How to help your child at home, so they are ready for reception

Here are lots of ways you can support your child, so they are ready to join us in EYFS for their reception year:

• Practise dressing and undressing themselves, including putting on their shoes and coat, reversing sleeves and clothing when they are inside out and using buttons, zips and poppers. 

• Encourage your child to toilet independently and wash their hands afterwards. 

• Be active, daily movement: walking, running, hopping, skipping, jumping, climbing, practising throwing and catching a ball, riding bikes and scooters, walking up and down steps one foot at a time. . 

• Develop your child’s independence and confidence, spend time away from you, learning to be looked after by caring adults.  Looking after their belongings, tidying up after themselves, having an attitude of ‘I can do it’/‘I can try’.  Using their words to ask for help. 

• Use a knife and fork to eat with. A great way to do this is to make pretend food with play dough and practice cutting it up. Drink from an open cup. 

• Play with your child, encourage them to be imaginative, express themselves, make choices and decisions and understand the connections between play and their positive real-life learning experiences, eg. making up stories and adventures, shopping, visiting doctors or vets. 

• Provide opportunities for your child to pay attention for short periods of time, to play contentedly on their own and discover their own ideas and ways to keep busy. 

• Plan ‘time to talk’ for just a few minutes each day without distractions such as the TV, mobile phone or other technology. Encourage your child to take part in conversation, taking turns listening, responding and answering questions. Speaking clearly with confidence, using full sentences. Spend time talking to them about how they are feeling and why. 

• Listen to and carry out simple instructions. Carry out a task even when it's difficult and bounce back if things go wrong. Age-appropriate challenges and solving problems is an important part of the learning process. 

• Explore the world around us and talk about activities and experiences, name everything around us to develop and expand their vocabulary, eg. How many farm animals can they name? How many different fruits and vegetables can they name? Items in the rooms at home. 

• Encourage your child to use 'please' and 'thank you'. 

• Sing a wide range of nursery rhymes and counting songs.

• Do puzzles and play memory and matching games. Practice sharing, taking turns and following rules as part of the rules of the game. Can they remember where the piece is that they need without having to turn lots over? 

• Learn how to handle and share books, listen to stories and talk about them. Stories are a great way to talk about the characters and how they are feeling, helping your child begin to recognise what others are feeling, eg. excited, nervous, calm, focused, tired.

• Learn the names of colours. 

• Recognise and name 2d shapes - square, circle, rectangle, triangle, star, oval, heart, diamond. 

• Count and recognise numbers to 20 and beyond. 

• Drawing, painting, colouring, cutting and sticking and craft activities help develop fine motor strength, control and coordination. 

• Recognise and practise writing their name, with a capital letter at the beginning followed by lowercase letters, using the letter shapes and formation shown below: