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!

While most of the time I’m a well budgeted individual and I don’t believe in spending a lot of money on a holiday like Easter, last year I wanted to buy my son something special.  I felt bad that I couldn’t buy him the Gorilla playset he wanted for Christmas, for financial reasons and because the weather would have delayed me building it for several months.

When Easter came and we were well into Spring, I decided to buy him the Gorilla playset I wish I could have given to him for the holidays.  On the Saturday before Easter, my son spent all day at his friend’s house, and I spent all day setting up the playset.  When he came home, it was dark, and he didn’t think to look in the backyard of course. Easter morning I told my son to look out the window in the backyard, and his eyes lit up and he ran to the backdoor.  I could hardly convince him to put on his shoes before going outside, but it was for sure a great moment in fatherhood.

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?

Wooden outdoor play structures provide children with a wonderful location for their outdoor active play.  If your are thinking about purchasing an outdoor wooden play structure for your children, we would like to recommend a Gorilla Playset.  One of our favorite’s is the Tiki Treehouse – Beachcomber because it has a lot of features at a very affordable price.

Your children will enjoy pretending being Tarzan and living in this synthetic thatch-roofed Gorilla swing set with bamboo accents.  They can swing on the swings, hang upside-down on the trapeze bar, or climb the Caribbean Cargo net.  This backyard playset also features a gang plank climbing ramp, a built-in picnic table area with a sand box, and a slide where he can enjoy the rush of sliding down to the ground. 

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.

All wooden outdoor play structures, (cedar, redwood, treated lumber, or untreated lumber), require maintenance to preserve to look, beauty, and integrity of the wood.  Depending on the climate that you live in, it is recommended to re-stain or reseal wooden play structures every couple years. 

Here are some guideline to assist you in choosing your stain.

First you need to choose a stain appropriate for the weather conditions in your area.  There are different brands of stains that have different properties, depending on local weather.  Some stains have added protection against mildew and rot found for wetter climates and others have added protection against ultraviolet rays.

To determine how many gallons of stain you will need to buy, figure out how many square feet of wood is on your outdoor play structures.  Also keep in mind that you will likely need to apply more than one coat to achieve the best coverage.

Match the stain to the type and age of your wood which your wooden play structure is constructed from.  Some stains work best on pretreated lumber, which generally only requires a water sealer.  Untreated lumber should be stained immediately and requires more protection than treated lumber.

Stains come in a wide variety of colors, choose the color of stain that you desire.

Look for brushes or pads that are appropriate for applying stain.  keep in mind that stain is thinner than paint.  We recommend pads because they drip less than brushes, resulting in a more even stain application.

If you follow the above guidelines, your wooden outdoor play structures will last for generations.

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.

This human brain cross-section model is a valuable tool for teaching students about the complexities of the human brain’s anatomy. 

The cross-section model comes apart for hands-on classroom demonstrations.  One half  of the brain model is labeled with the parts of the organ while the other has letters for testing purposes.

Parts of the human brain and their functions:

Cerebrum / Cortex – Largest part of the human brain associated with higher thought and action, that is divided into the following sections:

• Frontal Lobe – associated with attention, motivation, reasoning, problem solving, planning, decision making, parts of speech, movement, and emotions
• Parietal Lobe – associated with movement, orientation, recognition, and perception of stimuli
• Occipital Lobe – associated with visual processing and recognition of the printed word
• Temporal Lobe – associated with memory, perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory, and speech

Other sections are also illustrated on the human brain model.