Advantages for Stay-at-home Parents PART 3

Number Three

Being around your children and interacting with them on a daily basis is wonderful. Don’t hesitate to take pictures or even take video pictures to share with your spouse. Years later you will look back at these and they will become cherished moments.

Using games is a great way to interact with your children, have fun, and let them learn. A great outside game is to take a walk around the neighborhood and on each walk select a different theme. One walk will be to collect rocks. Put the rocks in a paper lunch bag. When you pick up each rock, talk about them and then at home you can look at the shapes and the colors.

Leaves are another item you can collect during a walk. After returning home with leaves, try to match the leaf with the tree. A book about leaves from the library would help. Another is to try and find small branches (six inches or less) that make letters of the alphabet or numbers. You will find T’s, L’s, and other letters. You will also find numbers like 1, 4, 7 and even 9. See if you can find others.

A fun inside game is the ABC game which is fun for toddlers and is educational. This activity
teaches the children the alphabet and expands their knowledge of words and objects associated with the words. How it is used determines the appropriate age level.

Supplies: Blank sheets of paper and a small box of colored pencils or crayons. Other items are dependent upon the letter and the associated word.

Activity: Take a blank sheet of paper and write the letter A large enough to fill the page. Next select a word to go with the letter A. For example, the word apple. Write the word at the bottom of a second sheet of paper and draw a picture of an apple above it. Give a separate sheet of
paper to the child and let him/her copy the word and the picture. Place an actual apple nearby so your child can see the apple. Point out the apple as you draw it. Next have your child fill in the color of the apple on their sheet as you use a different color to fill in your apple. Explain that
apples come in different colors, red, yellow, and green. When you are finished drawing the apple and discussing it, cut the apple in pieces removing the core bits and eat it for a snack.

Next time you do this activity review the apple information with the child and move to the letter B. After you get through the alphabet, start over again, but this time use another item for the A. It can be an ant, airplane, or whatever. Go through the same steps with the remaining alphabet. Supplies can be taken from toys, food, gadgets on hand or bought at a craft store. Think ahead about what you want to do so you will have the supplies available. If you are working with older children you can change the game by drawing the letter and then on a separate sheet of paper, have them name as many items they can think of that start with that letter. Write them down as they name them. Make it a contest to see which letter they can come up with the most words.