How to use Bitesize for home education - early years

EYFS stands for Early Years Foundation Stage. The EYFS framework includes three prime areas of learning and development:

• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

With a further four specific areas:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

The Bitesize and BBC Education websites contain lots of resources for early years and pre-school age children which you can use for home education. To help you find what you need, we’ve put together this guide of early years content across Bitesize, BBC Bitesize for Teachers and CBeebies.

All of the games, videos and activities on this page are made in collaboration with education experts to make learning with your child as simple and engaging as possible.

For more inspiration you can also download the CBeebies Learn app to access games and videos featuring CBeebies favourites, from phonics with the Alphablocks to shapes with Hey Duggee.

• Early years maths - Our dedicated Bitesize early years maths page covers counting, adding and subtracting. It also provides practical tips for doing maths with your child.

• Game: Bud’s Number Garden - Join Bud the bee to explore his magical garden and practise recognising numbers, counting, sequencing and much more. This game is perfect to give younger children their first taste of maths education.

• Counting: learning how to count - A collection of musical films on counting one to 10, 10 to 20, sets and ordinal numbers.

• Measuring: learning how to measure - Songs for learning the vocabulary of measuring as well as how to count time and money.

• Space and shape - A collection of musical films on 2D and 3D shapes, movements, shapes and patterns.

• Numberblocks - An animated series full of number tricks, available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

• Bitz and Bob - Join Bitz and her little brother Bob in their animated engineering adventures. Available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

• Bitz and Bob game - Help Bitz and Bob solve fun engineering problems and earn rewards along the way. A great way to explore maths and puzzles.

• On our Early years English page, you can practise phonics, blending words and forming letters. There are also tips on how to support your child at home using our early years English resources.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: School Radio: Nursery rhymes collection - A collection of well-known nursery rhymes and counting songs designed to encourage joining in with singing and actions.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: School Radio: Playtime - Ideal for shared listening to get kids moving. Presented by Andy Day and Steven Kynman of CBeebies.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: School Radio: Listening Skills - A collection of 14 audio episodes inviting children to listen carefully to sounds and identify them. An easy way to promote listening skills and sustained focus.

• Word waves - Watch the wave while you listen to a story. Key words from the story appear alongside the animated wave to reinforce listening.

• Welsh language resources - Learn the names of colours, the days of the week and how to count from one to 100 in Welsh.

• Tiny Happy People - A huge collection of activities and advice to help build your child’s early communication skills, arranged by age from newborn up to 5 years and designed to fit in and around your daily routines.

• CBeebies Storytime App - Read over 40 interactive stories including fairy tales, nursery rhymes and stories with CBeebies favourites like Peter Rabbit and the Octonauts.

• Alphablocks - Watch the videos on BBC iPlayer to learn phonics with the Alphablocks.

• Early years: Understanding the World - Use the resources on our dedicated Bitesize page to teach your child about family and people in society, the past, the area where you live, living things, the weather and the environment, the world, religion and festivals.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: School Radio: Listen and Play - A collection of 50+ audio episodes that include a story, a song to join in with and simple movement activities, ideal for learning at home. Presented by CBeebee's Cat Sandion.

• Maddie’s Do you Know - Learn new things with Maddie as she explores the world around us and discovers how stuff works. Play the games and puzzles or watch the CBeebies series on BBC iPlayer.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: Go Jetters - Funky facts from Ubercorn and the Go Jetters crew to help explore places all around the world while learning about geography.

• Kit and Pup - Explore the wonderful world around us with Kit and Pup as they learn about everything from bubbles to trees. Watch the series on BBC iPlayer.

• Early years: Expressive Arts and Design - Use our fun, creative resources to teach your children about colours, drawing, collage and modelling, music, singing, dancing and storytelling. You’ll find lots of hands-on activities to do with your children while learning at home.

• CBeebies Get Creative app - Get your kids painting, making music, creating stories, inventing toys and building blocks with their favourite CBeebies friends. Perfect indoor activities to inspire creativity.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: Bring the Noise - The campaign to inspire music learning and make every child in the UK a musician. Includes songs, quizzes, musical exercises and more!

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: Ten Pieces - Resources to help your little ones get creative with classical music.

• Personal Development and mutual understanding (PDMU) - A Bitesize collection of 17 films featuring puppets Pip and Declan to help children understand their feelings and emotions and how they can keep healthy and safe.

• Bitesize game: My First Day at School - For any children who are spending some of their education time in a school setting, this great game will help you to walk them through their first day.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: Dealing with emotions - A collection of clips presented by Dr Radha Moghil that explore feelings and emotions, as well as providing talking points and tools to feel better.

• BBC Bitesize for Teachers: Super Movers - Resources across the curriculum to help get your little ones learning while staying fit and healthy! These musical videos encourage movement while engaging the brain.

There are lots of targeted early years resources across Bitesize which can support and inspire your home education activity.

In our dedicated sections for parent support - maths and parent support - English we give help and advice for specific topics like counting, subitising, phonics and storytelling, plus top tips for doing early years maths at home and keeping your child safe online.

The BBC Bitesize home education collection is designed to support you and your child’s learning at home with free resources for early years and foundation stage (EYFS), primary and secondary-age students.

Bitesize Parenting is the go-to place for the whole parenting community to find stories, expert advice and fun activities.

If your child has special educational needs and / or disabilities, be sure to check out the Parenting SEND collection. Bitesize also has a collection of Sensory Stories, an immersive video series that transports you on unique sensory adventures, for children with additional or complex needs.

For more information about home education, these BBC News articles cover the rise in families deciding to educate their children at home and, from 2021, the impact of Covid on home education.