Whether your school environment this year is a masked, in-school experiment, a some-of-both hybrid, or a parent-led homeschool taking place online at your kitchen table, learning can be a challenge for kids (and for adults!)
First of all, give yourself a pat on the back for making it this far. What you’re doing is hard, and you’re doing a great job. *claps*
Encourage your children’s growth by bringing more excitement into learning activities — it’ll benefit them, and you. Fun-filled lessons help kids develop a love for learning and boost their education. Here are three ways to incorporate more fun into your everyday learning.
1. Play Games
Children love to play games, be they traditional board and card games, video games, or games that they have made up themselves. You can use these as tools for learning, so make sure your children have plenty of opportunities for play.
For board games, consider the classics. Monopoly is a great game for teaching your children numeracy and money management skills. Boggle and Scrabble are perfect for helping your children develop new words and to assist them with spelling. And for older children, Risk and Who Knows Where are great for geographical learning.
There are also lots of video games available, some of which are education-based, and some of which your kids probably play for fun anyway. Minecraft, for example, incorporates problem-solving and opportunities for creativity, and is a game that many schools now use within their curriculum.
Then there are those games children make up themselves, (make sure to include yourself in these imaginary and role-playing games!) Dress-up games, for example, could be turned into history lessons, so brush up on stories of old and enact them with your kids.
Be sure to talk to your children about the games they play, and assist them with their learning. When playing word games, for example, you might use Word Unscrambler to help younger children with those difficult to master words with seven letters to ensure they don’t get put off certain learning opportunities.
2. Leave the House
There are loads of learning opportunities outside of the home, such as museums, libraries, and interactive playrooms. These are some of the best kids museums in the US, for example, many of which have ample opportunities for hands-on learning.
You can also encourage learning with your kids when you’re out and about outside, as you can talk to them about nature and wildlife, and give them opportunities to interact with the world around them. You can also play games with your children in the park, and these, of course, are perfect opportunities for teaching your children fine motor skills and lessons about teamwork.
(Plus, we know we’re all getting cabin fever. Using masks and observing social distancing, you can get out and enjoy the outside again.
3. Get Hands-On
More and more, schools are picking up on the benefits of hands-on-learning, as many children learn best by doing.
So, make time for this at home. Organize craft activities, come up with simple science experiments they can get hands-on with, and have fun with them preparing food in the kitchen. Your children will learn all kinds of new skills when they are given opportunities to do things for themselves, so look online for ideas that are age-appropriate for your kids.
Learning can be fun, so let your children know it and experience it — incorporating new strategies into learning can help maximize your children’s educational potential.
