Preschoolers need Training to know ABCs of Learning
OK summer is over and the kids are back in school. But there are still some children too young for school. You may be wondering how you can best prepare them for some of the academic skills they will need in the future.
We all know the value of play. Often, we scan the shelves in toy stores for board games that would be educational. And, in fact, there are some. However, you don't need a store-bought board game in order to teach children the principles of math and reading. Here are some activities that introduce young children to the fascinations of some very important principles. To children, these activities will just be fun. To you, however, you can feel satisfied that you are preparing them for the future.
*Weighing and measuring: Kids spend lots of time playing in the sandbox, in the bathtub, or at the beach. often they just seem to be filling up pails or containers and dumping them out. Why not join them and make a guessing game out of how many spoonfuls it will take to big pail from a smaller cup or container? Compare two containers filled with water, sand or uncooked rice. Which is heavier or lighter?
Children don't need tape measur4es or yar4dsticks to measure. They've got cars, doll, or blocks. They can line these up and guess how many it will take to go from their bed to the door.
*Patterning: What makes a pattern? Who goes next? This principle relates to math and other kinds of thinking. You can teach children about patterns with fruit or other foods. Line up small slices of bananas and apples. First a slice of banana, then a slice of an apple. What comes next? Have the child guess what fruit continues the pattern. This can become more complicated when the child get the hang of it by adding more objects and gradually making the pattern more complex. For instance, two dried beans followed by three peas followed by a four slices of carrot followed by tow dried beans. What comes next?
*Counting: This is such a basic task. Yet it requires that children learn the names for numbers and use the correctly and in order. Then they must learn that the names for numbers represent quantities. You can have children count when you're reading a story: "How many bears are there on this page?" Or you can help children count when they are helping to set the table for dinner.
These are just some examples to get you started. A great many everyday activities can be used to teach children about learning and thinking. The beauty of these kinds of activities is that they can be fun and children don't know that they are being taught. But as always, remember: when the enjoyment for the child stops, so should the activity.