Stuck at home with your child and unable to head out due to the haze? Here are some suggested activities to keep your child happy and occupied while you stay indoors.

Sensory Play

If your child likes to touch and feel different objects, sensory play is something that they would enjoy. There are many simple household objects that can be used for sensory play. For example, from your kitchen, you might have fruits, ice cubes and whipped cream (edibles). You might also find uncooked pasta, rice and beans (non-edibles).

You may experiment with temperature (ice cubes and warm water) and viscosity (greasy, slimy and gluey). Kitchen utensils may also be used as an apparatus for your little ones. For under 3-year-olds, potato masher would be a fantastic play toy. For those above 3, they could use ladles, cups and scoops.

Sensory play is not only fun but also helps to build up those pre-writing muscles. So, let loose and go messy with your child!

Baby Chef

For the food lover in your child, you can prepare a snack together. What a great parent-child bonding activity it will be!

Some suggested activities: peeling the skin of a banana, digging out the seeds of watermelon or papaya and even spreading butter or jam on a slice of bread.

Go wild with experimenting the olfactory senses with smells (peanut butter, oranges etc.) and textures (banana, strawberries, peanuts etc.). Flex your child’s tongue and jaw muscles by introducing foods that are chewy and crunchy.

A little game that you can play – get your child to lick off peanut butter or jam off of their upper lips! This will allow them to flex their muscles and discover the fun of tongue movements.

Storytime

Nothing beats reading a good ol’ storybook with your child! Choose an appropriate book for your child’s age. You might want to look through the book first to check for colourful graphics, suitable font size and the usage of common sight vocabulary.

Other than just reading the story, try experimenting with your facial expressions, voice, rhythm and pitch to make the story come alive!

Introducing books at a young age will kickstart their early literacy journey.

Pretend Play

Looking for ways to nurture imagination and foster social interaction in your child?

You can create scenarios where your child would enjoy taking on roles such as being a superhero, research scientist or even an entrepreneur! Do not let anyone stop you from experimenting with your furniture, blankets and household items to create an imaginative play set that suits your child the best.

Let’s rule the world together and change the world into a better place (for two hours haha).

Building Interest

Develop your child’s natural sense of curiosity into a strong foundation for literacy. You may start by introducing the letters of the alphabet using letter cubes, painting the letters or even writing on the mirror with their little wet fingers!

Your child could experiment with you using different writing mediums, letter cards and forming the letter structure with simple objects.

What an engaging and fun-filled way to spend an afternoon indoors to pique their interest in the formation of different letters!