You can prepare your child for starting Nursery in many ways.

1. Talk! Talk is the most important thing you can do to help your child. You can talk in English or your home language. You are teaching your child new words, how conversations work and showing them that you are interested and value what they have to say.
2. Read a book every day, talk about the story, what does your child like about it? As well as new books, read the same books over and over again - small children enjoy repetition and knowing what is going to happen next. They will start to join in and can help retell the story.
3. Count often - fingers, toes, spoons, how many steps up to bed? How many red cars on your street? Practicing saying numbers in order to 10.
4. Match and sort - socks, shoes and pairs games.
5. Enjoy songs and nursery rhymes together. You and your child could create actions for the songs or move your body to the music.
6. Mark making - allow your child to use different tools to mark make: pens, pencils, crayons and paintbrushes.
7. Dressing - help your child to dress themselves independently. Taking their coat on and off, pulling up and down trousers and putting on their own socks and shoes.

Useful resources to help prepare your child for Nursery: