Traditional English nursery rhymes and songs, have played a role in early childhood for a long time. From the medieval “Baa Black Sheep” to today’s “The Wheels on the Bus,” the lives of young children have been enriched with verses and songs orally passed down through generations.
Nursery rhymes are one of the most useful and versatile learning tools in the first few years of a child's life. They have often been passed down through generations and are one of the few activities that don’t require any equipment.
Our first interactions with our son Tom were not as we had anticipated. He arrived preterm at 32 weeks and caught us by surprise! He was whisked to the neonatal special care unit as he was not quite ready for life outside the womb. We followed behind and peered in at him in the incubator with a mixture of awe, excitement and fear.
I am a huge fan of balance bikes. I discovered them for my own children, 12 years ago. I had a 4-year- old that was struggling to learn to ride a bike and I hadn’t considered two wheels for my 18-month-old.
‘Sensory play’ is something that a lot of children enjoy engaging in from a young age. Most people forget, however, that it makes for great learning opportunities for children of all age ranges.
Language is one of the six development streams at My First Five Years. Language is a skill that crosses over with and supports learning across all six of the My First Five Years streams.
Fine Motor Skills are the skills that develop following on from the progression of gross motor movements. Fine motor skills involve intricate, more defined actions that require manual dexterity such as picking things up between a finger and thumb, wriggling toes and even the manipulation of lips and tongue.
‘Gross Motor Skills’ makes up one of the six key streams of development here at My First Five Years. It's a skill that underpins and intertwines with many other aspects of early learning. There is plenty of activities that your child can take part in that will help to develop, with many able to be adapted to any child's level of development and interest too!
You may have heard the Danish refer to the warm, comfortable and cosy feeling as ‘hygge’ pronounced (HOO-GAH). Our babies love a ‘hygge’ moment, and they can really benefit from these special times, as can you.
It is common for children to develop skills at varying rates. Even siblings can hit milestones at different stages of development from one another.