Turn your environment into a magical world of scientific exploration and let your child develop his senses, his concentration and his vocabulary while having lots of (messy) fun. It just takes a little imagination and time to turn your kitchen or bath into a learning experience for your littlest ones - and everyone gets to have fun in the process!
Pre-school children need plenty of time to feel, smell, think and explore. Remember that they can become easily overwhelmed, especially if they start out tired. Use the ideas below to gather together collections from around your house, trying to provide contrast and interest without over-stimulating. Supervise your child carefully at all times - and join in while he explores!
Water
Young children can play for a long time with water. Gather a collection of utensils - small buckets, scoops, spoons, pots, plastic beakers, whisks, sieves and so on, checking them carefully for safety. Then fill up a large dishpan or other container with warm water, sit it in front of them on a towel, and let them have fun! If you include plastic jugs and bottles you can do all sorts of volume experiments. Ask questions! Which jug holds more water? How many cups of water do you need to fill up the big bottle? Can you fit all the water in the big bottle into the little bottle? Why not? What happens?
For obvious reasons, this is a good activity for summer afternoons in the garden! Put a picnic rug on the grass and enjoy.
Touch
Find a collection of objects which will provide contrast for your child - a smooth towel, a soft teddy, a hard brick, a shiny metal spoon, and so on. Hold them against your cheeks, bang them on the table, sort them and enjoy them! Ask questions, and develop vocabulary as you try this, using color words and other descriptive words according to your objects.
Extension - shut your eyes and explore!
Further extension - make a "feelie bag" out of a drawstring bag or an old pillowcase and encourage your child to guess what is in it by feeling the objects only.
Smell
Spend some time concentrating on smells! Go for a walk outside and smell the grass, the flowers, the leaves, the bark, the wind, the rain, the sun. Walk around the house and look for smelly objects. What smells good? Soap? What smells bad? The bin? Smell each other! Do smells change if you have your eyes closed? What about if you open your mouth?
Extension - "Smell Jars". Collect together some small containers such as film canisters or small plastic bottles. If necessary, cover the outside with a strip of card. Put a small piece of cotton wool inside and add a smell - perhaps lemon juice, lavender essential oil, washing up liquid, dried rosemary. Don't use anything toxic! See if your child can identify the smells. Which do they enjoy?
Hearing
Spend a fixed amount of time concentrating on the sounds around you. Is it really quiet, or can you hear birds, traffic, neighbors, animals, pipework, breathing? Do sounds change if you shut your eyes? What about if you open your mouth? Can you hear yourself?
What sounds can you make? Gather some objects together and see what noises you can make with them. Try kitchen objects such a wooden spoons, saucepans and plastic containers. Make sure you add some "quiet" objects such as fabric, paper or tissue so that your child can experiment with those too.
Extension - make some "musical instruments" out of cardboard boxes, dried beans and rubber bands! Try greaseproof paper folded over a plastic comb (a "harmonica") or a set of drums using cardboard boxes and wooden spoons.
Making Mixtures and Potions
My son's favorite activity as a toddler was making potions - actually it was one of the only things that would keep him occupied for more than 10 minutes at a time!
Find an assortment of containers and then fill them with bits and pieces from the kitchen. This is an especially useful activity if you find dry goods which have passed their use-by date! Think about lentils, dried peas and beans, rice, dried herbs and so on - try to get a good variety of sizes and shapes and even smells. Powdered poster paint can be fun too, in small quantities. Give your child a tray and some empty containers, and a few utensils to stir with, and see what happens. Many children will stir their mixtures around very happily - it is strangely therapeutic!
After a while, if you are feeling brave, you can add a few more liquid ingredients to the mix! Try washing up liquid, colored water or even a little milk. Make sure that you supervise at all times, and warn your child that nothing goes in the mouth! If you added poster paint in the last stage, things will get quite coloring now!
Obviously you usually end with a big sticky brown mess - but this is all part of the fun. If you need to rescue the containers and utensils, empty out the worst of it into the bin and then let your child wash everything up!
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