanger. Place the mobile outside on a tree limb.
Remember pick-up time!
· Using margarine tubs or other small containers, ask your children to clean out, sort, and put back the contents of the drawer.
If your children are preschoolers, let them add to the collections
from "junk" you don't want anymore.
· Corks
· Coffee scoops
· Plastic bottle caps
· Twine
· Ribbon
· Pads of paper
· Buttons
· Greeting cards
· Straws
· Markers
· Tapes
· Rubber bands
