We’ve put together a few ideas, activities and games to try with your little ones at home!
1) Word Tennis
Word tennis is fantastic for keeping young minds active and thinking on the spot! It’s a very simple game to pick up, and can be played anywhere (even when out for your daily walks).
To start, ask your child to choose a category and then take turns ‘bouncing’ words back and forth to each other until someone can’t think of one. The sky’s the limit when it comes to choosing categories, some ideas that work well in Shine classes include:
- Food
- Colours
- Animals
- Nature
- Sports
- Books
To start, just pick a category and say a word like, “broccoli!”, then it’s their turn, then yours … and so on. Easy!
2) Musical statues
This game is a classic for a reason.
Get your children in the living room or backyard and play their favourite music, encouraging them to dance around freely. When the music stops it’s time to freeze!
For the next level, have your kids dance around but when the music stops, they have to freeze in a pose as their favourite superhero.
To start, get together, turn on some music and dance…. !
3) Try some Tongue Twisters together!
Tongue twisters are a fun way to help children improve the fluency and clarity of their speech. They are great for adults too! Try these:
‘There’s a chip shop in space which sells spaceship‐shaped chips.
‘These tricky tongue twisters trip thrillingly off the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue’
‘Unique New York, New York’s Unique’
‘Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers!’
‘Toy boat.’ x10
To start, try saying one slowly, then try repeating them, increasing the tempo each time!
4) Write a letter to a friend/ neighbour/ family member
Although our in-person interactions are very limited right now, writing a letter to a friend is a fun way to help children practice their writing and to remind them of the special connections they have with their school friends.
Bonus points if you offer to deliver the letter for them to a nearby friend (perhaps with a coffee for the parents too!).
To start, get your child a pen and paper and ask them to write about the best thing that’s happened this week…
5) Start a Vision Board
Vision boards are a fun way to help your child record and display their dreams and goals, while expressing their creativity!
To start, give your child an A3 piece of card, a glue stick, some magazines, colour pencils and coloured paper and encourage them to create their very own 2022 Vision Board.
We love helping our shine students to build confidence and develop their creativity through our online lessons this lockdown. Keep shining everyone!