Letter Recognition

• Letters are Everywhere --Draw your child's attention to letters and words in his/her environment (signs, cereal boxes, toy boxes, menus, etc.)
   
• Letter Writer--Have your child trace letters on/in different surfaces (sand, rice, cloth, etc.) Say the name of the letter with your child as they form the letter.
   
• Letter Builder--Build letters with different materials such as macaroni, pipe cleaners, playdough, etc.
   
• Print the Letters -- Practice printing upper and lower case letters. (one time each week)
   
• Tactile Letters – Make a tactile letter for finger tracing.  Write a letter on large paper.  Trace with glue. Sprinkle with sand, salt, or rice. When dry, have your child trace the letter with his/her finger and say the name of the letter.
   
• Rainbow Letters -- Write one letter on a large sheet of paper. Have your child rainbow write the letter by tracing over it with 4 or more colors of crayons or markers.
   
• Letter Search -- Name a letter and ask your child to find as many different sizes, colors, and styles of that letter as possible to cut and glue onto a sheet of paper.
   
• Which Letter? -- Write a row of different letters for your child. Say one of those letters and ask him/her to circle the letter you said.
   
• Highlights -- Give some of your junk mail to your child and ask him/her to use a marker or crayon to highlight or circle certain letters. (exp. Highlight all of the Kk's orange, all of the Pp's purple, all of the Yy's blue, etc.)

Sounds

• Flashcards/ABC Picture Chart—Daily do a quick review of letters and sounds.  Show the card and have your child either…say the letter name and the picture name; say the letter name and the sound; say the sound and the picture name; or say the letter name, picture name, and another word that would start with that same letter.
   
• Sticky Letter--Make 3x5 letter cards. Make several of the same letter. Work on one sound at a time. Have your child find an object in the house that begins with that sound and tape the card to it. Keep it up for a few days so that your child can be reminded of the sound each time they see the letter card.
   
• "I Spy" letter sounds -- "I spy something that begins with the sound of b."   Or, say, "I spy a ____.  What letter do you hear at the beginning of that word." This is great for waiting in line or driving in the car.
   
• Brainstorm--Give your child a sound and ask him/her to think of as many words as they can that start with that same sound.
   
• ABC tub games--Get a butter dish or small bowl. Gather several household objects that begin with the same letter sound and a few that don't. Your child must figure out which items begin with the same sound and put them in the bowl.
   
• Search the House -- Your child can search around the house for objects whose names begin with a certain letter. (exp. B- bananas, brush, band-aid, belt, etc.)
   
• Picture Sound Collage -- Ask your child to search through magazines, etc. for pictures that start with a certain letter.  Have them glue all the pictures they find onto one sheet of paper to form a letter collage.
   
• Tongue Twisters -- Play with tongue twisters-traditional or made up!  They are fun and emphasize the initial consonant. (exp. Pink pigs play with purple pegs.)
   
• ABC Memory—Find 1 picture that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  Also, make flashcards, 1 for each letter. Play memory by asking your child to match each letter to it's corresponding picture. (exp. An apple with the letter Aa)

Name Games

• Young children naturally like to see their name written down, and have a great desire to know the letters in their name.  Have children start with the letters in their own name when attempting to recognize and name letters. 
• Use the beginning sound in their name for building sound
  recognition.  For example, if your child's name starts with J, find other items that start with /j/ like jelly, jumprope and jar, etc.
• To practice writing their names, let children write (first letter
  uppercase and all the others lowercase) in sand, a small tray of rice,
  shaving cream, pudding (Yum!), finger paint, glitter crayons, write it big with sidewalk chalk, shape playdough into the letters, etc. 
• Place magnetic letters on the refrigerator at your children's eye level so they can manipulate the letters to form their name,  or group like letters together, etc.

Writing

• Let your children see you writing. For example, letters, checks to pay the bills, the grocery list, etc. Give them their own piece of paper, letting them write out their own list using kid writing (It's alright if you can't read it at this point - You are modeling for them uses/reasons for writing and reading which is much more important at this stage.) 
• Create a writing box to store fun writing utensils, different types
  of paper, envelopes, stickers, etc., for your child to have their own writing materials to encourage writing.
• Create a letter book with your child.  For each page, write the upper and lowercase letter.  Have children hunt for small objects, environmental print, etc. that begin with a certain letter.  Make sure to include photos of  their friends, too.

Math Activities at Home

1.Focus your child's attention on the colors, shapes, and numbers seen all around. Ask them to help you read the numerals on signs, to point out the shapes of items in the grocery store, to find colors all around. 

2.Let your budding chef assist you in the kitchen.  Let them help pour, mix, measure, roll, etc.!  (Simple activities are best.)

3.Encourage sorting skills while folding laundry, putting
toys away, playing with colored blocks,  and eating their favorite candies such as M&M's!

4. For  number practice,  make two flash cards of each numeral (0-5 to start and then adding higher numerals as skill increases) . Play go fish, sort and match the numerals, go around the house and place the numeral card next to sets of that many objects, play memory, bingo, etc. You can create simple games like this for shapes and colors too!

5. Refer to the date on the calendar frequently.  Talk about the days of the week, the month, and count the number of days left until an upcoming event.

6. There are objects all around your home to practice counting (toys, books, shoes, shirts, pens, etc.)!  Have your child touch and move each item forward as he/she is counting.

7. Play board games in which children have to roll a die and count how many spaces they get to move!

Social and Safety Skills to practice at Home

1. Have your child practice stating their personal information in case of
emergencies  (full name, parents' names, address, telephone number).

2. Let children tie, snap, button, and zip their own clothing.  This is a great fine motor skill accomplishment, too.

3. Show and encourage good hygiene - washing hands, covering mouth when coughing, covering nose when sneezing, brushing teeth, combing hair, etc.

4. Have children get into the habit of always cleaning up their toys after playing.

5. Provide opportunities for your child to spend time with other children playing and talking.

6. Encourage your child to share and to take turns with others.

7. Give small chores or jobs to your child so that they may experience responsibility and a sense of accomplishment.

8. Get into a daily routine now so that the transition to those early school days will go smoothly.

9. Talk and model how to express feelings appropriately and with self-control.

10.Remind children to listen when others talk (looking into the speaker's eyes, waiting their turn to speak, etc.).