School readiness: How to prepare your child for school

We’ve put together a list of 6 fun activities that will not only help to spark your little one’s imagination but will help to develop the many skills they will need at school and in life.

1. Hopscotch

To play this classic game, all you’ll need is some chalk to draw your hopscotch and a stone or similar to throw.

Hopscotch is a great way for your child to learn the sounds of words and it can really help boost their early reading skills. By playing this fun game with your little one it will help to develop their listening and understanding skills. They’ll also begin to learn to take turns and cooperate with others.

2. Feelings tree

Expressing feelings is an important part of growing up. It can be tough, even for adults, to open up and share how we are feeling.

By having a feelings tree in your home, you’ll be encouraging your child to express themselves. Whether they feel happy, sad or frustrated, a feelings tree might help your child tell you how they feel.

To make a feelings tree all you’ll need is some card, pieces of paper and some pens. If you want to make your tree realistic, you could add some leaves from the garden!

Simply cut out the shape of a tree and ask your little one if they would like to draw a face representing an emotion on a small piece of paper. Then stick these pieces of paper to the tree and start to talk about the emotion and when they might’ve felt it.

3. A trip to the toilet

To ensure your little one is confident with using the toilet, make their toilet trips a little more fun by talking through it with them. Explain what is happening and remind them of what they need to do, for example washing their hands or flushing the toilet.

By talking through a trip to the toilet and giving them lots of praise, you’ll help your child build confidence so they feel ready to go to the toilet independently when they start school.

4. Sharing with toys

By the time your child starts school it’s important they begin to feel comfortable with the idea of sharing. By regularly encouraging your little one to share objects with you or their toys via pretend play, they will become confident with this important skill. Talking about sharing will help your child to understand the importance of fairness and it will help them to work out problems and talk through issues.

5. Sounds treasure hunt

This simple activity can be done from the comfort of your home! A sound or phonics treasure hunt will help your child recognise the sounds at the beginning of words.

To play the game, you could either fill a basket with some different toys or use some everyday objects from around your home. Then with your little one you can find 2 or 3 objects that start with a ‘b’ sound or a ‘sh’ sound.

A phonics treasure hunt can be lots of fun and is a great way to build your child’s literacy and speaking confidence and it will encourage them to articulate their ideas in longer sentences.

6. Putting things in order

Being able to sort and put things in order is a great skill. Whether this is the smallest object to the biggest to the lightest to the heaviest, this is an easy game to play around the home.

You could even use this game to encourage your little one to tidy their room by placing their toys in order from smallest to biggest and maybe get them helping you sort the socks into colours, patterns and pairs!