Learn At Home: Enjoying School Activities Outside the Classroom – Educational Playcare

Some families may feel they are limited to having fun due to the winter weather and the pandemic. At Educational Playcare, we love when families extend learning outside the classroom, which is why we created our “Learn at Home” resource. Our “Learn at Home” resource provides families weekly activities for each age group that they can enjoy right at home and can be modified to follow along with Educational Playcare’s curriculum theme or any of your child’s interests!

Infants

• Read books and make the stories come to life for them by changing your voice for different characters.
• Practice tummy time. Give them toys or books that they can reach for and explore with.
• Play with toys that play music or with instruments. Have them listen to the different sounds that each instrument makes.
• Play peek-a-boo. This is also a great activity to do while practicing tummy time.
• Sing songs like the Itsy-Bitsy Spider or This Little Piggy.
• For older infants, add dishes or a tea pot to a sensory bin (a short container will work) with a little water.
• Make a spider web basket using a laundry basket and yarn. Place small objects in the bin and have your children reach through the web to get the objects.
• Create artwork using toy cars and taste-safe paint.
• If the weather gives you an unseasonably warm winter day, go outside for a walk and get some fresh air. During your walk, point out the trees, cars, and clouds you to your baby to help them learn about their surroundings.

Young Toddlers

• Read books with the children. Make the stories come to life for them by changing your voice to match the different characters. During this age, they may start to act out parts of the stories as well.
• Get the children outside for fresh air if the weather allows. If there is snow, build a snowman together.
• Have a tea party with the children. Use kitchen utensils and pretend to drink tea.
• Create a sensory bin (a short container will work) for your children to use. Add a variety of materials depending on your child’s interests.
• Make taste-safe play dough with your children and pretend to make muffins like the Muffin Man.
• Use recycled materials to build castles with your children.
• Practice fine motor skills while making Cheerio necklaces (or fruit loops)
• Provide the children with paper and writing materials to practice their drawing skills. (This is the beginning of literacy development in children)

Preschoolers

• Read books with your children. Make the stories come to life for them by acting out the stories. Turn reading time into a fun dramatic play activity by making costumes that they can use to pretend to be different characters.
• Provide the children with paper and writing materials and let your child write with their own stories.
• Create sensory bins (a short container will work) that go with the stories that you are reading. Let the children reenact the story. Talk about the characters, the problem, and solutions that happen in the stories.
• Use recycled materials to build with the children.
• Fill a cookie sheet with salt and have your child practice writing letters or numbers on the tray. They can use their finger or a paintbrush to write with.
• Go outside and enjoy the fresh air if the weather allows. If there is snow, build a snowman or snow castles.
• Make play dough with the children. They can use the play dough to make sculptures, letters (maybe make their name), numbers and shapes.
• Bake or cook with your children. Children can learn a lot from helping out in the kitchen and they may even try new foods if they help prepare them.

School-Agers

• Provide the children with time to sit and read stories that they can.
• Use recycled materials to build sculptures (ex. robots, castles)
• Make playdough or air-dry clay and let the children make sculptures. Once they are dry, they can paint them.
• Build with Legos or blocks. Give the children different challenges each day of items they can build.
• Play board/card games with the children.
• Bake or cook with your children. Children can learn a lot from helping out in the kitchen and they may even try new foods if they help prepare them.

Tell us in the comments below what your favorite activities to do at home are!