Making routines fun

Head, shoulders, knees and toes! Turn everyday routines into opportunities for learning and fun.

Dressing in the morning is a practical way for children to learn about body parts and to develop language around processes. Touch your child’s head, hands and feet and name them. Talk to your child when getting dressed: "Your legs go into pants.” or “When we put our shirt on, we need to put it over our head.”

While brushing your child’s hair in the morning you might like to talk about people that have the same or different types of hair. You can ask questions like: “Who do we know that has long hair, short hair or blond hair?” This is a great way of introducing the concept of things that are the same but also different.

Talk about the weather and what clothes we need to get dressed in when it’s cold or when it’s hot.  You might like to make a game of it by asking silly questions like: We need to put on our underpants, these go on our heads, don’t they?

You can turn nursery rhymes into songs that help you get ready, like: 

• This is the way we put on our pants, put on our pants, early in the morning
• Undies, shirt, pants and socks, pants and socks, we all get dressed together (sung to Heads and Shoulders).

See what other routines you can add a song into and make this part of your every day activity with your child. Soon you’ll be humming it when you get dressed as well!

Books that explore getting dressed:

• Rudie Nudie by Emma Quay
• Maisy Mouse Dresses Up by Lucy Cousins
• Shoes from Grandpa by Mem Fox
• Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton