Educational activities to do during the school holidays with a six year old

Lady Chatterton

My daughter has just turned six and has almost completed her first year in primary school. She loves school and she really likes the homework routine so I was hoping to do some educational activities for at least an hour a day during the holidays. (She will also be doing sports/art/music/fun stuff during the holidays).

I'm just wondering what the teachers/parents on this forum would recommend? Should I revise all the work she has done this year or are there websites or activity books that I should go through with her?

One area that I'm anxious to help her with is her writing skills as she has a few issues with pencil grip and her writing suffers as a result. I have consulted an Occupational Therapist and he has given me some activities that with help her in this area.

I'd be grateful for any advice/recommendations that would help prepare my daughter for Senior Infants

byhookorbycrook

An hour is a very long time to a child just finished junior infants, I would worry that she might lose interest and that it might prove counter-productive.Do they use the Jolly Phonics system within the school?Is it only the fine motor skills you are concerned with?Handwriting problems can actually come from the shoulder area.
http://www.otplan.com/ is a useful site. Games like "Operation"are good as she will need to use the tweezers to help play, hanging out clothes, finger painting, colouring with thin (NOT chubby!!) crayons,Lego and/or Hama beads,knitting/sewing and most other crafts are all good too. sensationalkids.ie have lots of useful stuff.

(Re Hama beads, they are tiny so be careful if you have smallies.)

Lady Chatterton

Thank you so much 'by hook or by crook' for your reply and for the OT website, I really appreciate it

My daughter is a child who likes routine and she really misses school during the holidays. During the Christmas and Easter Holidays we spent an hour a day on school type activities and she absolutely loved it.

I'm currently trying to come up with a range of activities that will help her in all areas at school but I don't want to go leaping too far ahead either. With regard to the Jolly Phonics system, her school use it.

mackes

Dance Mat typing is a game based typing program on the bbc website - might be fun to to that?
Get a red and blue lined copy and write out her letters in it and do some writing in it every day
Marla/plasticine is far better than Play Doh for exercising fine motor skills that are needed in writing so get in some and make things with it.
Count things in the house e.g. lets count how many socks are washed today, how many tiles are on the floor...
Look at things and describe them e.g. what does that label say, describe what the sky/park/your clothes etc look like
Name 10 things you saw on the way to the shops today; Name 5 fruits etc
Sing simple songs/recite nursery rhymes
Games like ISpy; Guess Who; Board games are all useful
Draw pictures linked to your games and get her to label them. Don't worry about spelling but it's great if the first and last words are correct. Invented spelling is an important part of becoming a proficent speller, reader and writer.
If she really wants books to write in to any book shop and buy another junior infant phonics book like Sounds Ok or something like that. This reinforces the work she has already done without impacting on senior infants.
Read a story every night - it's so important!

Fair play to you - it's great to see a parent so interested! Don't overload her - oral work is a really really important part of development at this age so chatting and asking questions are vital!

Lady Chatterton

Excellent stuff ^^^^^^ Thank you very much Mackes, loads of brilliant ideas there!

byhookorbycrook

www.theschoolbell.com
www.starfall.com
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/
http://www.scoilnet.ie/
http://dltk-teach.com/
www.seomraranga.com

would all be worthwhile.
Jolly Phonics do an excellent cd-rom of games that would be revise and extend phonological awareness.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jolly-Phonics-Games-single-User/dp/1844140822

OakeyDokey

One activity that children loved and kept them interested was Collage/Nature Walk. We took the children on a nature walk just around the grounds (you could do it in your back garden if it's big enough) We collected leaves and other bits and brought them inside and made a nature college.

Doing an activity like this helps development in many areas, you have motor skills working when you on the walk and then inside you have your fine skills while doing the art. Children also gain knowledge of subjects such as nature, art and a bit of health and safety.

Lisha

OakeyDokey wrote: »

One activity that children loved and kept them interested was Collage/Nature Walk. We took the children on a nature walk just around the grounds (you could do it in your back garden if it's big enough) We collected leaves and other bits and brought them inside and made a nature college.

Doing an activity like this helps development in many areas, you have motor skills working when you on the walk and then inside you have your fine skills while doing the art. Children also gain knowledge of subjects such as nature, art and a bit of health and safety.

Just wondering do you use a book to help identify leaves etc, Id love a simple Irish based nature book to use on nature walks, all suggestions gratefully recieved.

Sorry for hijacking thread MrsD:)