Now that your child has entered primary school they will have been exposed to a number of different activities that may have developed into leisure skills for home. Depending upon the developmental level of your child you may still need to organise structured activities at home to engage your child in their down time or they may be able to occupy themselves for short periods of time.
If your child still requires structured play activities build these into your daily routine along with free time activities. Your child needs to learn that although there is no school, the adults of the family still have to run the household and there are jobs to do. Engage your child in helping to organise their day. Use your child’s visual schedule to negotiate the activities that you will do with them alongside some household jobs they need to do.
Build on the skills that they are experiencing at school and through community recreational groups.
School creative arts activities can be continued at home. These may include drawing, colouring, cutting and pasting, papier mache. All these activities will help your child to develop fine motor skills, attention to task and will develop language as they and you begin to label and describe elements of process and their final artworks.
Outdoor activities such as walks in the local neighbourhood, parks and playgrounds, catching and throwing balls, exploring play equipment, running, skipping, climbing will all help to develop motor skills, safety awareness and support the development of social and communication skills and exposure to different sensory experiences.
Home activities need a balance between indoors and outdoors. If your child uses a technology device for entertainment remember to ‘time limit’ access. This can easily become an object of obsession and is often used as a ‘stimming’ device. All things in moderation!
