How to Keep Your Little Ones Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has changed family life all across the globe. From the closure of nurseries and schools to physical distancing, adjusting to this new way of life has been challenging for many. For parents and carers all over the country, the pandemic presents the challenge of looking after children while managing their own workload at home. 

Keeping your little ones entertained can be difficult at the best of times. However, in the current climate, it may feel more difficult than ever. This can be a confusing time for children of all ages; they may be confused by bits of information they are hearing and the changes to their daily routine or environment. 

If you have a child under the age of five, they may be missing the benefits of going to a day nursery (don’t worry - everyone is in the same boat). There are lots of benefits of sending your child to nursery; nurseries encourage activities, help children to develop social skills and help them to learn new skills such as numeracy. The experiences children have during their first five years have a huge impact on the development of their brains, their health and their future as adults - and therefore it’s important to ensure they learn while they play. 

Fortunately, there are fun and educational activities you can do at home with your little ones to keep their minds stimulated and entertained, while encouraging them to learn new things. Read on for some of our favourite ideas.

Play learning games

There are plenty of fun and engaging ways to keep your little ones learning while at home. It’s no secret that children are full of energy, so why not get them moving while learning about a range of different subjects? Basic games that incorporate farm animals, colours, numbers and shapes will get your child thinking and learning while having some fun. 

Preschoolers are like little sponges; they are constantly absorbing information as they play. You may not even realise it, but the pots of play dough you have lying around at home actually offer immense learning possibilities. It can teach your children fine motor skills, encourage creativity and help them to develop hand-eye coordination. Moulding play dough into shapes, letters, numbers and objects is fun and easy. 

Planning a scavenger hunt is another fun and engaging way to get your children moving while learning. Base the clues around colours - for example, ‘find something red’.

Have fun with textures

Each and every day, toddlers are learning all about the world around them, through sight, sound, smell and touch. Allowing your child to experiment and play with textures is a great way to help them learn through their senses. Plus, learning about textures also encourages children to learn new creative adjectives such as ‘soft’, ‘rough’, ‘fluffy’ and ‘bumpy’. 

There are plenty of ways to get creative with textures. You can easily set up some texture samples for your little one to explore with their fingers. Either glue some small samples of different fabrics and textures onto a piece of paper or use ice lolly sticks to stick fabric on. Ask your child to try to explain to you what they feel - is the texture soft? Hard? Bumpy? Rough? Fluffy? 

Create a poster that spells out the first name of your child. Ask them to decorate it with different textures such as tiny pom poms or buttons. This will help them to familiarise the spelling and letters of their own name while experimenting with textures. 

For the next step up, why not place texture samples in boxes so children can guess what they’re touching? This is a fun game for preschoolers and you can use simple textures that you have lying around your home, such as a rubber ball or a rough scouring cloth.

Get hands-on with measuring activities

We use measurement in everyday life; it’s one of those skills that we require daily. Whether it’s measuring out ingredients for a recipe, working out our height or determining how many miles are left in the tank of our car, we measure using different units pretty much every day. Getting your little one involved with measuring from a young age can help them in the future - and there are plenty of fun and easy ways to get them measuring. 

Measurements for your little ones should start out very simply, using items that feature in their everyday lives - such as sweets, lego pieces, shoes, books, buttons or even just their hands and feet. Start off by measuring items around the house - for example, how many lego pieces high is the sofa? How many books does it take to cover the kitchen table? How many M&M’s does it take to line up the length of a flower? How many paperclips does it take to outline a kitchen tile? 

Using items that are more interesting, fun and ‘relevant’ to your child’s everyday life should make the activity more appealing and engaging.

Create a weatherboard

There are plenty of fun weather activities you can try at home to teach early learners about sun, rain, snow, wind and all of the other elements. Every single day we look outside and check the weather; it determines our plans, helps us work out what to wear that day and is an indication of the temperature outside. 

Creating a weather window or a weatherboard is a fun way to get your little ones talking and learning about the weather. You can turn your child into a junior meteorologist with just a few simple materials. Help your child to make shapes for each type of day - for example, a bright yellow sun, a grey cloud, rain drops, stars, a snowman, lightning and more. Stick these shapes to the board. Then, cut out some arrows (two often works best as sometimes the weather can be both cloudy and rainy, or sunny and windy). 

Attach some velcro to the arrows so they can easily point to the different elements. Each morning, when your child wakes and comes downstairs, ask them to adjust the weatherboard to match the weather outside, pointing the arrows at the correct elements.

Sandfield Day Nursery: a safe, happy, stimulating and caring environment for children

As experienced and compassionate childcare providers in Nottingham, we understand the importance of keeping your little ones entertained, engaged and educated. At Sandfield Day Nursery, we go above and beyond to create a comforting and educational nursery environment for the children of Nottingham. 

Our daycare facilities are suitable for children aged six weeks to five years old. Our facilities are designed to suit pupils of all ages and stages of development, with a secure and relaxed atmosphere created to help children thrive. We’re proud to offer some of the best facilities in Nottingham, offering childcare services that make our pupils and their parents feel safe and secure. 

Caring for children is our passion. We diligently select our childcare staff, taking into account their qualifications, teaching experience and child friendliness, ensuring that we only employ people we trust. When you choose us, you can rest assured your children are in safe hands. As experienced and compassionate childcare providers, we are dedicated to creating a safe, happy, stimulating and caring environment for children. 

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