6 aspects of your child’s early years education to focus on at home

Use personal interest to shape play. If your child loves dinosaurs, walk and roar like a dinosaur together, draw dinosaurs, and have dinosaur tea parties. Use their fascination as a tool to engage and inspire. Letters and numbers can also be introduced to the theme to maintain engagement—remember, happy children learn best!

All humans crave social interaction. By letting children interact with each other in playgroups or at school, they get to see how their peers react to new situations. Social interaction stimulates and broadens personal interests and also boosts self-esteem—it takes courage to engage!

Remember, whatever you are doing at home, your child will most likely copy you! Children love following everything they see, which is why sometimes you hear them blurting out words and phrases they’ve overheard from your conversations or from the telly, without really knowing what they mean. You can take advantage of this by encouraging good practices, such as reading or eating vegetables, simply by doing it first yourself.

We know people say it all the time, but we will say it again: encourage your children to read! You can buy books or make use of public libraries to surround your child with stories. Make a big deal out of bringing your child to the library about once a week, and let them pick out their own books. Don’t be afraid to read the same book over and over; repetition supports a better understanding.