The goal of each 5-minute home practice will be to get your child to practice their new skill as many times as possible.
In order to make this happen, you will need an activity that doesn’t take a lot of time and won’t take away from the goal of the 5 minutes, which is to practice your target practice over and over again.
Here are some ideas of activities you can do while getting your child to practice their newly acquired skill:
Use a Counter
Purchase a small counter ( a small, round object with a single button). You may also choose to use a counter app on your phone or iPad. Each time you push the button, the counter goes up by one.
Set a goal for your child to start practicing the target activity (number of times) and tell them to push the button each time they do this. Once they hit the target number, they are done.
Bankruptcy Game
Put a bunch of plastic coins in a bag but color one of them red. After each practice phrase, you and your child will both pull out one coin.
If anyone pulls out the red coin, they have to put all of their coins back (bankrupt!).
Whoever has the most coins after 5 minutes wins. (Got this one from www.5minutekids.com , love it!
Hold Yoga Poses
Look for pictures of yoga poses for kids online. Have your child choose one and hold it while they do they newly acquired skill.
See how many repetitions they can get in before they break the pose.
Trace Lines or Shapes
Draw lines or shapes on a piece of paper. Then, laminate that page or put it in a plastic sheet protector.
Have your child trace the lines or shapes with a dry erase marker while saying/completing their target phrase practice. When they are done, erase and use again next time.
LEGO Creation
Each time your child practices their target phrase, give them a Lego to make into a creation (or block to stack). See how many they can collect before starting construction.
Play Hopscotch
Draw a hopscotch track (or other shapes/numbers) on the ground and have you child practice their target word/phrase before each jump or move on the track.
Turtle Race
You need at least 2 people for this but you can be the second person if need be.
Have both people sit on their bottoms with their knees up. Each time the child practices their target word/phrase, everyone gets to move forward one scoot.
Bottom must stay on the ground, no picking it up and jumping.
Whoever gets the farthest in 5 minutes wins.
Moving Beans or Marbles
Place beans or marbles in a small container. Get a second similar container.
For each practice word/phrase, move one bean or marble to the other container. When all the beans/ marbles are moved, you’re done!
Make Me Jump
Each time your child practices their target word/phrase, have someone else (you or another adult/ child) jump or do another action.
See how many times your child can make that person jump during 5 minutes.
Playdough
Give your child a pinch of playdough (or a similar substance) for every practice word/phrase. Once they have all of the playdough, they can play with it.
Go for a Walk
When you are walking somewhere with your child, have them take one step for every word/ phrase they practice.
Try this one when you’re walking to the playground from the car or into the house when you get home
Stoplight Speech
While you’re sitting at a red stoplight, see how many words/phrases your child can do before the light turns green.
Playing Cards
Get a playing card for each word/phrase target. When your child has all of the playing cards, you can play the game with them.
Blowing Bubbles
Blow bubbles for every 10 practice word/phrase that your child practices.