Some preschool games that are really good for learning and developing involve things like shapes, sounds, coloring, numbers, letters and social skills. Quite a big list of things to check when it comes to games, but you can help your child develop by pointing out things in everyday, if you see something that is green and has a square shape, point it out to them and let them take in the knowledge – soon enough they will be pointing out shapes, colors, and familiar things to them by themselves and looking for your approval. One very interesting invention as educational games for babies is the educational number and alphabet mat. Learning mats usually consist of a soft spongy material and a couple of tiles that interlink. I’m sure you’ve seen it before: the tiles have letters and number slots in them with the corresponding parts being removable for the child to play with and learn. These mats are completely safe and non-toxic, so even if they get chewed on, your infant will be safe.

Some places that supply these kinds of mats and other fantastic and safe educational toys include Baby City (babycity.co.za) and other companies such as jozikids.co.za; edunation.co.za and sakidsonthego.com. If your child is getting closer to the age of having to begin preschool (or kindergarten) – you might be getting a bit worried that he or she might not be able to cope. There are lots of children who do not cope immediately with school work but still turn out to be very successful and intelligent people. Do not stress, not all kids learn at the same pace. Here is a basic kindergarten readiness checklist that you can grade your child’s progress with – do not worry if the little one doesn’t pass every single requirement, kids learn things different from one another and where one child might be stronger in one aspect, others might be stronger in another.

Here is the checklist:

Self-competency

1. The young ones should be able to go to the bathroom by themselves
2. Knows about basic hygiene
3. Able to dress reasonably well without too much help from parents

Speaking skills

1. Can say his or her name and express basic dialect (“I’m hungry/thirsty”, “what is that?” “What is your name?” etcetera)
2. Understands basic commands and direction (“Go left,” “climb over that” etc)

Basic Numeracy skills

1. Can count to ten
2. Knows how to share things more or less equally

Emotional skills

1. Understands the concept of kindness and good manners
2. Is considerate of others
3. Says ‘please’ and ‘thank you’

Motor skills

1. Has basic hand and eye coordination (eg catching a big ball)
2. Can do basic tasks with tools, such as cutting and gluing (crudely), painting, drawing basic shapes and simple pictures

Awareness skills

1. Understands items in his or her immediate surrounding
2. Can use pictures to identify something
3. Knows what things are called (basic things ‘couch, lamp, kettle, banana, TV, door’ etc)

Do not worry if your child is still learning a few of these skills, they will be taught properly when they go to school anyway, but it’s good to make sure your child already knows and understands many of these concepts for starting at preschool and that’s why educational toddler games is so important.

Video on baby party ideas and themes

If you reside in the Pretoria region, you will be glad to know that there is fantastic online party supply shop called Party World that supplies everything from accessories to caterers and even the cakes themselves. Visit their website party world pta for access to their incredible services and catalogues of interesting festive supplies. There are also several other great websites that allow online shopping, deliveries and sourcing of helpful companies to provide all that you need to make your kids’ parties the most memorable event it can be. Other sites that we are very fond of are parties4africa and kidzworld. Here you can find information on literally everything you need.

Some ideas for themes for kids parties:

1. Pirates
2. Action hero
3. Dwarfs

Something that parents can do to ensure a successful party for your child is to look at the theme of it all. Different age groups enjoy different themes but it all boils down to the same thing – having a good time and being spoilt on your special day. For kids’ birthday parties, one of the best things to hire is a jumping castle. Kids LOVE jumping castles. There are several local places that provide very interesting designs (from standard jumping castles to outrageously awesome designs including ball pits and big slides). This is definitely a must-have if you want to impress the children. Another factor you should think about is providing enough snacks – again this is age specific, for very small children I can strongly recommend soft sweets instead of harder snacks that they might choke on. Anything sugary and brightly colored will go down well at these birthday parties. Speak to baby birthday suppliers about age-specific and safe snacks.

Paper plates: I can remember many occasions where I went to a friend’s party when I was younger and I went absolutely nuts over my Toy Story or Looney Tunes paper plates. Use paper plates with prints of your child’s favorite TV or movie cartoon hero – I know the children these days idolize characters such as Ben 10 and Selena Gomez from the Disney channel. No party is complete without balloons! If you can, try and get a helium canister to make some nice floating balloons that the young ones can run around with – in my experience, children are absolutely fascinated with balloons that float. Heck, even I am still very fond of helium-filled balloons. Then of course, the main attraction – the birthday cake! Choose very wisely when it comes to birthday cakes. This is probably the part of the party which your child will remember the most clearly – cakes these days can be made to look like anything and come in wide array of designs, flavours, colours and types. Visit cake design specialists for creating a cake that you know the little one will appreciate.

It is your choice, but if you can, see how your children feel about clowns – clowns and magicians are very entertaining and can prove to be very engaging at children’s birthday parties. However, a lot of people are actually frightened by clowns, so I’d recommend testing the waters first by finding out if any of the attendees or the birthday boy or girl themselves are scared of clowns or not. Go on and make the day special, speak to the various suppliers of party goods about what you can do to make your baby’s day super special. Maybe this will be the one he or she remembers for years to come.