In the kitchen:

• Show how you separate fruits and vegetables, talk about it, and let your child help.
• Take out the pots and pans and a wooden spoon and let them hear the different sounds of percussion instruments.
• Let your child help prepare a meal; they can do simple tasks such as take things out of the cabinets or pour stuff into a bowl. And when they help cook, they’ll probably eat the food.
• Alphabet magnets on your refrigerator can be used for to talk about things that start with a particular letter; for example, foods that start with the letter “G.”
• The kitchen sink offers an opportunity to talk about how you clean the dishes, talk about drying the dishes, soap, and differences in water temperature.
• Let your child put spoons in the drawer when cleaning the dishes.

Shopping:

• Talk about what you are looking for and have your child participate in looking with you.
• Look for shapes, colors, types of objects, and specific foods.
• Have your child hand money to the cashier; they’ll begin to understand money and they’ll love paying for things.

In the car:

• Look for shapes, colors, types of objects, and signs out the window.
• Play “I spy,” where one person sees something and people have to guess what it is by asking “yes or no” questions; e.g. Is it alive? Is it blue?
• Sing songs and nursery rhymes.
• Talk about your day.
• Play the alphabet game where everyone in the car calls out letters of the alphabet in order as they see them on signs and license plates.
• Discuss what a red light, yellow light and green light mean.
• Talk about safety and using your seat belt.
• When you put money in the meter, stop at the stop sign and obey traffic rules, talk about and let them be part of it so they learn about good citizenship.

At meals:

• Talk about the day’s events.
• Share stories.
• Teach manners: saying please and thank you, wiping their mouth, chewing with their mouth closed.
• Explore new textures, colors and tastes. Talk about the food and how it feels, looks and tastes.

Doing laundry:

• Have your child help you sort colors, sort like items, match socks.
• Play with the basket in the laundry room for younger ones – hide and seek or take a ride.

At bedtime:

• Read books together. This is really important!
• Share stories about your day or make up stories together.
• Brush your teeth with your child so they learn good habits.