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Archive for the 'Educational Playing' Category
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!
A child’s early learning is enhanced by early childhood activities that promote imagination, from independent play to interactive play. There are a wide variety of early childhood toys available to enhance their imaginative play.
On a daily basis, your child see you prepare and cook meals. There are many toys available for your child’s food play activities that will provide hours of educational play. Pretend play food is available
that ranges from fruits and vegetables to multicultural meals, such as, sushi from Japan, pasta pronto from Italy, and fiesta flavors from Mexico.
Have your child prepare you a pretend meal. They can prepare a picnic lunch basket, have a pizza party, or set the table with plastic play dishes and have a fine dining experience.
What is your favorite pretend food play experience?
During the day, children observe their surroundings and then role-play their observations during their pretend play. With the use of childrens educational toys, they can play out working in an office space, a supermarket, or an animal hospital. 
When your children engage in pretend play, they are also improving their problem solving skills, oral skills, and writing skills. Their self-esteem will increase as they discover that they can be anything, just by pretending.
It is amazing how much playing puppet show theater can increase your child’s ability to express himself.
If your child has difficultly expressing himself, you should try puppet theater. With the use of finger puppets, hand puppets, and hand-operated rod puppets, your child can learn to express himself through role-play. Through puppet play, your child can express his feelings through different puppet characters, from animal hand puppets to community helper puppets. He can be a surgeon, a fire fighter, a police officer, or even a construction worker.
Try puppet theater to help your child express his emotions; you’ll be impressed on how he will open up and share his feelings.
While having fun playing with a play parachutes, parachute games encourage cooperative play, noncompetitive play, and reinforces sharing and taking-turns. Play parachute games also helps with strengthening upper body muscles, primarily the muscles in the shoulders, arms, and hands, and gross motor skills. When playing together, parachute games develop perceptual motor skills and a sense of rhythm. Language activities can also be incorporated into most parachute games.
See-Saw Pull: From a sitting position, pull the parachute back and forth in a see-sawing motion.
Make Waves: While gripping the parachute, everyone moves their arms up and down to make small and large waves.
Wave: Where one person puts hands up and person next to her follows action. (like the wave at a baseball game)
The Ocean: Pretend the parachute is the ocean. Try to let everyone who wants to have a turn ‘in the ocean’. Everyone is standing and one or two children (shoes off) go toward the center and lie down - then all make waves - it’s a neat sensation.
Mushroom: From a standing position, ask all the children to bend down and take hold of the parachute. When the leader calls “up”, all the children raise their arms lifting the parachute up as high as they can, then everyone takes 3-4 giant steps toward the center - making a mushroom shape, pulling the chute behind them and then they sit on the edge of the chute.
Ball Roll: Try to roll balls into the hole in the center of the parachute.
Popcorn: Start with everyone holding the chute stretched out. Place a number of small plastic balls, beanbags, or small stuffed animals on the chute. Shake the chute to make them rise like popcorn. See how quickly you can bounce them off without letting go of the parachute.
Poison Snake: Place four to six pieces of yarn or rope on the chute. By shaking the chute, try to make them hit the players on the other side. Keep track of who gets bitten.
Do you want to provide your child with an educational toy that will increase eye-hand coordination along with shape and color recognition? If so, we would like to recommend a shape sorting pounder.
As your child hammers away on the pegs of this shape sorting pounder, he will increase his eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. While hammering, you can help increase his color and shape recognition by repeating the name of the color or shape of the peg that he is hammering. Take turns, ask him to tell you the color or shape that he wants you to hammer.
Parachute games encourage cooperative group play that reinforces turn-taking and sharing and helps to build muscle tone. Parachute activities are usually quite physical. To avoid injuries and to maximize the fun, explain the terms and rules to your children before approaching the parachute.
Playing with a parachute will also help develop perceptual, cognitive, motor, and academic skills, that can be used in many aspects of a child’s life.
Terms:
Directionality - Forward, Backward, up, down, clockwise, counter-clockwise, right hand, left hand, high, low, and sideways.
Locomotor Skills - Skipping, hopping, walking, running, jumping, galloping, and leaping.
Movement Skills - Fast, slow, accelerating, decelerating, light, and heavy.
Ways to grip the parachute:
Rules & Safety:
Parachute games are for all ages; however, you may need to change each game for the age group that is involved. The nature of parachute games means that children are actively running around, pulling the chute, crawling around, and possibly climbing on other children. Playing with a play parachute is generally very safe; however, from time to time, an accident will happen.
To avoid injuries, explain the following rules:
Have the children remove their shoes before approaching the parachute.
Encourage the children to space themselves around the parachute so that there are no large gaps. If there is a large gap, roll up the parachute - making a smaller parachute.
Have the children hold the parachute with both hands at all times. Don’t allow the children to remove their hands in order to hit balls.
The children should take care of others: they should not kick under the parachute and they should watch their elbows, either of these can cause injuries.
If the parachute is used for trust exercises, i.e. walking on air - parachute game, use play mats under the play area.
If the parachute has a hole in the middle, please ensure that the children know it is dangerous to place their head through the center.
If these precautions are taken, your children will have an entertaining and educational experience with the play parachute.
Play Parachutes come with or without handles and a variety of different sizes.
We recommend that your play parachute has handles, because it is easy for kids to hold on to the handle as the parachute waves in the air.
To select the size of the play parachute depends on two factors:
1) What is the area that you have to use the play parachute?
2) What is quantity of people that you want to us the play parachute at a time?
The 6 foot play parachute has 8 handles that works great for 3 to 4 people at a time.
The 12 foot play parachute has 12 handles that will accomidate from 4 to 6 people.
The 20 foot play parachute will accomidate with its 16 handles - 6 to 8 people.
A 24 foot play parachute has 20 handles and is great for 8 to 10 people.
When selecting a play parachute, for durability purposes, select a high quality nylon parachute that is double stitched. We recommend that you always store your parachute in a carry/storage bag. (Never use the play parachute for a sunshade or exposed to the sunlight for an extend time period. Nylon detoriorates very quickly in direct sunlight.)
With the use of parachute games, through cooperative group play, a play parachute will help build upper-body strengthening and muscle tone. Parachute play also will help develop perceptual, cognitive, motor, social, and academic skills.
Young children enjoy rhythmical and musical activities; older people find it enjoyable and challenging by tossing a ball with the play parachute and moving as a team to catch it.
Parachute Games:
Wave: This is like the wave at a football stadium. One child starts out by raising his arms up or down in the air and the next child then follows the motion of the child before him.
Running by Numbers: Run underneath and switch places with the other playmates. Provide a number of the locations on the parachute, then call out the number. This parachute game is a pleasure for all ages.
Parachute Tag: Everyone lifts the parachute over their head. Call out the child’s name and they need to skip, hop, or crawl to the other side. The challenge is to make it to the other side before the parachute comes down and tags them.
Bouncing Balls: Hold the parachute tight at about chest level with 2 or 3 foam balls. Have 3 or 4 children get underneath the parachute and then they need to try to knock the balls off while the children holding the chute need to try to keep them on.
Get a play parachute and get the health benefits of play parachute games.
Dramatic play should be a primary part of every child’s early childhood activities. This pretend play encourages a child to explore and expand his imagination by allowing him to invent and create his own scenarios.
As a child explores various ways to play, he will increase his problem solving skills, langauge skills, vocabulary skills, and story telling skills.
Dramatic play also promotes a child’s willingness to cooperate and share with others, which will increase his communication skills and other social skills.
Dramatic play is only limited to a child’s imagination, and little children have very big imaginations.