I’ve recently had to shuffle my work hours around to better suit my miss 4 in care. Day one of my day with miss 4 I went to kmart and bought 150 bucks of activities to do with her. Things like clocks, how to tie your shoelace, colouring in, painting, sensitory box. Heaps of stuff to choose from and relatively cheap

If we have the day off together (tough as I work full time) we go to our local library story time that happens a couple of times a week.

Yes its good for them to do after school activities like some sort of sport etc but please dont over do it as your child does get tired too an needs some down time for themselves

I try not to think of it like a task to do but how can I incorporate it into every day life. Depending on age but having our daughter help count out how many potatoes I need for dinner, if she picks out too many make a subtraction question. Even weighing ingredients, scales or with measuring cups. At shopping, ask them to help grab x amount of items.
Reading reading reading. It’s hard at the end of the day but reading brings so many benefits to kids so I make sure we try to read every night. I’ve also just bought our daughter a bug catcher with built in magnifying glass so she’s catching bugs and looking at them close up.

Kindy is hard enough as it is!
Though, my kindy boy plays a free xbox and playstation game called ‘Island Saver’ on the weekends. It is his downtime but made by a bank so contains maths as well as minor reading of dialogue. Very easy to learn

I agree that cooking is a great way to learn maths and learn to read recipes etc, we do that a lot here. I also try and work it into every day things – we read for fun, we measure things, count things., just add it into every day things.

Every child should learn to do Coding and basic computer skills

Cooking is really great – measuring, weighing, following instructions – and kids usually find it fun.

I remember there was a good site for maths. I think it was called something like Mathletics and you could choose age appropriate maths games. My daughter loved it.

I find reading eggs and math seeds very good but honestly just spending time with your child reading or playing with them will help them learn. Five is still super young so whatever you do keep it light and fun

When we went for kindy induction, the principal said things like making them count all the stuff you put on the counter when you’re at the shops, counting steps to and from one place to another for maths.
English wise, the suggested whenever there is a large letter on something, to ask them what that letter is so they get used to the visual of the letter and learn to recognise it in the alphabet.

To be honest you could see any and every situation as learning; whether it is play, a walk in the forest, cooking or an art /craft project they learn social skills and manners, sharing, fine and gross motor skills, cognitive skills,learning about their emotions and what not !

Along with the household activities listed in my previous response; lots of fun games that include Maths and English are so good for developing these skills. Scrabble Junior is good for creating words and counting scores. Maybe search the games aisles for some board games that appeal to the family.

At five it’s very much about play and accidental learning. Any activity you do with your child can be a teaching/learning opportunity. Cooking = counting, measuring, chemistry. Gardening = biology, Play dates = interpersonal relationship skills etc. Five is very young to be worrying about extra academic learning. Just build it into the everyday activities.

Everything you do as a parent is a learning opportunity for kids, especially the young ones

At 5 years old. Wow. I think going outside to see the nature, bugs, flowers, trees. That’s all learning. And that’s what my 4 1/2 year old twins interested in. I think there is enough time to learn other things. Let’s kids be kids first.

i personally feel 5 years is too young for more activity other than school. this is the age for play and learn.

Bring it into everyday activities. Helping serve up food and counting it out. Bringing in the mail – trying to read the mail or count how many letters. Playing family board games like trouble. Walking in the neighbourhood reading numbers on houses & letterboxes, signs, numberplates, car brands. etc. Anything and everything in the world around them.

There are many activities around the home that use English and Maths. Children’s cookbooks are terrific for English and Maths. Recipes need to be read comprehended and ingredients need to be measured. Gardening is similar; in learning; plants, fruit and vegetable names, counting and planting and growing and keeping charts. Look at every activity around the home; inside and out and look at every opportunity to use English and Maths.

Repetition and rhymes are good for the times tables at that age. Maybe have some fun posters around the place. As for spelling, maybe make a fun game of ‘chase’ where she is only allowed to move forward if she correctly spells a word. I.e. if she spells a simple word correctly, she can move 2 steps forwards, if she spells incorrectly, 1 step backward. We did things like that in the classroom and I always found that really fun.