Mastering skills and your mental load

You have a lot to think about, remember and decide on as a parent - we want mastering skills to be the easiest (and most exciting) part of that mental load.

By mastering the skills your child can do, you keep the My First Five Years app completely relevant for them, and save yourself from having to spend time searching for ideas to help them learn - it will all be here for you ready to go!

In your app you have activity ideas, information about their learning and development, book recommendations, breakdowns of research and more, which all link to the active skills your child is working on. This means you can be confident that whatever you pick to do today, it's going to be useful and meaningful for your child right now. 

How do I know when to master a skill?

We would say once you feel is second nature for your child, that's the time to mark it as mastered. 

For some skills you might find it useful to look at more of the information before you master it.

We provide a short description on the skill tile – but sometimes you might want to read more. Click the skill to see more information about it and to view the activity ideas which will help you to support your child to master that skill – so you feel confident that you know what you’re looking for.  

How many skills? How often? 

We know each child develops differently and individual children have times when their development is faster or slower, so there is no set number of skills.  

Your child will probably master skills every week, sometimes every day. By keeping their skills up to date you'll keep getting new ideas and activities that will help you support their development.  

When you master skills, as well as getting new skills and activity ideas, you’ll see new articles at the bottom of the Today screen – don't forget to check them out for topical information, research deep-dives, tips, book recommendations and more.

We'd love to hear any ideas, feedback or questions you have about the app! Tell us what you think by emailing us at hi5@mffy.com