Ideas for games to play during ‘Special Play Time’

Ideas for games to play during ‘Special Play Time’

 

Teddy/dolly play – encourages all sorts of learning.  Encourage your child to have a tea party.  Give the teddy/doll a wash, brush its hair and get him ready to go to school. Talk about what the teddy/doll is doing.

 

Feely bags – Put several toys into a bag and ask your child to see what they can find – children love exploring and finding things.  Name each object your child finds and talk about the colour, size, shape, what the object does.  Then see if the child can find one of the objects.

 

 

Ready, steady go – This is a good game to encourage attention skills.  Using a car, roll it to your child but only after you have said ‘ready steady go.’  Then your child has to roll it back to you when you say ‘ready, steady, go’ – but make sure your child waits for you to say go.  You may have to hold the car at first.  Once they can do this, offer them a ball or a car.  The choice of two toys will encourage them to name the object they want.

 

Animals – Find toy animals and teach your child the different sounds that they make, eg, a cow goes ‘moo.’  See if your child can find animals when you make the noise.  Then reverse the roles so your child makes the sound and you have to find the animal.  This will help to develop listening skills as well as understanding animal names.

 

Nursery rhymes – Tell your child nursery rhymes.  Children not yet talking will love the sound of your voice, and those children who are talking will enjoy repeating them with you.  Rhyme is an important early reading skill.  It helps the child to listen carefully to the different sounds that make up words.

 

Books – Encourage your child to look at books as early as possible.  Very young children will love just looking at the pictures and you talking about them.