Five Minute Mum: Time For School: Easy, fun five-minute games to support Reception and Key Stage 1 children through their first years at school

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When they’ve blended the word, pop it in the little bowl and let them tip the silly soup over your head or their head. Whichever they find funnier. Now make some more silly soup! And the reason I don’t only teach Ewan the sounds the letters make but the names of the letter is because if I taught him the E in his name is an ‘Eh’ then it’s rather confusing that it makes a “U” sound in his name. So instead I always say its an “Eeee” because it is - no adult spells their name over the phone as ‘Duh, ah, ii, ssssssss, yuh’ so I don’t see why children shouldn’t know the proper letter names and then be taught that they can make lots of sounds right from the get go (but this is my own personal feeling!) after all, they all sing the bloody Alphabet song. I love Five Minute Mum. She's managed to come up with a huge array of activities for kids that are fun and educational yet don't require an Art degree or Diploma in Patience to execute. Her blog makes these kinds of games accessible to everyone and for that, I am grateful! - Sarah Turner, Unmumsy Mum

Lay out 5 pots, each with a potion ingredient in. One with the bicarbonate of soda, one with the vinegar, I also then had - one with coloured water, one with water beads, one with lemon juice. But you can use whatever you like. And obviously it isn’t just them. This week I have been super productive, hell I’m even going to finish one of these drafted blog posts that’s been rattling round my brain and computer for a month! Working and home schooling isn’t compatible as we all well know. If you are still at home battling through, just know we can only do our best, and also know that not one single person is finding it easy. It is just hard so don’t beat yourself up for how exhausting it all is. What you have done so far is incredible. The crucial point is this though, as it is with all my games. Only if he WANTS to. The games are there to provide fun and entertainment for us all. The letter and number bits I put into them are there as a way to bring those vital educational elements into our play without it detracting from the joy. Learning through play always. Cut up empty toilet-roll tubes and write letters on them. Use a kitchen-roll holder or a broom handle to put the letters on and construct the words vertically. Mix up the letters in the big bowl saying “Silly soup, silly soup, we’re going to make some silly soup”Encourage your little ones to write a letter. A magical one! To a Harry Potter character, to the fairies, to a naughty troll, to the Christmas elf. For Florence who is just 4, she told me what she wanted the letter to say, I wrote it down and she signed her name. Or if you really want to understand phonics clearly then I made this hour long video here which talks you through it all slowly (as I swig a gin!) I made this video during the pandemic when people couldn’t visit schools, like they usually would, to join a parents evening where this sort of thing is usually explained. It goes through the phonics phases reception class (first year of school) will usually cover in detail and explains all the terminology like blending and segmenting and digraphs etc.

Get a bag or small container. Any will do. I’ve used a shiny gift bag or an empty tissue box before. You can have a fancy one or an Aldi bag for life. Doesn’t matter. This short chapter is all based around the maths your child will be taught in their first few years at school - Early Years, Reception and Key Stage 1 - will bring some much-needed laughter to your at-home learning and, if nothing else, give you five minutes where you feel like you are getting it right.The book is also dedicated to someone very special. Since I first started Five Minute Mum I get sent hundreds of photos of children playing my games which always makes my heart sing. One day I spotted Zoe, along with a message from her mum Carmel explaining she was very poorly but loving playing my games as she went in and out of hospital. It especially meant a lot to me, because as a child my brother and I had a good friend called Sam who lived on our road. Sam had leukaemia and despite a very long, brave battle throughout our childhood, he died aged 9. The photo of Zoe immediately reminded me of Sam and those years spend playing with him as he repeatedly lost his hair and went through surgeries and treatments.

First of all you could try showing them how to write the letter onto the paper or post-its, both capital and lower case and see if they want to copy and have a try too. Anyway I’ll stop jabbering on now. There are PLENTY of fab resources online and Jolly Phonics on You Tube are a good place to start if you want to get to know the initial ‘Sounds’ your child will be introduced to through Phonics in a fun way or I did some Letter of the Day videos which can be found on my You Tube channel.Your letter of the day will almost certainly be different to mine, just do whatever aspects of it your little one enjoys. So what do you do? Here’s what you do. You set up the activity while they are busy/asleep/out and then when ready you START TO PLAY YOURSELF. And when they approach you say casually, “Do you want to try/play too?” and once you’ve got their interest you start to explain what to do. It is crucial at this point to try and do something SILLY. Get it wrong yourself, laugh, make a funny noise. Engage the child at their level of fun. You want them to think “Mummy is PLAYING and I want to play this too.” So what to do as a parent? Well, keep it simple. Either use the correct name for the letters as in the alphabet song or the SOUND the letters makes as per phonics. Try not to use ‘muh’ for M, ‘puh’ for P, ‘suh’ for S - you get the idea….! Plus imagine you’re like a Kardashian who only named their children with CH names - Christopher, Charlotte, Chloe and Charlie - and then school tells them ‘Ch’ is CHuh as in Cheese, which is the first sound they teach. What the hell do Chloe, Charlotte and Christopher think?! It’s ‘see’ and ‘aitch’ and together they often make the sound ‘Chuh’ like cheese but can also make other sounds too.