Early Engagement

Help your child:

• identify his/her name

• identify first letter in his/her name then increase to learning other letters in name

• sing the alphabet song

• play with magnetic letters

• make letters with playdough or Wikki Stix

• listen to stories (attend a story time in local library)

• hold a book and turn the pages

• sing and rhyme ( do these rhyme?)

• identify colours

• hold a pencil

• practice making circles, vertical straight lines, horizontal straight lines with a pencil

• begin to write name (first letter is uppercase, followed by lowercase letters for the rest)

• respond to questions

• teach them how to greet a friend

• use words to express needs and wants

• follow two and three step directions

Help your child:

• learn their age

• practice counting and pointing to objects as they count

• play with numbers

• notice numbers in his/her world

• play with containers talk about size

• begin identifying numbers to 10

• notice and identify basic shapes (circle, square)

• do age appropriate puzzles

• sort objects by colour and shape

• build a tower of six blocks

• make a simple pattern (ABAB)

Help your child:

• teach them to put on coats and sweaters, zip up zippers independently

• teach them how to open and how to put lunch containers back in lunch bag and zip it up - do this several times

• practise putting lunch container into backpack - do this several times

• teach them to toilet themselves independently (sit, stand, wipe, appropriate amounts of toilet paper, flush, wash hands)

• discuss washroom etiquette (shut the door, knock first if door is shut, wash hands)

• discuss how to get in a line when lining up in a grocery store

• separate from guardians (try leaving child with others for an extended period of time with a group of children)

• take turns and share items

• practice using scissors to cut straight lines