Busy hands equal busy brains! Engage and entertain children’s with hands-on activities that stimulate their minds and bodies. From building blocks and Lego sets to arts and crafts, the opportunities are endless. No matter what subject you are trying to teach, finding a sensorial approach will be the most effective way to keep little ones engaged and enthusiastic. Acquiring new knowledge and skills is all part of the learning process, and it plays a central part in a child’s development. Having a wide array of toys, educational materials and imagination will help you make learning fun for your child. It is important for parents to take part in the learning process of their children. It not only helps parents and children form loving bonds, it also helps parents monitor their child’s developmental stages (i.e. increasing awareness and catching any concerns sooner). Maria Montessori wrote extensively about the link between freedom of movement and a child’s mental development. When children are given the freedom to explore their bodies in space, their learning potential is improved dramatically. When planning activities for preschoolers make sure to keep this principle in mind. For example, instead of having children sit and colour alphabet worksheets, have them use their bodies to make the letter shapes themselves. Or, when listening to music, have the children wave colourful scarves to the beat of the tune. Take every opportunity to engage little ones in a physical way while they are learning and everyone will learn more and have a great time.
Encourage Their Natural Tendency to be Curious
The reality is that children find learning fun right from the start; their excitement to learn new things is too often stymied by rules, restrictions, and inadvertent words of discouragement, even from well intentioned parents. Clearly, children are born explorers and optimists. Parents need to foster this natural curiosity rather than shutting it down. The way to do this is by guiding children rather than controlling them. If a toy gains their interest, find games to play using that toy rather than choosing a toy for them. Play is critical to healthy brain development in youngsters. So why not turn dry lessons into fun games? Need to practice the ABCs? Try sending the children on a scavenger hunt around the room for things that begin with the letter “A.” Organize a game of Alphabet Twister by redesigning your Twister mat. Make laminated alphabet fish and homemade magnetic fishing rods and have your preschoolers go fishing for a select group of letters. Think creatively and the possibilities for learning fun are endless.
Model Learning Enthusiasm
Parents should show an interest in learning too. Children are very perceptive and will pick up on negative attitudes that parents have about learning math, grammar, science and so forth. Parents should rather exhibit curiosity and interest in topics and areas that the child is exploring. Little children love music. Want to teach the days of the week, numbers and letters, the seasons or other preschool themes? Try doing it with song! Finger-play and nursery rhymes are a few more fun ways to engage little ones while they learn. Listening to music creates a rich, sensual environment that has been proven to build neural pathways and boost learning throughout life.
Unleash Your Imagination
Being willing to see things in an offbeat or silly perspective can help keep the fun in learning. Try to find novel ways to be playful with a topic can aid learning (e.g. playing “What if….”). Creative ideas will anchor the learning into your child’s memory and make it easier for them to recall it later.
Play is critical to healthy brain development in youngsters. So why not turn dry lessons into fun games? Need to practice the ABCs? Try sending the children on a scavenger hunt around the room for things that begin with the letter “A.” Organize a game of Alphabet Twister by redesigning your Twister mat. Make laminated alphabet fish and homemade magnetic fishing rods and have your preschoolers go fishing for a select group of letters. Think creatively and the possibilities for learning fun are endless.
Make learning come alive when you step outside into the big, wide world. Instead of staying indoors to study bugs, go outside and dig some up with your very own hands. Even if you aren’t studying nature directly, getting out into the fresh air is a great way to add a bit of fun to any lesson.
Tips for Making Learning Fun
Children learn when they play. Playing has been said to be the first form of learning. When you play with your child, your child learns the rules and how to interact.
Do encourage sports, since this instills sportsmanship and teamwork.
Encourage and support your child’s artistic pursuits, whether it be ballet, or piano lessons, or art classes.
Have ready-made educational materials at home like DVDs and CDs of songs where they can learn.
Read together. Look at pictures. Encourage them to think about what is happening in the story. It makes the imagination vivid with the lives of real or imagined people. Reading to children helps to increase their vocabulary and their ability to recall (valuable for remembering what the teacher said).
You can make a map and give a specific direction for treasure hunts to strengthen your child’s geography skills. Geography place maps are fun to use. Mark places you’ve visited. Mark famous places and where they’re located.
You can take your child in a nearby diner offering a specific cuisine of a particular country. Let your child experience the food and the ambiance, and in doing so, your child experiences culture and social sciences as well.
Visit museums. There are wonderful places where history and art unfold in your child’s eyes. It is also a great time for interactive learning.
You and your child can monitor how plants grow, or record the changes of the moon and why it looks different than the night before; this encourages observation and science skills as well.
Talk to your child about how things work; try to give them hands on experiences.
In cooking or baking, you can talk about measuring or how molecules react.
Solve daily crossword in a newspaper to build up vocabulary words, or buy a Sudoku book and have fun with numbers.
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