Home is more than just a place. It is more than just a kitchen where you eat your meals or a bedroom where you sleep at night, it is the place where we should feel our safest and that fills our heart with joy. The idea of home and the way we may be living for the next few weeks is changing. Many of us are just starting to get used to working from home, schooling from home and not being able to leave our homes for a little white.
Here at Newbie we want to do what we can to help make this period of time at home with your little ones a bit easier, whether that's sharing suggestions for playtime or how to build an in-door fort, we’ve done the research on how we can make home the best possible place to be so you can enjoy being with loved ones.
Each week we’ll be sharing activities under a different theme, and trying to keep you up to date with the ever-changing landscape. This week…
Homeschooling
Last week, the UK Government announced school closures. Affecting all age groups, the changes cover children at registered childcare providers including nurseries and childminders, primary and secondary schools and further education colleges (both state funded and independent schools). However, the UK Government is asking schools, colleges, nurseries and other registered childcare settings to remain open for children of critical workers and vulnerable children, where they can.
There isn’t one rule for all, and we understand there must be many questions surrounding this. The UK Government’s Guidance on Education is a good place to start for finding the answers to some of these questions you may have. This can be found here.
With the majority of children now being at home and the official Easter Holidays still a couple of weeks away, we thought it might be useful to share some hints and tips on homeschooling, and how to balance the playroom with the schoolroom.
Lesson Time
Getting the balance right requires structure. To give some structure to yours and your little one's working week, build a weekly lesson plan together. Working on a plan together will give your child some say in the way he or she is learning and hopefully make the process fun. All you need are some post-it notes and a pen.
- One the post-it notes, write down all the classes your child may be taking. This could be English, maths, history, PE, art and more. On five additional posts it notes, write down the days of week, Monday - Friday.
- Now on a wall or the fridge, stick on the days of the week vertically and your child’s suggested classes for that week against each day horizontally.
- Spend some time together planning the week ahead, we’d recommend doing this on a Friday afternoon for the following week.
Tuck Shop - Hungry for Maths
Additional to lessons, make sure your little one still has time for play by keeping in break and lunchtime. So the learning never stops, create a tuck shop for these times. Creating a menu, add a cost against each tuck shop item. Examples below:
- Apple - 30p
- Raisins - 40pm
- Crisps - 50p
- Cheese & Crackers - 70p
- Sandwich - £1.50
Next to the menu, keep a pot of ‘money’ (if you have Monopoly at home we’d recommend using this, and changing the prices to reflect this, or making your own coins and notes). Each morning, you give your little one their ‘pocket money’ and they can use this to buy items from the tuck shop each day, working out the prices and what their change should be. This will encourage learning and results in some tasty snacks!
Making Science Slimy
Slime is a fun way to bring science alive. This Frozen slime recipe is a great science experiment to show how polymers work. You can make bouncy balls, pull and stretch the slime, it’s endless fun and a great at home science experiment.
What you need:
- Baking Soda
- Glitter Glue
- Water
- Glass Container
What to do:
- Empty the contents of the glitter glue bottle into a glass container. This is a perfect job for kids to help with!
- After the bottle is empty, fill the bottle with water and pour into the glass container with the glue.
- Mix well.
- After that, mix 1 teaspoon baking soda into 1/2 cup of warm water. (When measuring and mixing baking soda, please use caution. This should be done by an adult.)
- Mix well.
- Slowly pour the soda/water solution in the glass container with the glue/water solution.
- Stir and watch the magic happen.
Art Class
Give your child lots of opportunities to draw and paint. This is not only fun, but can help to develop eye-hand coordination and control.
Let them experiment with lots of different materials – paint brushes with a range of widths, pencils, crayons, chalks and finger paint. You could try playing music when they paint and draw as this can help to create a relaxing environment and even ask them to paint or draw what the music makes them think of.
Get creative, stay safe and stay home!
With Love,
Newbie x