Young children (ECD and foundation phase)

Having a daily routine at home is helpful as children feel secure when the can predict what is going to happen in their day. Routines can be simple like, every morning we wake up, wash, eat breakfast, play outside for half an hour, come in a do an activity or read, then help with the cooking or the washing, eat lunch etc.

Young children learn through play and also through copying what older children and adults do. Children can learn while they “help” with chores. Examples are

• Sorting: doing your laundry – children can sort laundry according to colour; according to the first letter of the word; according to type of article • Counting: When you are cooking ask, “Please bring me 6 potatoes and 3 carrots.” When dishing out the food ask, “How many people are there in the house? Please put out that many plates.”

Developing pre-reading, reading and talking skills

Talking to the child increases the child’s vocabulary, helps with learning to talk, and later it is easier to read. Try the following:

• Singing to and with the child

• Storytelling (traditional stories, made up stories, real stories about past events that happened with family members) and reading are very powerful ways of increasing a child’s vocabulary and love of words and reading. Make sure that time is set aside every single day for these activities. • Foundation phase learners have the VULA BULA books which contain a number of stories of different difficulty levels. If the child knows most of the words in the story they should read it to you. Slightly harder stories or books can be read WITH the child, and even harder books should be read TO the child. Children enjoy reading or listening to the same stories over and over again.

• Spend time with the child, listen to the child, talk to the child, add onto what he or she says to you, teach new words

• Point out known works that they see in writing such as Shoprite, Joko, OMO

Developing listening and speaking skills

Research shows that children who have many opportunities to talk and listen to adults e.g. their parents, teachers or grandparents and children e.g. peers, siblings, develop language skills that give them an advantage in reading and writing in Grades R-3

Here are some activities parents can do to help their children develop and expand their listening and speaking skills during the school holidays:

1. Engage children in conversations throughout the day

• Talk about what you doing. When you are making for supper e.g. talk about what ingredients you are using, e.g. “I am going to make a stew for supper. I am using meat, onions, potatoes and carrots.” Talk about what you are doing e.g. “I am peeling the potatoes, I am grating the carrots, I am stirring the pot so that the stew doesn’t burn”. Get your child to help you.

• Ask your child to talk about what you are doing? e.g. “Avile, what am I doing now?

2 Before you start reading a storybook, look at the cover page and ask your child to predict what will happen. Then link the topic to your child’s personal experiences of the world.

• What do you think this story is about?

• What do you like best about shopping with your Mommy?

• Where do you go shopping with you Mommy?

3 After telling a story to your child ask questions about the story.) Not just memory questions, thinking questions – especially ‘why” questions.

• Why did the character do that?

• How do you think the character feels? Why?

4 Play games that encourage your child to listen carefully.

• Put your head down and close your eyes. Listen very carefully and tell me what you can hear? Can you hear the birds tweeting in the trees? Can you hear the children playing outside?

5 Consistently enforce rules of good listening and speaking throughout the day.

• Bulelwa, please don’t talk while Simphiwe is talking. You will get your turn.

• Ask before you take your sister’s toy.

6 Encourage your children to follow your instructions.

• Give slightly older children small chores like fetching things, or buying things from the corner shop.

• It is supper time. I want you to come inside and wash your hands before you come to the table. • Thandi, please go to my bedroom and fetch my red jersey.

• Amy, put your brown shoes in your cupboard and then go and brush your teeth.

• When you blow your nose, please throw your tissues in the waste paper bin.

Ideas to Help Children Develop Number Sense

Young children (up to the age of six) will benefit from repeated counting, counting on and dividing objects equally between groups of people. Use everyday objects to practice counting often.

Examples:

• When cooking as your child to count out the number of onions and potatoes you need.

• Ask children, if we have 5 beans and we add 2 how many do we have

• If we have 12 pieces of potato and there are 6 people in the house, how many pieces does each one get?

• If you have beans and I give you two more, how many do you have? (Younger children can count on from 5, older children can add)

• How many white cars drive past in the next minute? • How many people can fit in the taxi or the car? If we had to get 20 people to town, how many taxis would we need.

Games

Believe it or not, play in children is regarded as a powerful tool and is the predictor of optimal early learning and future success in life.

We need to make use of what is available in terms of resources and whatever can be useful for the learning of our children. Games like indigenous games during this time could be very useful they will improve levels of thinking while keeping the fun factor alive. Learning that happens at home can be transferred to classroom learning.

Many indigenous games can be played at home during this long holiday time, but two have been identified which could be easy to do and be easily to play. These games can make our children develop a better understanding of numbers as they make meaning during play. ‘Upuca ’ and ‘Uqhaphu’ (skipping rope).

Creativity

Children can have a lot of fun making and using toys and resources from waste. We often see our children making cars and other toys from wire but cardboard boxes and egg boxes can also be a great source of creativity and playful learning.

This child playing solitary Upuca but she can play with others as well. She is counting internally and practicing her eye-hand coordination as well as the skill of pushing the group and number of stones that must go inside the circle. This game helps the child to develop numbers sense, the development of the number sense can be enhanced by a caregiver asking questions like, “did you get more this time than last time?” Board games and card games are also excellent ways to help children to learn through play.

Tracing and cutting out the shape of the child’s hand is a fun and meaningful activity that connects the child with his or her body, practices fine motor skills and helps young children with counting.

Finger puppets made from toilet roll insides and paper are fun to make but can also be used to ‘act out’ a story that is being told or read.