Ten words to use this week
run jump climb throw catch push pull sit stand wash
Use them in your home language first. A word heard twenty times in real moments — at the sink, on the road, at dinner — sticks far better than a word drilled twenty times in a row. You do not need to teach; you only need to talk.
Three things to say
- "What am I doing?" Mime brushing, cooking, swimming — let them guess.
- "You are climbing! Now you are sliding!" Narrate their play with verbs.
- "Can you walk like a tired person? Now like a happy person?"
This week on the site
Golu's Day picks from these automatically, one short session a day. If you would rather choose yourself, here is everything for the week.
Picture books (4)
Games (9)
- Action words
- Opposite words
- In on under
- Following instructions game
- Golu says actions age 2
- Who went away actions age 4
- Tray memory actions age 5
- I spy actions age 5
- Coding
The same theme at different ages
A two-year-old is collecting names: point, say the word, wait, and celebrate any attempt to say it back. A three- to four-year-old is ready to sort and compare — which is bigger, which go together, which one does not belong. A five- to six-year-old wants reasons: ask "why do you think…?" and "what would happen if…?", and let them explain it to a younger child or a grandparent. If you have two children at different ages, the older one teaching the younger is the best lesson either will get this week.
A simple rhythm for the week
You do not need a timetable, but a loose shape helps on tired days. Here is one that fits around school and work; move anything anywhere.
- Day 1 — open the theme. Read I can! together, twice. The second reading is where the words go in.
- Day 2 and 3 — play. Let Golu's Day choose, or pick a game from the list above. Fifteen minutes, then stop while it is still fun.
- Day 4 — sing and move. Pick one song and learn it well enough to sing without the screen — in the bath, on the stairs, in the car.
- Day 5 — hands. Do one off-screen activity. Expect mess; mess is the lesson working.
- Weekend — the real world. Try a game of "Golu says" in the park: run, hop, freeze, crawl, climb, all on command. This is the day the week's words stop being screen words.
- Last day — tell it back. Ask your child to tell someone what they did this week. Retelling is how short-term memory becomes long-term, and it costs nothing.
Missed three days? Nothing is lost. The themes come round again, and a relaxed week with two good conversations beats a full one done through gritted teeth.
What to notice
Does your child use action words in sentences (three), talk about what they did in the past with "-ed" words — "I jumped" (four), and follow a three-step action instruction (five)?
These are things to notice, not things to test. Children develop in bursts and at very different speeds, and a skill that is missing this month often appears overnight the next. If a worry stays with you for a few months, that is reason enough to mention it to your child's doctor or teacher.
If this week is hard
Mistakes like "I runned" and "I eated" are a good sign: your child has worked out a grammar rule and is applying it everywhere. Say it back correctly without correcting them: "Yes, you ran so fast!"
The other weeks
This is week 19 of 24 in the weekly plan for parents. The weeks run in a loop and each age band meets different games inside the same theme, so the second time round — three months later — your child is doing harder things with familiar words. Next week: Shops and money.
Now do it for real
When the screen goes off, do something with your hands. Try ☁️ Water that disappears — an easy science experiment for ages 4-6, with every step read aloud in your language. You will need two saucers of water, a sunny spot and a shady spot; nothing that needs a trip to a shop.
There are 56 more on the things to do at home page, and free printable worksheets if you would rather have something on paper. Ten minutes on a screen and twenty minutes off it is a good shape for a day at this age.
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