Rachel, one of our lovely moderators in the Housebound With Kids Facebook community, has shared this great idea…
Things you need:
* Egg box
I love egg boxes! They have so many uses! In this case, a bigger one is best.
We’ve painted ours but you don’t need to. Painting it will class as a whole separate activity to do together though!
* Things to pick up
A little stash of pom poms is worth investing in but you could use plenty of other things (do check they won’t be a choking hazard if you have a toddler who likes to put everything in their mouth).
You could probably use pasta shapes, beads, milk bottle tops, small toys, buttons, stones.. use your imagination.
* Tweezers
The big chunky plastic ones are another worthwhile investment but kitchen tongs will do the job just as well – they’re just that bit bigger for small hands. Those kiddy chopsticks would work and if your proper adult tweezers aren’t too sharp you could even try those. Pegs is another way to do it although I think they make it a little trickier.
What I did…
1. First of all, I put out the egg box and pom-poms and left Z to explore without the tweezers. This is fab for little fingers who are practising their pincer grip. He picked up the pom poms, put them into the different holes and moved them back again.
2. Then I started playing alongside him, trying not to disturb his play too much but so that I could model talking as I did it. I talked about the colours and put colours together. I said the number names to count them as I moved them. Depending on your child you might want to choose one of these or do both as I did. The idea here is it gives them the ideas and the words to do this themselves. Maybe they won’t do it today but they will at some point in the future.
Depending on your child’s attention span this could be it for now! This is fine and really rather normal! Leave the box out and when they come back to it consider moving onto the next step. If they don’t go back on their own, reintroduce it the next day and act super excited!
3. Next, I introduced the tweezers -‘oooo what are these? They look exciting!” I had two pairs so I could show him what I was doing – impatient hands can’t wait to grab them! I showed him how to squeeze them putting my hand over his to let him feel the pressure needed to squeeze.
4. Then I just let him play and explore. I sat back and I watched.
I helped when he wanted it or showed signs of frustration and I occasionally talked about what he was doing. ‘I can see you picked up the red pom-pom. Well done.’ Gentle reminders; ’Remember to squeeze a little harder’, ‘Keep squeezing until you want to let go of it’.
Oh, and I drank my coffee!! 🙂
Ways you can extend this play…
* Ask children for a certain number of objects and count them out together.
* Leave a set of number cards alongside. They pick a card and pick out that many.
* Egg boxes are super for exploring numbers – how can you arrange 6 objects in different ways? Have multiple colours to sort in your box or ask them to pick out all of one colour.
* Change the size of your objects/pom poms – the smaller they are the trickier it gets.
* Take your egg box out into the garden or on a walk. What could you find and pick up to collect in your box? How many things did you collect? Have a chat about them – what colours are they? How big are they? Which is the biggest? Smallest? etc
What’s next….?
Following Z’s lead and being inspired by others so it could be anything!!
Tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m Rachel. I’m a Primary School Teacher and have been working in F2 and Year 1 for the past 11 years. I have a little boy who’s 22months so I’m enjoying thinking things up, finding activities and modifying things I’ve done at school in order to keep him entertained and occupied whilst trying to bits and pieces for school. It’s so lovely that he’s just about big enough to really get into things and explore it now – sometimes without my help!!!
It’s been hard work keeping Z busy and out of trouble whilst attempting to keep up with work demands and not letting the house become a right state. Hubby just started a new job in April so we’ve had to try to find balance. I went through a missed miscarriage at the beginning of March (my hormone levels haven’t gone down so I’m still not discharged from the hospital) so add in all of those emotions and it’s been rather up and down but right now I’m feeling positive!
Do you have any tips for others in the community?
*Try to find a small slice of your time. Whether that’s to watch a TV show you want in peace, read a book or go for a walk on your own. I’ve had to work really hard to separate looking after Z, work stuff, housework and then remember on top of that to take time for myself. I’m not big on routine and so my Hubby Ben has really helped out.
*Remember that little people don’t mind repetition – so that activity that took forever to set up and they played with for 5 seconds? leave it out, let them see you play with it, find a way to add to it and don’t lose heart. They don’t need all singing all dancing activities all the time. It’s ok that their favourite activity is poking toys into the gap between the settee – think of the motor skills!
*Planning ahead is always going to give you less stress but it’s so useful to have things to hand that you can grab in those winging it moments (oh so many moments). A good little craft kit is a parent’s best friend and you’d be surprised at some of the things you could be adding to it. Hopefully some of the activities on here will inspire you to build your own little stash/box/toolbox/cupboard full of stuff!
Any final thoughts?
Housebound with kids has been a fab outlet for me during this time. As a moderator, I feel like I’m helping and that sense of being useful is much needed right now.
It has inspired me to look in new places for ideas and it has given me an outlet to share all the wonderful activities we’ve enjoyed. I think it’s probably helping me tune into what parents want and need from teachers to support them in helping their children at home. The big problem is that everyone has such different needs so it’s made me want to listen even harder and it’s certainly going to impact how I work.
