We are firm believers that encouraging kids to do chores about the house from a really early age helps them to understand how important it is to contribute to the running of that house throughout their life. It is never too early to start, from setting the table, to helping hang out the washing, and washing up; little hands can sometimes make light work of it all!
We have teamed up with the wonderful people at Learning Resources, inspired by their New Sprouts range of vegetable, salad and stir fry imaginative play toys, to give you a little helping hand in encouraging your toddlers and younger school children to learn how to set the table. The Learning Resources brand is synonymous with helping our kids to learn, in a fun and playful setting, so we have created a free printable to enable setting the table to be more than just a simple chore.
The hardest thing for younger children to grasp is which side the cutlery goes, or where they need to place the glasses, and particularly which side the napkins are meant to be placed. To help them with all of this, we have created four designs of table mats that you can print out, and even colour in, to create a little table setting game for your kids.
If you wanted to, you could use a laminator to make these free downloads from Learning Resources and KiddyCharts into real table mats that the children can use for their imaginary meals with all their toys. We have added in some healthy food on their plates within the table mats, which will both offer you a chance to eat some food with your children, as well as present an excellent learning opportunity. Perhaps you can use these pictures to increase vocabulary and even encourage them to classify foods into their relevant food groups?
We can just see these tables mats in front of the dolls and teddy bears in your children’s life – helping them to learn using their favourite soft toys and cuddly friends.
We hope you, and most importantly your kids, like these and find them useful – we most definitely do!
This is a sponsored post and co-branded printable.
Photo credit: WorldWideStock / Freedigitalphotos.net