Hey there, awesome reader! So, last week we listed out for you four ways to make learning fun at home. Have you tried any of the ideas? If so, leave a comment below telling us how it went! Here are four more ways to cap off our list!
Use games to teach a topic!
As teachers, games are our friends. They engage kids (sometimes to the point where they don’t even realize they’re learning), and they promote a friendly spirit of competition that can push kids to learn even more. Whether it’s as complex as creating an “Amazing Race” themed educational game or as simple as a game called “BANG!” to memorize sight words, games help our kids realize how FUN learning can actually be. Did you see how I used FUN and learning in the same sentence? 🙂
You can take most menial learning tasks and turn them into a game with hardly any effort at all. Want your child to improve their time-telling skills? Play a game of “Beat the Clock”! Tell them special things that can be done around the house (movie time at half past 3, go jogging around the block with dad at a quarter ‘til 6, ice cream at a quarter past noon), and they will be watching the clock like a hawk.
Want your child to improve their math fact fluency? Use a simple deck of cards and create a dozen card games that are math related. Flip out two and the first person to add them can keep the cards. Whoever has the most, wins!
Friendly competition is healthy for a child. That “everybody wins” mentality just isn’t real life. Allowing your child to experience competition in a safe and welcoming home where it is okay to lose, adds the additional benefit of character building along with the educational practice. For more games to play at home for learning practice, follow the link.
Teach what they are interested in
If you are a planner and a little bit of a control-freak… you and I have a bit in common. And for us Type A people, there are a lot of strengths in what we have to bring to the table. But, there are also some weaknesses. We have the tendency to take over things and want to plan and organize and manage the snot out of anything we can get our hands on… that includes our children’s learning. We pick the topics… we pick the skill for the day… we tell them what to learn, when to learn it, even HOW to learn it. Before you realize it, you are the one putting your child’s learning in the box especially picked out by yours truly.
I want to challenge the control-freak in you with something that might make you twitch just a bit. LET GO! Let the child choose what they want to learn. Let what they wonder about guide your topic of teaching. Even if you are in the middle of explaining something, yes even if they interrupt you mid-sentence with their excited wonders, let your lesson follow their curiosity.
Picture this… you are deep in discussion about the main topic of a story and the story is all about a dinosaur. And out of nowhere your child says “I WONDER what happened to all of the dinosaurs.” Now, you could brush that comment off and keep going with the awesome explanation you were right in the middle of, OR you could let that comment press “pause” on your one-woman (or man) show and take the learning in a different direction… in the direction your child is leading.
Another really interesting thing to try at home is to allow your child to create their very own book box/ “I Pick” Shelf. Basically, sit down with your little one or big one and have them personalize a book box or an entire shelf in a designated bookshelf. Then, the child is invited to keep in that box or on that shelf their favorite books, magazines, comics. Anything reading related that interests them. You don’t dictate the genres or the topics or themes. It is strictly what they are interested in. Giving your child ownership of their own reading choices helps even the most reluctant reader disarm a little when they are the ones picking based on what the like. Make this activity really fun! Set the atmosphere and see how they respond. Give it shot and see what happens!
Get dirty! Make a mess!
Whether you are outside in your backyard or at your kitchen table, everyone could use a little mess in their lives. Moms of young children shouldn’t feel the pressure of constantly keeping a clean home… especially if it is a home where play and fun abounds. Evidence of the joyful memories being made through a joyful mess is nothing to be stressed out about. These are things are children carry with them into adulthood. I am by no means downing the mother who can have fun and keep a tidy home… kudos! But PLEASE the mess happen! Get in the kitchen and make meals together. Take time to allow your unsure handed child pour this and scoop that (even if they spill a little… laugh about it). Go outside and make dams in the dirt even if your fitted jeans might get a little dirt smudge on them. Here are tips to get even the toughest grass stains out! We cannot bubble wrap our children or expect them to be these clean and straightened up mini-adults. Sure, some of our sweet girls and a few boys might enjoy being clean and turn away from anything that gets dirt under their nails and sweat on their bow… but challenge them to roll up their sleeves and get messy. Science, cooking, even math can be sticky and slimy and FUN. Embrace the mess! Welcome it and make memories.
Use technology: Come on people.. it’s the 21st century!
It doesn’t matter how old you are… technology is here and it isn’t going anywhere. Using technology as a tool and not an enemy will help you better relate to your 21st century child. There are mounds and mounds of educational resources that you can save on the desktop of your home computer.
If you have a tablet, monitor their usage and provide a little guidance of what they can do on their tablet by downloading a few of these apps. Some of these apps work great on your smart phone as well!
And as awesome as educational games are, don’t let that be your only go-to! Have your child research a topic and present it in a PowerPoint or Prezi. Have them type a poem. Let them create!
For some of you these lists may be exciting, and for others of you perhaps overwhelming. We know every family is different according to the number of children, age ranges, personalities, schedules, and a bunch of other factors. So if you are of the latter camp, if all of this sounds wonderful, yet stressful, that’s why WonderHere is, well, here. Check out how we can help put on this kind of learning for you!
