Building memories and being able to recall them is an important skill for learning. Practice is important as it’s a tricky skill and sometimes resisted! Encouraging your grandchild to talk about their daily experiences is a great way to help children learn to visualise and to recall and explain verbally what they did.
Be warned, it’s sometimes challenging to find out about your pre-schoolers day by asking. A recent exchange at the dinner table with my 4 ½ year old granddaughter went something like this:
Dad: What did you do at school today Lizzy?
Lizzy: Nothing
Dad: Did you play?
Lizzy: Yes
Dad: What else did you do?
Lizzy: Nothing
Younger brother, 2 ¼ year old Will joins in the conversation:
Will: Will went creche
Dad: What did you do at creche Will?
Will: Play toy cars
Dad: That sounds like fun
Will: Yes. Will like play toy cars.
Dad (to Lizzy): Your younger brother just told me more about your day than you did.
Lizzy: Tant Pis! (‘too bad’ in French – a saying the family uses on occasion when children do not get their own way!). Touché.