It can be hard to fully engage with your child while you’re out and about doing other jobs, rushing to nursery or the shops.
So, when you have a quiet day, with not much to do, or you need a change of scenery, just go for a walk. There are benefits for you both.
If you’re just going for a walk with no other jobs to do, you can take your time and really focus on making the walk interesting for your child:
- Before you go - Talk together about the weather and what you should wear. Decide if you want to take anything with you (maybe a dolls pram, or toy)
- Getting started – You could let your child take the lead and choose which direction you walk.
- During your walk - You might choose to do one of our quick activities or just see what happens when you take your time and let your child take the lead! They might choose to collect treasure during your walk.
- When you get back home – Wash hands if you’ve been touching things, and then sit down for a drink and snack together and talk about what you did, what you saw or how it made you feel. Maybe you took some photos you could look at together.
Wherever you live - whether that's in an urban setting or the countryside - there will be things to see and talk about as you walk, you could look out for and talk about:
- Vehicles – the sounds they make, their size and colour.
- Things that are growing – weeds in the pavement cracks, trees or plants.
- Animals – cats, dogs, birds and insects
- The size, shapes and colours of buildings, windows and doors.
- Signs, logos and house numbers
- The weather – how it feels and how it changes your surroundings.
- If there’s a canal path or park to walk through then you’ll be able to search for and talk about more natural objects too.
