Sand is a wonderful substance for experiments. When it is dry it flows like water, when wet you can mould it - and when very wet it forms a slurry and flows. You can run a stick through it to leave a temporary trail. It can be used to build castles, or roads for his cars. In fact it’s the perfect “I made that happen toy” for a small child.
The beach
The beach offers so many opportunities it is hard to know where to start!
* A hole to sit in. If he is not quite sitting firmly dig him a small hole and wedge his bottom. He will be able to sit- but put towels all around him so he does not eat the sand.
* Make sand castles. Fill buckets and upturn them or simply pile up the sand and mould into walls. A little wet sand dribbled over the walls makes it look a bit creepy. Decorate with sea weed, lollipop sticks and shells.
* Make a sea wall. Best played when the tide is coming in. Dig a hole for him to sit in, make a wall around it, and pile up the sand to stop the sea encroaching.
* Make holes and channels from the waters edge up the beach- when the waves reach the channel the water flows.
* Dig channels from rock pools and watch the water flow.
* Slide down banks of soft sand
In the garden
It is possible to buy sand pits with lids. Do cover it when not in use to ensure no stray bits of rubbish or stones get in. Do not use sharp sand (as the name suggests the grains are sharp). It is possible to buy finer soft sand by the bag.
* Make sand castles – give him bucket and spade or different household containers like Tupperware tubs
* Make rake patterns – have a game of making patterns with a rake or other objects.
* Make roads – use a tool or stick to make roads in the sand for his cars
* Pouring -Scoop it up and pour it in lumps from a jug.
* Mixing - Mix water with sand to make a slurry and pour this from a jug.
In the house.
There are lots of ways for creative play with sand indoors, you can use ordinary fine sand, or buy coloured sands, or even just use similar substances such as sugar.
* Touching – Sand or sugar feels good for him just to run his hands through.
* Pouring – Sand or sugar can be poured through a funnel. This is great fun and is also great for developing his dexterity as he gains control of his wrists.
* Making Pictures – Give him a tray and then fill a bag with sand or sugar. If you seal it with an elastic band and then snip a small corner off, he can play at pouring it out and make sand pictures on the tray.
* Weighing – Weigh sand with scales, is wet sand heavier or lighter than dry?
* Sand in water - A spoonful of sand can be added to water and stirred- the grains swim around and colour the water but some settles at the bottom, if more sand is added he makes a slurry that can be poured and which will flow into interesting shapes..
As you watch your child putting a cube into his shape sorter over and over again, you know that through his play he’s developing skills and committing the action to memory. Did you know that this is the same when he drops his dinner from his highchair? It might surprise you to hear that he may just be practicing his spatial skills
As his eye-hand coordination develops he may be able to line up a jigsaw piece so it fits into the puzzle and it is his spatial skills that tell him which piece to select and that it will fit. By playing with his shape sorter, or running his toy car around chair legs, he is learning how to maneuver his body through spaces and how to interact with, and avoid colliding with, other things. He is developing the skills that we use every day to get dressed, to draw, to make sure our jumper is on the right way round and so on.
On a greater scale his spatial orientation skills are the ones he develops to, for example, get his toy truck from the kitchen into the lounge and, as adults, we use these skills to understand directions, to draw maps and know where we are in relation to landmarks and so on.
Children need to learn both orientation and spatial manipulation and you can encourage his development with the many tools and activities designed to help him.
Games To Develop Your Child’s Orientation Skills:
Coconuts!
Set up a coconut, or something else he can throw balls at! Encourage him to throw balls or beanbags at the coconut with the aim of knocking it off. For a summer party, daddy could sit in a chair while the children throw wet sponges at him!
One Step, Two Step.
Ask him to count how many steps it takes to cross the room? From the bedroom to the bathroom? Get him to measure how many standard steps it takes him to walk up the garden path.
Gotcha.
Scrunch up an old newspaper into soft balls. You and your child each has a chair to defend and the aim is to try and hit the other person’s chair with your ’ammunition’!
Moving House.
Ask him to move a pile of things, such as leaves, from one side of the garden to the other using his wheelbarrow.
Relievio.
This game is a variation on the childhood favourite, ’tag’. More than two people can play the game where, once you’ve been caught, you must go to the box until you are relieved, or rescued, by someone who hasn’t been tagged.
Toy Box Tips - Orientation Skills
* Bikes, tricycles and, ’sit and rides’. Try the Stride to Ride. * Skates * Trucks, toy pushchairs, toy wheelbarrows * Climbing frames * Balls
Games To Develop Your Child’s Spatial Skills.
Let’s Pour.
Let him practice pouring during bath time, using jugs and beakers and so on. Once he has mastered the skill, you could let him use a tea set to pour drinks for his teddies.
Snake!
Draw a long snake and divide it into a few sections, then ask him to colour each section in neatly.
Where Is He?
Books with faces hidden in the crowd or drawings with familiar objects hidden in the picture are great to amuse children. You can make your own by hiding simple shapes, such as triangles or circles, in drawings.
Tangrams.
Take a large square piece of card and divide it into a number of different shapes, like squares, oblongs and L shapes, of different sizes. Ask him to make new shapes with the individual pieces, or try to assemble them into the original square shape.
Mosaic.
Draw a simple shape or picture and cut gummed or sticky coloured paper into little squares. Let him have fun by sticking the pieces into the picture to make a mosaic.
Toy Box Tips - Spatial Skills:
* Puzzles * Shape sorters. Try the Peek A Blocks Shape Sorter * Stacking cups * Linking toys, such as linking rings. Try any Link-a-Doos toy or teether * Play sets, such as garages. Try the Little People Ramps Around Garage * Construction kits. Try anything in the Pop Onz collection * Dolls
Getting out and about is really good fun, but it also provides lots of opportunity for learning fun.
* Learning – letters, numbers and counting opportunities are everywhere!
* Social skills – opportunities to interact with other people and their world
* Language – shared experiences will give you lots to talk about for many days afterwards
Shopping
Use the opportunity for learning. Play counting games and practice social skills.
* Look for apples. What colour are they?
* How many sorts of cabbage?
* Look for the numbers of the shopping aisles.
* How many different sorts of tinned tomatoes?
* How many checkouts?
* How many times do you see F for Frankie?
* Let him buy a carton of milk from the corner shop (warn the shop keeper or make sure the shop is empty).
On the way home
* Count the buses.
* Post a letter
* How many animals can you see? Cats, dogs, squirrels, birds, bees, butterflies.
* Spell his name – look for the letters on road signs and cars.
Crossing the Road
Use the opportunity to learn a vital safety skill.
* Stop, look, listen, cross.
* Remember you set the example.
* Always use the crossings on major roads.
In the Park
* Discover colours *
Try to find flowers in all of the colours of the rainbow
* Under the bridge *
Shout under the bridge and listen for the echo. Even better with a tunnel.
Let him put his ear to the wall, and then whisper at the wall. Can he hear you?
Look for bird pooh. Is this where birds sleep at night?
* Make a bark rubbing *
Take some small pieces of paper and a crayon, put the paper against the bark of the tree and scotble over it with a crayon. You will get the pattern of the bark. This will not work with really rough bark.
* Make a bark impression *
Take some play dough or plastecine to make an impression of some bark
If you can’t name the tree, why not take a leaf home and look it up together in a nature book
You could create a nature shelf for him – store his different bark impressions and leaves here, to help him build up a collection.
Like scientists small children investigate and experiment. Many of the activities children love - from rolling balls, scooting around on bikes or playing with bath toys - teach them basic scientific principles (about solids and liquids, forces and acceleration for example) although it will be quite a few years before they can put what they learn into words or understand scientific theories.
Growing
There are lots of things you can grow together from big things to small. Growing things helps him to work towards a goal, builds a sense of achievement and helps him develop his caring and nurturing side.
Cress cross
* Tear off about a dozen pieces of kitchen towel and put them on a plate. Soak the paper by pouring or spooning water onto it.
* Lay a pastry cutter on the paper. Sew the cress seed inside the cutter. Carefully spread the seed out with the back of a spoon making sure it goes right to the edge.
* Lift the cutters. Use a spoon to water the seeds each day.
* Watch the cress grow and when its ready – eat it!
* You can adapt this game to build in letter play – use letter cutters or a steady hand to sew seeds to spell out his name or initials.
Real instant garden
Help him to make his own instant mini garden.
* Take one large plant pot
* Fill with compost or earth
* Give him a selection of things (or help him to find his own) that can be used to construct an instant garden. Use moss for a lawn, mirror for a pond, mini plants that can look like trees and bushes.
Using the scraps
* When preparing vegetables, like carrots, parsnips or beetroot, save the tops.
* Put these in a plate and some water and leave on the windowsill
* Within a couple of days these tops should have shoots.
Big
Children love growing big plants. Especially if they have a measuring stick to see how they are growing. Plant sunflower seeds in pots. Water and care for them and when they are about 4 inches high plant them out into the garden. Measuer them each week. You can try the same with bamboo.
My herb garden
* Buy small herbs pots from the supermarket and grow these together. He can explore his senses with these. He can taste them and smell them.
Nature Play
There is lots to explore when you’re out and about in the countryside or garden. Looking out for tiny details really helps him to learn to pay attention and to look for the detail in things – an important pre-reading skill.
* Footprints. Can you tell which are birds and which are animals?
* Whose had lunch? Look for leaves that have been eaten by small creatures. Can you find the creature near by?
* Look who lives under small logs and stones.
* Look who lives under leaves.
* Look who visits flowers.
* Snail trails.
*
Play & Learn activities reprinted from "Preschooler Play & Learn" with permission of its author, Penny Warner, and its publisher, Meadowbrook Press (2000.)
