Playing Is Educational

Provide your kids endless hours of fun while they simultaneously learn. Purchase several educational board games to hone their problem-solving skills and other skills.

With these kinds of interactive games, kids also learn the concept of give and take and how to be a graceful loser. Choose from a wide selection of games that teach anything from basic letters and numbers to word constructions and puzzles that develop imagination.

Learning about human body parts can be fun and educational for children. 

There are many books, games, puzzle cards, skeletons and other plastic models (where the body parts can be removed, observed, and arranged back into their correct position) that can help your child to learn about his/her body.

There are also many educational body parts songs that they could sing.

Try these for example: 

“Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes”

(Touch Body Parts as You Sing)
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes,
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Eyes, Ears, Mouth and Nose
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

“Me Complete”

I have ten little fingers and ten little toes
Two little arms and one little nose,
One little mouth and two little ears,
Two little eyes for smiles and tears,
One little head and two little feet,
One little chin, that’s me complete

“Brush Your Teeth”

This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth
This is the way we brush our teeth, so early in the morning.
Brush them up and brush them down, in little circles or round and round
Don’t brush them from side to side, for those sugar bugs will surely hide.

By definition: An educational toy is a toy designed to teach people, typically children, about a certain subject or help them learn a skill as they play.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational toy

Puzzles:

Puzzles can teach a child topics like ABC’s, colors, shapes, animals, and geography.  Puzzles can also help with hand-eye coordination, teach sizes & shapes, and problem solving. 

Board Games and Card Games:

Board games and card games can be used to teach things like counting, colors, and reading, to more complex things like communication skills,  logical thinking, and organizational skills.

Games & Toys:

Games and Toys can be very educational to children.  By playing with educational games and toys, children can learn physical skills, such ashand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and even texture.  They can also learn about things like animals, colors, and the human body.

Dramatic Play / Creative Play:

Let them dress-up or play puppet show theater with puppets and dolls.  This will stimulate them to role play and express themselves through character play.  They can learn about different foods and even money by playing with Pretend Playsets.

Wooden Play Structures:

Children love to play outdoors on wooden play structures.  Wooden play structures encourage children to be physically active and mentally active as they determine if and how they can perform specific skills.  Children are increasing their imagination as they soar through the sky on a swing and play around it.

It is important to keep our young children involved and playing - get them to play with educational toys.

The popularity of wooden puzzles has waxed and waned since they were first produced in the 1760’s.  They are still just like the first wooden puzzle used to teach geography.

Children’s puzzles have moved from lessons to entertainment showing diverse subjects like animals, nursery rhymes and modern tales of super heroes and Disney.  Wooden puzzles still offer a lot of entertainment for a small price.

Parents and teachers are constantly on the lookout for ways to make learning fun, and one of the easiest ways is to integrate learning into upbeat, lively, and interactive activities.

With that in mind, the following is a short list of board games for kids that will be so much fun they won’t even realize they are learning.

-Scrabble: The classic word game is an obvious choice. Watch spelling and vocabulary improve as your kid works with the tiles and is introduced to new words. Keep score if you want to introduce even more strategy and competition into the game.

-Connect Four: This is a simple game with a simple objective—connect four pieces in a line. But within that simple framework, there is a lot of room for strategy and fun. Your kid will thrive on and benefit from both.

-Clue: The game of murder and intrigue will have your kids delighted. And it will have you delighted because they are learning all about reasoning, process of elimination, and strategy.

-Twister: While this board game is not as immediately obvious as the other choices, there is a definite educational benefit to the game of contortion and chaos. Just like mental dexterity, motor skills and balance are very important, and this game can help hone those skills.

It can be a tricky endeavor, teaching kids how to tell time. Part of the problem is that the activity is often relegated by teachers. But it is such a basic, everyday skill. As such, every student should know how to read an analog clock.

So how do you make something like learning to tell time a fun and interactive activity? One solution is transforming the activity into a game of BINGO (complete with prizes, of course).

Make up basic BINGO cards for all the students. Place one time of day per box—12:00, 10:45, etc. Project a transparency of a clock with the numbers but no hands. With an erasable pen, fill in the hour hand and minute hand.

If anyone has the time you’ve written, that student can cover the square with a piece of paper. (Keep a running log of the times you’ve written for the end.)

As with any game of BINGO, the first person to make a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally yells out “BINGO.”

Check the student’s card to ensure every time was given. If so, that student is the winner.

While there are many ways for kids to learn how to tell time, this is just one simple, interactive, and high energy example.