Playing Is Educational

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.

In the early years of a child, it is essential for them to learn their ABCs and phonics.  This will help them with the vocabulary and reading skills that are required to strive in their later years of school, college, and with their careers.

Sometimes the problem for children trying to learn their ABCs is that they lose interest.  We, as parents and teachers, need to be creative in the ways we teach them so that they don’t even realize they are learning.

There are many early childhood toys and products that can be used.  These products can range from electronic toys like the Alphabet Pal or Spin & Sing Alphabet Zoo to other develpmental toys like the EZ as ABC Purple Pebble Activity Set, Alphabet puzzles or board games like the Dr. Seuss ABC Game.

Whatever method you select to help your child learn their ABCs, realize that it is an essential part of their education and will help them for a lifetime.

So make it as fun as possible and enjoy yourself!

If you want to have a little bit for fun with your children tonight, but you want to do something educational - consider playing Dominoes.

By playing with Dominoes, your children can increase their math skills, by learning about whole numbers and fractions in either pictorial or numerical forms.  They can also learn pattern recognition, color & shape recognition, and practice their fine motor skills.

So give Dominoes a try!

Does your child love horses?  Many kids begin their love for horses when playing with their “Little People” playset or from riding on their rocking horse.   

Well, now they can learn about the names, breeds, colors, and markings of fictional horses when they play with this educational game.

You might think you know what Bingo is, but do you know what Bingo could be? 

Most of us know about the standard Bingo with the numbers like B3, I8, N12, etc… 

But playing Bingo can be much more.  Can you imagine playing Bingo and learning about the human skeleton, learning about sight words, or learning about good food nutrition?  Well, you can do that and much more!