We are skipping at a frightening pace towards my eldest starting school now. The summer holidays are here, and parents with older children are wondering what to do with six weeks at home entertaining their kids while I try to soak up every second of my wee man before classroom antics turn him into a 12 year old in a heartbeat. Next year I will be that Mum…but for now, it is school that is on my mind this summer and one question; IS HE READY?
Now, as someone who worked in a Reception class and knows lots of lovely Reception teachers, rest assured…NOTHING IS EXPECTED of them in terms of letters and numbers when they start school. The teacher will start at the beginning, counting to ten and teaching the letters and sounds one by one. However that doesn’t stop me wanting to give Ewan a head start! 😉
The crucial point is this though, as it is with all my games. Only if he WANTS to. The games are there to provide fun and entertainment for us all. The letter and number bits I put into them are there as a way to bring those vital educational elements into our play without it detracting from the joy. Learning through play always.
So Ewan loves his numbers but STILL skips 15 in his count to 20, so this little game was devised to help with that. As usual I laid it out on the lounge floor, then sometime later he trotted up to it and said “is this a game Mummy?’ (he knows the score by now!) and I said “yes it is, would you like to play?” and he said “yep” so I said “great, let’s play this and when we are done we can all have juice and a biscuit” and that is basically how our days go…!