Introduction

If you find yourself looking after a preschool child for the first time, or after a gap of some years, you will welcome this book. It explains how to encourage children's sense of wonder by adopting a creative approach to a variety of activities both in and out of doors. Some need little or no preparation, and there is help with simple preparations for others.

About the Book

What Shall We Do Next? shows how sharing books can enrich many practical activities. A special feature is the inclusion of early fact books as well as stories.

Suggestions for Activities

There are suggestions for the following:

• Music and water play for babies and for making dens, secret drawers and cafés for preschoolers
• Organizing exciting visits to beaches, parks and gardens
• Preparing for interesting visits to museums, train stations and zoos
• Developing the inner world of the imagination—reading and listening to stories and poems, engaging in role play
• Cooking, drawing, painting and dressing up
• Choosing early fact books, stories and rhymes and guidance on audio resources, television programmes and DVDs

Conclusion

The ideal resource for those times when children are bouncing with energy or becoming bored. They'll soon be absorbed in these exciting activities.

Hannah Edmunds, former teacher and chair of school governors, now organizer of story times for groups of young children