We’re bringing you an assortment of at-home learning activities you can use to boost your child’s skills while they’re home from school during vacation. These fun and inexpensive activities will keep kids learning and give you easy ways to connect with them during this break in routine.
Please share these ideas with any families who might benefit, and if you have a favorite at-home activity to share with us!
Academic skills
Mealtime Math! Do your kids like to help out in the kitchen? Meal prep is the perfect time to get children counting, measuring, estimating, comparing, and recognizing shapes. Ask your child to measure and count cups of ingredients, count how many plates and utensils are needed for the whole family, name the shapes of the dishes and sponges, count the number of steps they took to complete a task, or predict how many dishes will fit in the dishwasher.
Your daily book reading sessions are golden opportunities to actively build early literacy skills. To boost vocabulary knowledge, watch for words you think your child may not know and briefly define and talk about them. When you reread a book, ask your child if they remember what the word means, and try to use the new words at other times of the day to reinforce knowledge. To build letter recognition skills, try pointing to letters as you say their names, singing a slowed-down ABC song while you point to each letter in the book. Turn to random pages in the book and see if children can name and point to the letters themselves. You can follow up by having your child make their own ABC book, finding or drawing pictures for each letter.
Make an at home museum. If your child has collected little treasures over the years (rocks, shells, toy dinosaurs, buttons, etc.), show them how to arrange their collections in themed displays using shoe boxes, small jars, or egg cartons. Help children label their treasures—a great way to practice letter writing and recognition—and build their language skills by encouraging them to give “tours” of their personal museum to visitors.
Create a writing center. Make writing/prewriting activities inviting to young children, and designate a table or desk as your home’s “writing center.” Fill it with open-ended materials that invite exploration and experimentation. Offer kids blank paper in different colors, a small dry-erase board, markers, crayons, pencils, scissors, glue sticks, hole punches, and envelopes. Kids who have a variety of materials on hand will be more likely to initiate self-directed writing projects.
Communication skills
Have an adventure without leaving your living room! Sit with your kids on a rug or couch and pretend you’re leaving for a big adventure on a magic carpet, submarine, or school bus. Ask them to share their ideas on where they want to visit, and take turns creating a story about your adventure. Describe the sights you see and ask kids questions: “Look, there’s a circus! Can you see the elephants? What are they doing?” “Do you see that school of fish? What do you think fish learn about in school?” This is a great way to strengthen communication skills while having fun
Social-emotional skills
Pound some dough together. Mushing, squeezing, and pounding dough is a great activity for helping kids process feelings of anger, frustration, and helplessness (and grownups might find this just as therapeutic). Mix up some cookie dough and mash and knead it together. Or if baking isn’t your thing, let the kids smush and pound play dough or clay. They’ll let off steam in a safe way and hone their creativity at the same time. 
Encourage nurturing play. Nurturing dolls and stuffed animals is a good way for children to refocus their feelings and practice caring behavior. Set up toy cribs where children can put their “babies” to bed, water tables where kids can bathe their dolls, and places where the babies can be fed with old bottles, sippy cups, and spoons. Help children create caregiving scenarios and praise children for their TLC. (Be sure to include kids of all genders in this activity—every child can benefit from practicing their caring skills.)
Whatever you choose to do this week we hope that you have fun!
