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Occupying Your Under 5’s At Home
Words by Caroline Papoola
The childcare specialist who is the Founder and Managing Director of leading childcare provider Alpha Childcare, offers childcare and education for children from the ages of 3 months to 11 years old. There are currently 12 Alpha Childcare settings across the UK, a team of 75 experts and 500 children being helped daily. As the current Coronavirus pandemic has caused many childcare centres and schools to close with no real certainty as to when they will be reopening, Caroline offers her top tips on keeping your young ones well entertained and engaged whilst still leaving time for you.
Caroline’s top 4 tips:
First and foremost, safety is paramount. Double check that all areas of your home are child proof.
Create a timetable with activities you can do with your children from Monday to Friday. Ensure that you also include breaks and remember that your child’s attention span is usually no more than 10 minutes. Fun ideas include flour, paint and shredded paper where you can hide toys and have them rummage through. Their play time means your work time. Usually after the first couple of activities, they want to sleep anyway, which means more alone time for you.
When your child or children are eating, have a conversation with them. This is what is usually done at nursery – teachers would have conversations with them whilst they eat. Kids learn a lot more this way.
Finally, always keep in mind, this experience won’t be easy but it’s doable. You can’t put life on hold.