It is hugely important to prepare Pre-School aged children for Primary School. If  your child is well prepared he/she will have a less stressful transition and experience early success in school. This will in turn lead to a positive attitude towards school and much needed boost to his/her self-esteem.

Here are 2 fun, easy and free games that you can play with your child over the coming months. When September comes around you will both be glad that you did.

The game is called  “A Listening Walk”. Your child can choose between a walk in a city or a walk in the countryside. Bailey Bear hears lots of different sounds and your child must click on the image that matches the sound.

This game will train your child to tune into sounds and also to listen carefully and distinguish between sounds (General Sound Discrimination).  Bailey Bear will  challenge your child to  listen to and remember sounds (auditory memory and sequencing) in order to play.

When your sit with your child and talk about all the sounds heard you will be developing vocabulary and language comprehension skills. Discuss the sounds that you heard and the sounds of the others images shown.

Play “Which one am I” before moving on to the next part of the game. Make a sound from the image above and ask ” Am I an airplane, police car, pedestrian crossing or children playing a ball game?”. Take turn with both you and your child making the sounds.

Play “I spy” with the pictures. “I spy with my little eye something with wings. Who am I?”.

All of this will enlarge vocabulary and encourage logical thinking.

These skills important pre-cursor to phonics instruction in school. If your child cannot distinguish the difference between the sound of a motor bike and an airplane, for example, distinguishing between “p” and “d” will be a huge struggle.

Click here to play

Have fun,

Miss Mernagh 🙂