Although Arthur is still too young for these activities (he is busy working on those gross motor skills and large muscles needed before he can master the fine motor skills) it is worth thinking ahead to the next steps - or for activities you can do with an older sibling to keep them busy!
The activities above tie in really well with the physical development aspect of the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage - birth to five) whilst also allowing your little one to take part in 'active learning' and 'playing and exploring' :
- Playing and exploring, which is about finding out and exploring, playing with what they know and being willing to ‘have a go’.
- Active Learning, which is about being involved and concentrating, persevering and enjoying achieving, what they set out to do.
- Creating and thinking critically, which is about having their own ideas, making links and choosing ways to do things.
The activities are really simple an easy to make at home. Clockwise from top right:
1) sand tray - if you don't have a tray like the above, simply use a food tray or a shallow cardboard box (having a picture on the base will also add more interest and excitement to this activity) - add sand and allow your child to use their finger (or a paintbrush that fits onto the end of their finger as above) to make marks in the sand - great for early writing skills too!
2) alphabet pasta - it doesn't have to be alphabet pasta if you don't have this, although trying to find the 'initial letter' of their name makes this much more fun! Mini pasta shapes also work well- or larger pieces of pasta if your child still struggles with the pincer grip. Using larger children's tweezers also gives another level of challenge to this activity.
3) Pompom pegs - really simple and great for colour matching and recognition. Simply put some different colour pom-poms in a tin (using different sized pom-poms can also stimulate discussions about the language of size - big/small/medium/bigger/smaller and also size ordering) colour in the tips of the pegs with corresponding colours and challenge your child to use the same colour peg to pick up the pompom.
4) threading and twisting/turning: I used purpose made nuts and bolts here but you can use empty jars and bottles and ask your child to match the lids to the containers.
The threading activity here is using large wooden beads and a wooden rod, but you could vary this at home by sticking a dry piece of spaghetti into a piece of blutac or play doh and ask your child to thread beads or penne pasta onto the spaghetti.
5) marbles and tweezers: here I bought an anti slip duck shape for the bottom of the bath (you could buy an anti slip bath at or any other shapes you find) and turned it over so that the 'suckers' are facing upwards. The challenge is to pick up the marbles (using fingers or tweezers) and balance them ontop of the suckers.
So there we go! 5 really easy activities that you can have set out for your child to keep them entertained whilst helping their development.
I almost can't wait for #Arthurwears to be big enough to try these out!
Why not have a look at some of my other activity ideas:
