Helping your little ones learn

Do you know your child is watching everything you do and say – they’re learning all the time. Simple everyday conversation about what you can see around you, helping put the shopping into a basket or hanging the washing out can all be learning opportunities if you make tasks feel fun and involve your child.

The early years in a child’s life is such an exciting time – between birth and 5 your child will learn to talk and listen, use their body, develop emotions, express themselves, have some understanding of the world around them and even learn some maths! You can support your child in developing all these skills by playing, chatting and caring.

Where do I start?

There are many national webpages dedicated to helping you help your child learn or providing you with activity suggestions. Here are 5 which include some short video clips of easy to do actions you can copy:

Tiny Happy People from the BBC

Hungry Little Minds from the Government

Small Talk from the National Literacy Trust

Look Say Sing Play from the NSPCC

Home Learning Environment from Pacey

What else can I do?

If you’re stuck for ideas, we’ve put together some activity packs full of ideas that you are free and can be done at home.  There’s also some video clips made by Tameside’s Children’s Centre team to help get you started with some activities.

Click here to view

Rhymes, Songs & Stories

As well as being lots of fun, singing nursery rhymes and songs have many benefits for your child such as

• Helping them practice speaking without pressure
• Introduces new words and phrases
• Learning numbers
• Helps with understanding of pitch, volume and rhythm

Some examples of songs, rhymes and storytime  videos are made by Tameside’s Children’s Centre team.

Short storytime videos

 

Cock a moo moo	Dear Zoo	Ernest the mouse
Going on a bear hunt	Goldilocks and the 3 bears	Gruffalo
Harry and the Bucketful of dinosaurs	Handa’s surprise	Hippo has a hat
Hooray for fish	Owl babies	Peace at last
Polar bear, polar bear what do you hear?	Room on the Broom	Shark in the park
Stick man	The tiger who came to tea	Yawn

 

 

Rhyme time videos

 

Rhymes about the book Stick Man	Rhyme time following the Owl Babies book	Rhymes around the book Shark in the Park
Rhymes around the book Harry and the Bucketful of dinosaurs	Rhymes around the book Handa’s surprise	Rhymes around the book Hooray for fish
Teddy bear songs	Autumn rhymes	Rhyme time session
Bengali rhymes	Rhyme time session	Rhyme time session

 

• Go To Grow Facebook page for more Videos from Tameside’s Children’s Centre team
• Nursery Rhymes from the BBC

Learning Together

Sometimes having a small child can feel isolating – attending group activities can support you both. Your child can start learning how to make friends, can develop more concentration skills, have more toys to play with and enjoy new skills and activities that can be repeated at home. As a parent, groups can give you advice on how to support your child and reduce feelings of isolation.

• Activities in Children’s Centres include:
  • Baby Group – A physical and sensory play session, with ‘baby babble’ activities and a chance to chat with other parents and families with babies
  • Little Learners – Sessions for children age 1 – 5 years old to support your child to be an active and engaged learner.
  • Baby Babble – gives parents lots of information about how speech and language skills
  • Wrigglers & Gigglers – for parents aged 25 and under – come along to play, chat, meet other parents and have days out.
  • Move and Play – at Active Tameside venues – lots of fun ideas and information about crawling, cruising and pulling to stand, sensory play experiences and information on physical development.
• Library Time for a Rhyme Sessions
• Parent & toddler groups

Learning at the Shops

Not everyone enjoys shopping, but playing learning games can make it more fun. Try:

• Counting the items as you put them in the basket
• Finding the items on the shopping isle
• Drawing a shopping list and crossing off the items
• What can you see that’s round, square etc
• What can you see that’s blue, red, green
• I spy with sounds – what vegetable can you see starting with the sound ‘br’

Learning at the Park

Being outdoors keeps us active and makes us feel good. Visiting the local play park equipment can be fun, but don’t miss out on other learning fun. Try:

• Going on a bug hunt
• Wellies on – jump in some puddles
• Playing hide and seek
• Building a den or fairy house
• Red light, green light – stop go
• Looking for outdoor treasure

Where Else Can I Go?

There are a number of different places to visit in Tameside for FREE that will help give your child new experiences. Follow the links to find the locations and details:

Tameside’s Parks

Tameside’s Country Parks

Libraries

Tameside’s Museums and Galleries

Tameside’s Arts and Events Programme

Garden centres

There are also low cost activities such as swimming and many paid for activities such as soft play, music or sports sessions for very young children, for more information visit Tameside’s Service Information Directory