Top tips for rainy days.
Children learn best when they experience things first hand and get to actually ‘have a go’. Experiencing jumping in puddles, raindrops on your head, snow on your fingers, sand in your toes builds a child's imagination. Having a good imagination helps a child in later years when they are ready to write stories, retell stories and during creative activities such as painting and solving problems.
So when it rains next try…
- Play in puddles. Put on wellies and splashing in the puddles. Including the grown ups! The simplest idea but the best fun!
- Get muddy! Mixing mud and making mud pies, take out old pots and pans into the garden too.
- Float ducks, leaves or twigs on puddles. Try out pebbles do they float or sink?
- Make a boat out of an old plastic container, add a straw for a mast, decorate, and set sail!
- Compare different sounds that the rain makes by going outside and putting different containers over your head, eg a saucepan, plastic tub or umbrella. What can you hear?
- Put food dye and/or bath bubble mixture in puddles.
- Make a ‘boat’ indoors, on the sofa or using blankets, and play your own imaginary sailing game
- Snuggle up and read a book such as ‘Where the wild things are’
- Take some buckets outside and collect rain. How much has it rained today?
- Can you make an outdoor shelter? Try using sheets / tarpaulin and have an outdoor snack.
Essex Country Parks offers exciting open space for you and your family to explore. To find more details about theis click on the sidebar.
Top Tip
When you are busy having fun, feed language in, don’t force it out. Comment and expand on your child’s words and sentences, rather than asking them to repeat words. If your child says “car”, respond with “big car” or “yellow car” or “fast car”. This is how children learn words, by hearing new vocabulary and linking it to the items or events they are focussing on.
