Pack Your Own Bag
What you need
- a small backpack
- things for a trip out: a water bottle, a hat, a tissue and a small toy
How to do it
- Tell your child where you're going, the park or the library, and ask what they think they'll need.
- Give them a two-part job: "Fetch your water bottle and your hat." Let them find each one and bring it back.
- Let them pack the bag themselves, heavy things at the bottom, and choose one small toy to bring along.
- Zip it up together, help them on with it, and check before you go: have we got everything?
Why it matters
Thinking ahead about what a trip needs, then fetching it, is planning of the grown-up kind, and a bag they packed is theirs to carry.
What they're learning
- Planning ahead
- What will we need when we get there?
- Fetching
- Finding each thing and bringing it back.
- Carrying their own bag
- A strap on each shoulder.
What to look for
Notice them suggesting something to bring that you hadn't thought of.
A tip
Keep the bag light, a bottle and one or two other things, so they can carry it the whole way.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: lay the things out and let them put them in
Harder: ask them to remember three things to fetch without you saying them again
