Term 3 closes on Friday 23 October, and for children in PP1, PP2 and Grades 1 to 3 the long holiday starts that afternoon. It is the longest break of the year, and it is the one where young children most often slide back on the reading and counting they built up over three terms.
The answer is not holiday tuition for a five year old, and it is not a pile of worksheets on the dining table. It is fifteen to twenty minutes a day of reading and numbers, done as play, with the rest of the day left for running about, helping at home and being a child. This plan sets that out week by week.
Why little and often beats a big push
Young children forget quickly, but they also relearn quickly. What keeps letter sounds and number facts alive is short, regular contact, not a long sitting once a week. Twenty minutes every morning does far more than two hours on a Saturday, and it does not turn learning into a punishment.
Play matters for a practical reason. A child who is enjoying a game will do thirty sums without noticing. The same child given thirty sums on a page will do eight and then cry. Same skill, very different outcome.
Before you start, it helps to know roughly where your child is. Our guide to what a PP1 or PP2 child should be able to do by the end of the year gives a simple picture, and what Grade 1 to 3 learners practised for end of Term 3 exams shows what the older ones have just covered. The end of term report is also worth a careful read: the comments usually name one or two things to work on.
The week by week plan
The weeks below count from the Monday after schools close. Adjust them to your family: if you travel upcountry in December, simply carry the cards and storybooks with you.
| Week | Reading through play | Numbers through play | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Rest. Read a bedtime story aloud every night and nothing more | Count things on walks: cars, goats, steps | The term was long. Let them recover |
| Week 2 | Letter sound hunt: find things at home starting with a given sound | Shop game with real coins or bottle tops, adding up small prices | Start the 15 to 20 minute daily habit |
| Week 3 | Make word cards for family names and household objects; stick them up | Sorting and grouping: beans, spoons, clothes pegs in tens | Same time each day, ideally after breakfast |
| Week 4 | Child reads a short book aloud to a younger sibling or a grandparent | Kitchen measuring: cups of flour, counting chapati as they come off | Praise effort, not only right answers |
| Week 5 | Write a short shopping list together and use it in the market | Number bonds game with fingers or dice: what makes 10? | A good week to look again at the report |
| Week 6 | Story retelling: child tells you a story you read last week | Clock and calendar: count days to Christmas on a paper chain | Expect a dip as the festive season gets busy |
| Week 7 | Read Christmas cards, labels and signs together | Shapes and patterns: find circles, triangles and repeating patterns at home | Keep it light. Five minutes still counts |
| Week 8 | Rest week. Stories only | Rest week. Counting in passing only | Family time comes first |
| Final week before school | Short reading from a school type book to settle back | A few written sums so a pencil feels normal again | Shift bedtime earlier, a little each night |
What it looks like by level
PP1
Keep almost everything spoken and physical. Letter sounds, rhymes, counting objects up to 10 or 20, naming colours and shapes. A PP1 child does not need to write much in the holiday. Holding a crayon and drawing is enough fine motor practice.
PP2
This is the year before Grade 1, so it is worth gently building towards blending sounds into short words and writing numbers clearly. Use sand, chalk on the floor or a finger in flour before paper. The PP2 Term 3 Complete Bundle has activity pages that work well as a short daily sheet once the play part is done, and it keeps you close to what the class actually covered.
Grade 1
Reading short sentences, recognising common words without sounding them out, adding and subtracting within 20. Let them read signs, packets and labels out loud. Children this age love being the one who reads the price in the shop.
Grade 2
Fluency starts to matter: reading a short paragraph smoothly, not just word by word. In numbers, place value (tens and ones), simple money problems and telling the time. If you want structured pages to go with the games, the Grade 2 Term 3 Complete Bundle follows the Term 3 work, so nothing is new or confusing. One or two pages a day is plenty.
Grade 3
Grade 3 children can read longer stories on their own and talk about them. Ask what happened, why a character did something, what they would have done. In numbers, multiplication facts as skip counting games, simple fractions using bread or oranges, and word problems built from real life. This is also a good age to start teaching a child to check their own work, which pays off for years.
Five games that need almost nothing
- I spy with sounds. "I spy something starting with mmm." Works in a matatu.
- Bottle top shop. Price items at 2, 5 and 10 bottle tops. The child buys and gives change.
- Word of the day. One new word on a card each morning. Use it at supper.
- Dice race. Roll two dice, add them, move that many steps across the compound.
- Read to the baby. An older child reading to a younger one practises far more willingly than one reading to a parent.
Rest is part of the plan
A young child who has been in school since August is tired, even if they do not show it the way an adult would. Sleep, outdoor play and time with cousins are not wasted days. They are the reason the twenty minutes of reading actually sticks.
Screens are the main thing that crowds out both play and reading over a long holiday. You do not need to ban them, but agree a simple rule early, for example no screens before the reading and numbers time is done, and keep to it.
If your child is unwell, travelling or simply having a hard week, skip it. A plan that survives a missed week is better than a perfect one that collapses after the first bad day.
Getting ready for January
In the last week or so of the holiday, shift bedtime earlier and bring back a little pencil and paper work. Check our school calendar page for term dates so the return does not catch you by surprise. A child who walks back in already reading and counting comfortably settles in faster, and so does their parent.
Frequently asked questions
Should my PP1 child do homework over the holiday?
Not in the formal sense. Spoken games, stories and counting real objects do the job better at that age. If the school sent holiday work, spread it thinly over the weeks rather than doing it all at once.
How long should a Grade 3 child read each day?
About fifteen to twenty minutes of focused reading is enough, plus a bedtime story if they enjoy it. Reading for pleasure beyond that is a bonus, not a requirement.
My child refuses to sit for numbers work. What should I do?
Move it off the page. Cooking, shopping, sharing out sweets and dice games all practise the same skills. Bring paper back only near the end of the holiday, briefly.
Do I need to buy workbooks?
No. Everything in the table can be done with household items. Printed pages simply save you the work of planning what comes next and keep you aligned with the class.
For ready made daily pages that follow the term, see the PP2 Term 3 Complete Bundle or the Grade 2 Term 3 Complete Bundle.
PP1: Term 3 Complete Bundle
Every subject for Term 3 in one download: notes, practice and full answer keys, with exam revision included.
KSH 300 · Get it now → 📱 M-Pesa, sent to your email after payment · join parents preparing nowHave a CBC question this article didn't answer?
Ask Somo, Kenya's first AI tutor. CBC-grounded, Kenyan examples, instant feedback. Five free questions a day with no signup, or start a 7-day free trial for 30 questions a day.
Try Somo Free →