Nurturing Bright Futures – Working Together to Give Southend's Children the Best Start in Life

I am healthy: How to help at home

Sections

  1. Keeping me active
  2. Supporting me to have a balanced diet
  3. Nurturing my emotional well-being
  4. Teaching me healthy habits
  5. Story and rhyme time
  6. Here to help

Keeping me active

  • Building strength through play

Active play builds strength, balance, and coordination. From tummy time and pram walks to climbing, running, or exploring parks and beaches, movement helps children grow healthy and confident.

  • Road safety, step by step

Hold hands and walk side by side. Let children press crossing buttons, look both ways, and talk about safe crossing to build awareness, confidence, and good habits.

  • Little journeys, big benefits

Walking, whether to the shops, nursery, or school, is a simple way to stay active and build routine. Practising the school run helps children feel confident. Walking, scooting, or biking burns energy, supports wellbeing and creates time to connect and chat. Even parking further away and walking helps.

  • Strong hands for everyday tasks

Fine motor skills help children with tasks like writing, zipping and using cutlery. These small movements need daily practice through play. Drawing, painting and mark-making with crayons, chalks, cotton buds, or paint rollers help build hand strength in fun, creative ways

Other ways to develop gross motor skills (large movements) include:

  • Running, jumping and hopping in the garden or park
  • Climbing at the playground or on soft indoor furniture
  • Dancing to music both fast and slow using big movements and freezing
  • Playing with balls- throwing, catching, rolling and kicking
  • Pulling, pushing or riding wheeled toys like balance bikes, buggies or scooters
  • Playing animal walks (bear crawls, frog jumps, crab walks)
  • Obstacle courses using cushions, chairs and tunnels
  • Using hula hoops, beanbags or skipping ropes to play simple games
  • Walking on uneven surfaces like grass, sand or woodland paths

Other ways to develop fine motor skills (small movements) include:

  • Cutting paper with scissors
  • Building with small blocks like Lego (Duplo for 1.5yrs to 4)
  • Threading beads or pasta onto string
  • Doing up buttons, zips, or press studs
  • Playing with playdough—rolling, pinching, shaping, squeezing, patting
  • Using clothes pegs, tweezers or tongs to pick up small objects
  • Sticker play or peeling and placing small labels
  • Puzzles with small pieces
  • Roll out a roll of wallpaper and use crayons and felt tips to make maps for dinosaurs, cars and play figures
  • Outside, buckets of water and a set of unused decorators paint brushes are great for “painting” the ground, walls or fences on sunny days!
  • Playground chalks on the ground outside are brilliant for making patterns, shapes or even drawing a hopscotch to play!

Supporting me to have a balanced diet

  • Creating healthy mealtimes

Support healthy eating by offering a variety of foods and keeping meals and snacks low in salt, sugar and processed ingredients. Create a calm, sociable mealtime and model good habits by eating together. Involve your child in preparing food or setting the table to build interest and confidence.

  • Water: A simple way to stay healthy

Help your child stay hydrated by encouraging them to drink plenty of water, ideally from an open-top cup. Support them in understanding and recognising when they are thirsty by asking, “do you feel thirsty?”

  • Healthy lunches

Check which foods are allowed in your child’s packed lunch, as some schools and early years settings have rules about nuts, sweets, or drinks. If your child is new to packed lunches or their favourite foods and drinks aren’t allowed, try different options at home. Keep lunches low in sugar, as even “no added sugar” foods can be high in natural sugars. Did you know that a small carton of apple juice contains five teaspoons of sugar?

  • Exploring new foods

Every child is different and trying new foods can be tough. Schools, early years settings and health visitors can help. At home, let your child explore new foods through touch, smell and play. Keep offering different foods to build confidence- just because they don’t like something at first doesn’t mean they won’t later.

Nurturing my emotional well-being

  • Relaxing into bedtime

Create a bedtime routine that works for your family. A simple routine might include a bath, pyjamas, reading a story, a cuddle, brushing teeth and then sleep. Some children need time to wind down, while others might need to burn off energy first. Find what helps your child relax and stick to it for a smoother bedtime.

  • Healthy screen habits for the family

Limit screen time: the World Health Organisation recommends no screen time for children under two and no more than an hour per day for two – four years olds. Encourage activity through reading, dancing, drawing, puzzles, or outdoor play. Spending time together in the real world helps your child grow and their brain to develop, so be sure to take screen-free breaks too.

  • Letting your child lead the way

Find moments to connect with your child without distractions like phones or TV. Join their play but let them take the lead. Ask questions, offer encouragement and show interest in what they’re doing. This helps build confidence and creativity while allowing them to explore their own ideas.

  • Supporting your child’s emotions

Encourage emotional well-being at home by talking about feelings, practising deep breathing and modelling calm-down techniques with toys. Read stories about emotions and create a cosy space for relaxation. These activities help children manage emotions and build empathy.

Teaching me healthy habits

  • Making toothbrushing fun

Make toothbrushing fun by using dolls, puppets, or role play to show your child how to brush. Set a consistent routine, brushing once in the morning and once at night. Use a song or timer to keep them engaged and help develop healthy habits.

  • Supporting your child’s toilet training

Toilet training is a unique journey for each child and may take time. Like eating or walking, toileting skills develop through practice, support and encouragement. Having a potty at home and talking about wees and poos during nappy changes help children become familiar with toileting.

  • Key health checks for starting school

Before school, ensure medical appointments are up to date, including immunisations and an eye test if needed. The health visiting service will carry out a ‘two-year old development check’ and your child’s nursery or childminder will complete their “progress check at age two.” Your input into both is key.

  • Teaching good hygiene habits

Model good hygiene by covering coughs, wiping noses and disposing of tissues. Teach handwashing with visual cues and fun songs, like this one to the tune of “happy birthday” “Wash your hands clean with soap, Wash your hands clean with soap Don’t forget in between your fingers... Wash your hands clean with soap.”

Story and rhyme time

Pop along to your local library or browse Southend-on-Sea Libraries’ and reserve books online.

  • ‘Healthy Ninja: A Children’s Book About Mental, Physical and Social Health’ by Mary Nhin
  • ‘I Can Eat a Rainbow’ by Olena Rise
  • ‘I’m Not Sleepy: Helping Toddlers To Sleep’ by Amanda Gunner
  • ‘My Wobbly Tooth Must Not Ever Never Fall Out’ by Lauren Child
  • ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’ by Vivian French
  • ‘This Is How We Keep Healthy: For Little Kids Going To Big School’ Dorling Kindersly
  • ‘What are Germs?’ by Katie Daynes
  • ‘Which Food Will You Choose?’ An entertaining story to entice fussy eaters to explore a whole new world of colourful food by Claire Potter/Ailie Bushby
  • ‘Suzie Goes to the Dentist’ by Charlotte Olso

Follow the links to enjoy these stories and rhymes together

Links to explore

Here to help

If you have any worries, concerns or just need to speak to someone, there’s lots of support both in Southend and nationally. You are not alone.

“Our son is still young, but we are already seeing different behaviours and tendencies. He much prefers being able to crawl around any space, grabbing, feeling and normally trying to eat anything he can find. He seems to be a lot more physically active and is at his happiest when he is in some sort of safe environment (either inside or outside) where he can be left to his own devices.”

Dad of Leo, almost one.