Making Learning Fun

By Tina L. Miller

Singing songs, reading nursery rhymes, playing peek-a-boo, and allowing your toddler to feed himself finger foods are just a part of caring for a baby, right? Did you know that all of those fun little things you do with your baby and toddler are also helping your child develop important skills like speech development, spatial relations, and fine motor skills?

When our children are babies and toddlers, most parents unconsciously help them learn through a variety of fun activities. We don't set out to "teach" our child something. We simply interact with and play with our child, and along the way the child grows and develops. During the first few years of life, your child will learn to process an incredible amount of information and develop skills at an almost supernatural speed. Should that rate of development continue at the same pace, your child would probably be a college graduate by age 10.

But somewhere between potty training and the start of first grade, the rate of learning development begins to slow a bit and we, as parents, suddenly get the idea that learning has to be work - an organized affair with a curriculum, learning plans and objectives, regulated schedules, and testing designed to measure each child's progress against others of their age. In many ways, we take the fun right out of learning. But it doesn't have to be that way. Learning can still be fun! There are dozens of ways you can help your children continue to develop cognitive and motor skills using games and playtime. They'll be developing their skills and abilities and they won't suspect a thing. Learning doesn't have to be hard work. Here are some suggestions you can try. Have fun!

Board games. Believe it or not, board games have a lot to offer. With the advent of electronic games and video games, many of our board games got pushed to the back of the closet to gather dust. But they're more valuable than you think. Haul them back out!

In addition to fostering family time that doesn't revolve around the television, board games teach important skills like reading, learning to follow directions, and reasoning skills. Since most board games involve advancing a playing piece around the board, they involve counting and can help develop fine motor skills, and most use different colors strategically, so color recognition is developed, as well. Checkers, chess, and backgammon develop strategic and analytical thinking skills. Classic games like Hi Ho Cherry-O, Chutes & Ladders, and Candy Land teach counting, color recognition, and other primary skills. Games with play money like Monopoly and Pay Day teach children how to count money and form the basis of a few lessons in economics for older kids. There are even "junior" versions of many traditional favorites to play with 5 to 8-year-olds. But a word of advice - don't tell them you're trying to teach them something. Just have fun!

Cooking Together. Kids love to help in the kitchen and this is another activity packed with opportunities for learning. When kids are small, they can help with simple tasks like retrieving ingredients from the cupboard or the refrigerator. Try increasing the number of items you have them bring you over time to help them develop their memory skills. Ask them to bring you a series of items in a particular order: first the bread, then the peanut butter, and then the jelly, for example, to help them perform tasks in sequence. Small children can learn about shapes and colors, textures, and smells through exploration. Talk about the differences and similarities in foods, what is healthy to eat and why, and why some foods are favorites. As children get older, they can help prepare simple meals. Reading a recipe enhances reading comprehension and measuring ingredients helps develop important math skills. Make Things Together. Work on a project together. It can be a simple arts and crafts project or it may be something more complex you're working on that your child can help you with. Besides helping the two of you bond, your child will learn to follow instructions, develop motor skills, reason out why certain tasks are performed in a particular sequence, and learn the value of perseverance.

When working on projects, encourage creativity in your child. Too soon our children are taught that tree trunks are colored brown and trees should be green. They're instructed to color inside the lines and to create illustrations that are realistic. That's all well and good, but it's the people who decided to color outside the lines who achieved great things in our society. Creative kids become creative adults, and creative adults go on to invent faster, easier, and better ways of doing things.

Explore Together. Foster your child's interests and explore together. Maybe your child likes to find out what makes things work. As a toddler, my son used to take all the knobs off his dresser and he was constantly taking things apart. While it frustrated me at the time, he learned a lot about how objects are put together and developed some great mechanical abilities. He still likes to use his hands and his mind together, taking things apart, putting them back together again, and developing new inventions of his own. He likes to build, work with his erector set, and make model airplanes. Those activities are all fun, but they also teach hand-eye coordination, develop fine motor skills, foster creativity, and develop patience.

Your child may enjoy nature. Go on a hike together or explore the natural world in your own backyard. My daughter collects rocks, leaves, and insects all the time. While I sometimes balk a bit at finding these collections in her bedroom, I know nature fascinates her. She loves to watch things grow and to learn how different creatures live and develop. She enjoys comparing and contrasting the rocks in her collection, organizing and categorizing them according to shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. She's having fun, and I know she's learning to analyze and compare objects, develop observation skills, and learn about the cycles of life and nature. Maybe it's camping or gardening, airplanes or art, museums or dinosaurs. Whatever fascinates and interests you and your child, explore it together. Take field trips, read books, watch videos, and do hands-on activities whenever possible. Exploration can be one of the most delightful and educational experiences you will ever share. And these kinds of excursions are the stuff wonderful memories are made of.

Read Together. Reading is the foundation for everything. Once a child knows how to read, the world really is an "book." In our rapidly advancing information age, good reading skills are critical to success. Read to your child, and have your child read aloud to you. Read everything you can - from road signs to soup cans and cereal boxes. Let your child see you reading - for work and for pleasure, to learn and to relax. Talk to your child about words and reading. Read recipes, books, magazines, instruction manuals, junk mail, letters, newspapers, and comic books. Read together in the waiting room at the doctor's office, on the internet, and before bedtime. Anytime is the right time to read! Make reading a part of every day and let your children know how interesting and enjoyable reading is to you.

Make up Games. My kids and I play a game we call the spelling game. In a world full of hype and sound effects, I've learned little noise enhancements can delight and entertain my kids while they learn. It started one day when we were sitting on the front steps waiting for my husband to come home. Each of the kids took a turn, and I gave each child - one at a time - an age-appropriate word to spell out loud. If they got it right on the first try, they got 100 points and I made the "ding, ding, ding!" sound effect. I jazzed up my commentary like a game show host on TV. If they got the word wrong, I'd say "Errr! Wrong answer. Try again for 50 points." If the child got it wrong again, the next kid in line got a chance to spell the word for 50 points. Each child took a consecutive turn and the "winner" was the child who accumulated 1,000 points first. It might sound a little corny, but the kids loved it. In fact, the neighbor kids now join in the game every chance they get. The game requires absolutely no paper or pencil, batteries, or props of any kind - and in my book, every kid is a winner. The kids all listen intently and they all end up learning new words and spelling words at different levels.

Use your imagination and make up your own sound effects for games that will entertain your kids and reinforce the skills they're learning in school. Our spelling game teaches listening skills, enhances vocabulary, and increases spelling accuracy. Other games we play foster arithmetic and mathematic skills, creativity, or critical thinking skills. But the most important thing to the kids is that it's fun.

Word Games. Check out some of the fun workbooks they offer these days for kids of all ages. Filled with crossword puzzles, word finds, and anagrams, word games enhance language development, reading comprehension, observation, analytical thinking skills, and increase vocabulary. Even riddles, jokes, and joke books help children recognize puns and double meanings, increase vocabulary, and enhance language comprehension. Word games and workbooks are great quiet-time activities and travel well on road trips and family vacations. They can keep kids entertained while you're waiting for your food at restaurants and help your children unwind from the activities of the day after bath and before bedtime.

Have a Treasure Hunt. Treasure hunts are great fun for adults and kids alike. Believe me, you'll have almost as much fun designing and orchestrating the treasure hunt as the kids will have hunting for the treasure. Along the way, your child will learn to study a map and look for clues, develop abstracting thinking and reasoning skills, enhance their reading ability, develop a keen sense of observation, and learn to analyze.

A scavenger hunt is great fun, too. Give your children a list of objects to look for. Get as creative as you can. Design it to be appropriate for the age of the child. A scavenger hunt for small children may consist of a "list" with cutout pictures of different objects like a hairbrush, a pinecone, a mitten, a story book, a wooden spoon, etc. Older children may be challenged to find an object beginning with each letter of the alphabet. Or you can write riddles with little clues that the kids need to decipher to determine what object they need to collect. Use your imagination and have a ball!

Don't Forget Timeless Classics. Remember the games we played as kids - before the days of MTV and Nickelodeon? Think back. Games like hangman, tic-tac-toe, Simon Says, hopscotch, and I Spy all help children develop skills in areas like reading, spelling, counting, observation, analytical thinking, listening, following directions, and motor functions.

Who says a great education has to be all work and no play? You can encourage your child to keep on learning at every stage of their development, and they'll be having so much fun they'll never realize you're really focusing on their education.

Many activities don't cost a thing, and most help you and your child bond emotionally. At the same time, they encourage your child to interact with others, create great memories, and make for a lot of fun for everyone. So have fun with your child and help them keep on learning!