Sam, my three year old (who will be four tomorrow! Yikes how time flies)... well if I'm honest, this is the first year he's really enjoyed going to school. When he was in my preschool's toddler program and 2's program, he liked it -- but he didn't like the "going" part. Finally, this year, he wakes up ready to go to school. And he's so anxious to tell me about his day. What he's learned, what crafts he did, what stories he heard... it's so refreshing and nice to see what he's learning.
Because I have two kids who love school and love learning, it's fun to come up with fun games and activities that help reinforce ideas and activities they learned in school. They like it and it's fun. They don't look at it as learning, but playing games or doing arts and crafts. Some activities take longer or we save for a special occasion, but some are easy and can be played or done anywhere, anytime.
As often as I can, I try to get the boys to help out around the house. This is not as easy as one might imagine. So I like to make games that reinforce the skills they learn at school, yet also give them some responsibility around the house.
Picking up their rooms is probably the biggest hurdle for me. So we play games. I tell them, "Only pick up the cars. Leave the everything else and put the cars in the car bucket." Once that's done, I move on to books, Legos, action figures or what ever needs to be put away. This reinforces "sorting" and helps the kids to focus on one task at a time, breaking it down so the "Pick up your room" chore is not so daunting. Another idea is to play the Alphabet Clean Up game: instead cleaning up by "type" of toy, pick up by toys that begin with letters of the alphabet.
They love to help in the kitchen too. We count the number of eggs we are scrambling or how many people want toast. We count the number of "big forks" and "kid forks" needed to set the table. Mealtime math is a great way to get your kids to eat what's on their plate and reinforce addition and subtraction.
Everyone has their own activities that they like to do with their kids, but occasionally it's fun to explore new ideas and keep things fresh. Here at The Savvy Source we have lots of activities for kids of all ages, all targeting different learning areas and skills. If you are not sure what skills to focus on with your child -- either emerging skills or skills they need a bit extra attention, take the "My Child's Development" quiz. Just answer a few basic questions about your child and the quiz will recommend fun, age appropriate activities targeted to the skills you want to develop.
If you have any fun games or learning activities of your own, we'd love to hear about them! Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know.
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