When you’re raising young children, finding the time to both play with them and educate them can be challenging. In this article, we’ll cover some of the best ways you can combine the two, creating activities that are both educational as well as fun. Take a look at some of the tips below to find out more.
Real World Play
When it comes to educational play, real-world play is one of the best tools you can use. This type of play teaches vitally important life skills to children, ranging from cooking skills in mud kitchens to communication and maths skills in a pretend shop. Take a look at this range of products to find equipment for your children that encourages real-world play. Take on board feedback from your children to help think of real-world play ideas you can create. For example, maybe you’ve recently taken a family pet to the vet and your child had questions about what vets do or how a veterinary practice operates. This kind of play also helps prepare children for future scenarios, such as if they have a hospital appointment or if they’re starting a new class. It can help to calm any anxiety they could have around concern for what might happen to them whilst they’re there or in unfamiliar situations.
Outdoor Learning
A great way for children to learn through play is in outdoor environments. Consider how you can use either your own garden or a trip to a nearby park or woods to teach your children new things. The beauty of this type of learning is that it can be really simple and inexpensive, while still being an activity that most children will love. For example, create art by rubbing crayons over paper pressed over leaves, or creating a bug hunt around the woods. Not only will you be teaching your children about their environment, but you’ll also be encouraging exercise and time outdoors which is great for both their physical and mental health (and yours too!).
Numeracy And Literacy
Getting most children to sit down and learn about numbers and letters can be challenging for you and boring for them. However, by incorporating numeracy and literacy into play activities, you can help them learn without them even realising it. Activities such as counting the animals you see at the farm or sharing toys and snacks between your children can help teach them about adding up and dividing, for example.
Educational Apps And TV
Thanks to modern technology, it’s easier than ever to educate our children. There is a wide range of learning apps that help with numbers and letters, learning new languages, or for help with specific subjects like science and cooking skills. Educational TV programmes are also a great way to combine your children’s screen time with opportunities to acquire new knowledge or refresh learning.
Teaching About Emotions
A key area of learning that’s important for younger children is understanding emotions and feelings and learning about compassion and empathy. This is essential in order to help children develop good social skills, healthy relationships in their future, and strong bonds with family and friends. Try creating different facial expressions and ask your child to name the emotion. You can also try acting out different scenarios that could make people angry, happy, or sad, and ask your children how they could respond in this situation to teach them how to cope with their own and other people’s emotions.
The Importance Of Patience
Another important life skill you can gift to your children is the qualities of patience and understanding others. And the best way to teach this? By demonstrating it yourself. Your children mirror your behaviour, and will often repeat words, phrases, and behaviours they see you act out. If you show compassion, understanding, and patience with your children’s learning, it’s far more likely that they’ll begin adopting these qualities themselves. It also helps to teach them how to regulate their own emotions, such as anger and frustration which can be a common hindrance to children’s learning. No child likes feeling like they’re failing when they’re learning new things, so be patient with them and encourage them by telling them it’s ok to make mistakes or not be perfect, the real skills are perseverance and determination.
We hope this guide has proved useful in helping you understand how you can combine learning opportunities with fun activities and days out for you and your children. Whether you’re trying to find ways to teach your children about life skills, social skills and emotions, or specific subjects such as science or numeracy, there a number of ways you can help to make learning more engaging for them. Follow some of these tips, and it will become more and more simple to help encourage learning through play with your children. Practice patience and understanding with your children while they’re taking on new knowledge and watch them thrive through playful learning. We wish you the best of luck!
