Playing Is Educational

It’s my personal belief that our culture has promoted a dumbing-down effect for many years, and that’s why I pledged to give my child every academic advantage possible. If you look at the correspondence and speeches of early American heroes, you’ll be shocked at the level of intellect that was on display in that relatively primitive age. Even without access to quality public education, people pursued knowledge on their own.

In recent years, the incentive has been removed. We have little reason to learn anything about the world around us. Whereas most Canadians are familiar with the United States’ political climate, few Americans take the time to learn about Canada, Mexico or any other countries for that matter. When I found some educational games online, I quickly sought out a program featuring a world atlas and encyclopedia of world history all in one.

It’s my personal belief that our culture has promoted a dumbing-down effect for many years, and that’s why I pledged to give my child every academic advantage possible. If you look at the correspondence and speeches of early American heroes, you’ll be shocked at the level of intellect that was on display in that relatively primitive age. Even without access to quality public education, people pursued knowledge on their own.

In recent years, the incentive has been removed. We have little reason to learn anything about the world around us. Whereas most Canadians are familiar with the United States’ political climate, few Americans take the time to learn about Canada, Mexico or any other countries for that matter. When I found some educational games online, I quickly sought out a program featuring a world atlas and encyclopedia of world history all in one.

It seems that at least once each year a major American newspaper or research organization conducts a survey regarding the quality of education in our country compared to others. The results are often disheartening, but that’s a systemic one – it’s not a reflection on our children’s work ethic or natural ability to learn. Part of the problem can be traced to the summer vacation phenomenon.

For instance, when elementary school children learn a math unit, they have no incentive to remember anything. Since everything is forgotten over the three-month-long summer break, teachers begin the next year with a lengthy review session. Time is wasted teaching the very same material twice or even three times. The kids who get ahead are those who keep their minds active with math flash cards and other games educational. Unfortunately, it’s often up to parents or the kids themselves to make sure that material stays fresh.

Conventional wisdom states that actions speak louder than words, and this is especially true when applied to children. Few kids have the patience or presence of mind to tolerate rote memorization and other forms of “traditional” phonics education. In order to be effective, the learning process needs to be interactive. Capturing a child’s interest isn’t easy, but once you’ve captivated him the process takes care of itself.

Phonics games keep the child from losing attention and interest. As a conscientious parent, you can complement these computer games with physical materials such as flash cards. Try implementing an element of humor into the phonics sessions, perhaps incorporating a child’s favorite nursery rhyme or bedtime story.

When children learn, it’s more often through interaction than it is through memorization.  When children play games that are educational, it’s common for them to learn a great deal of information through nothing more than the simple practice of play.  Educational games have gained popularity in the last decades, especially with personal computers becoming common to most American households.  When you interact with a child through play of an educational game, you are teaching them social skills and also helping them to learn.  There’s no better activity for children than educational games to set them on the right path to real life success. 

Parents of children of all ages should strive to take time out of their week to play games with their children.  Whether it’s a simple shell memory game or something more advanced, you’re fostering your child’s future growth!

Children learn through play.  As the toddler grows into the young child his interest widens.  More and more, educational kids games will interest him.  Puzzles and simple crafts will catch his attention and he will spend longer hours working on them.  Even at this age, the child will still need parent supervision but clearly, he is on his way to discovering independence.

Educational games for kids are bonding moments, with the parent, sibling or friend.  They are obviously using their minds when putting together a puzzle but there are benefits that are not immediately apparent. The game appears to be simple, yet experts say that they nevertheless require conceptual and social skills. Dealing with a playmate, for example, can be stressful at this stage.  Suffice it to say that even the simplest of games can be a learning experience.

The toddler is naturally curious. Looking for toddler games to interest the little one is a bit challenging.  First, it should be safe and fun. Fun is good but the game you choose should also be exciting. The child has short attention span and could be bored easily.  Second, it takes a lot of supervision.  Mommy is the playmate and also the mentor who helps direct the child toward an enjoyable experience.

Toddlers are usually started on board games and building blocks. He will be attracted by the shapes and colors but when he tires of them, it is best to change to a different game.  When he is older, the play dough or a tub of creative blocks will be an interesting diversion.  It will develop his creativeness and sharpen his imagination. Enjoy the toddler as he struggles with his little fingers because when he grows older Mommy will cease to be his playmate.

The key to teaching counting to your child is to make counting entertaining. 

Start teaching your child about numbers and counting in their early childhood activities.  They can begin learning how to count in their everyday play, long before they even realize that they are being taught.  You must be interactive when you play with your child.    These techniques can even work long before your child can talk.  

Here are some everyday play activities that you can do to help teach counting skills.  

Playing with Blocks – Childrens Educational Toys:

When you are playing blocks, count them as your stack them together.  You child will be entertained, because they will 9 times out of 10, knock the stack down.  Smile and say, “oh no”, and then stack them together again as you are count them.

Ask your child to hand you some blocks and as they do – count them.

Sort out the blocks by color, shape, design, or size.  Count how many of each you have.        

As your child advances, alternate who stack the blocks together.  You can place the first block and count 1, then have your child stack the next block and count 2, etc…

You may even find things like flash cards, dominoes, or a wooden bead abacuses with beads that are different colors and shapes, very useful to teach your child their counting skills.

Around Your Home, Store, or Restaurant Games – Arithmetic Games

As you dress your child, count their fingers, toes, arms, legs, eyes, etc…  Count the buttons or snaps on their clothes.

As they eat their favorite foods - grapes, pepperoni, french fries - you can count how many they ate.   

Count the stairs as you walk up and down them.

When you are at the store, count the number of products that you put into the cart.  Tell your child that you need three boxes of cereal and count them as they load them into the cart.

Singing and Counting

Children love singing and dancing around.  Use songs to help your child learn about counting and arithmetic skills.  Start out by singing songs like: “5 Little Monkeys Jumping in the Bed” and then move into other musical tunes.  There are many CD’s or DVD’s that are focused on math skills like counting, addition, and subtraction.  Listen to them at least once a day.

As mentioned earlier, the key to teaching counting to your child is to make counting entertaining.  This can be achieved by using these early childhood activities and arithmetic games.  Remember to count out loud to them when they are young, and to do these activities thoughout the day to reinforce these mathematics and counting skills.

Everyday there are opportunities to teach your children the general concepts of math.  From the time they are an infants, we can begin teaching math by using counting activities.  These activities can include story telling like one little piggy, two little piggy … to counting their blocks as we play with them.

Children do not always grasp the concepts of math immediately.  Show them why and how math works.  For example: When having a pizza dinner or sharing a dessert with your family you can teach fractions to your children.  Start out with whole item (in this example = 1 pizza), then start dividing the pizza into portions to share with the family.  Discuss how much is being used or how much is left over.

As they learn the concepts of math, they will increase their deductive reasoning skills and learn that math is fun.

There are also many educational math board games available that can be used to teach mathematics.

Your children can learn the value of money by playing money-related math board games.  They will also increase their arithmetic skills as they use coins and bills to pay for purchases, compute change, handle allowances and gifts, collect earnings, and make deposits into college savings accounts.

Math board games like Making Change Octominoes, Managing My Allowance, or Presto Change-O will help your children learn how to save money and take advantage of sales.  Your chldren’s lives will be enhanced because they learned these skills.