This year, we partnered with each of our finalists from the TOM Organic 2020 Pitch for Purpose program to continue our support of their businesses.

As part of this, we joined forces with The Herd Intergenerational Learning Centre’s Fiona Glumac, who has a wealth of experience in early childhood education. Keep on scrolling to watch Fiona’s easy at-home learning tips to use while schools are closed and social distancing measures keep us all safe.

Developing early learner’s reading skills

Fiona shares some tips and tricks on how to develop your preschooler’s reading skills – you may be surprised that you’re already doing them!

Research has found that reading out loud to your child can equate to them being almost one-year older developmentally. This is the single most important activity that you should try and do with your child whilst social distancing measures are in place.

Developing Mathematics skills

In this video, Fiona covers off how to develop your little one’s maths skills whilst they’re learning at home and to help you feel a bit more at ease. Her top four tips to develop your early learner are:

1. Using common objects around the house to demonstrate basic mathematics
2. Asking questions to encourage their learning and understanding
3. Framing the mathematics problems in real-life situations
4. Find ways to represent the concepts symbolically, rather than just what is on the page.

Reading Out-loud

When asking your child to read out loud, there is more than just reading that you can focus on. In this video, Fiona shares 7 strategies for parents to employ before, during and after their child reads out loud.

1. Talk about illustrations and the title of the book
2. Help decode difficult words and give them meaning
3. Try to stay quiet
4. Ask questions along the way to test comprehension
5. Don’t cover up the pictures on the book
6. After finishing the book, talk about the story

Support Reluctant Writers

For our little ones, writing can use a lot of cognitive thinking and can be quite tiring. Many parents (and teachers) struggle with encouraging their children and students to pick up a pencil and practise writing. In this video Fiona shares what she’s learned in her career helps children to be excited about writing.

1. Set an example
2. Bring writing into playtime
3. Write stories to share with others
4. Write about exciting activities and adventures

Teaching Letter Sounds

Before learning to sing the whole alphabet, young learner’s need to understand the sounds that each letter makes. If you’re struggling with the pronunciation of all of the letter sounds, Fiona’s video gives a quick refresh on how to articulate the sounds.