Featured
Education and fun are often attributed to younger children. This is primarily because you don’t want to put them off learning before entering the educational system, whether via homeschooling or mainstream educational options. But also because children especially younger ones learn more through play. Especially when they don’t even realize they’re learning. Because at a young age, everything is an education, and there are learning opportunities all around, meaning putting the onus on fun takes away the lesson while still infusing the knowledge they need for their development.
As a parent, you play a crucial role in facilitating your child’s learning and ensuring they are developing their skills and hitting their milestones as much as possible. So, interjecting your day and time with fun over strict learning lessons and regimented classes will work well for you and can help your toddler learn as much as possible at a level that works for them and ensure they have the best time doing so.
So, what can you do to help your child learn and have fun at the same time?
Free Play
Free play, a joyous and vital part of childhood, is instrumental in fostering young imaginations, confidence, dexterity, cognitive abilities, and more. Allowing your toddler to make their own fun, such as building with blocks, playing with dolls, or creating art, and ensuring they’re not supplied with pre-determined activities gives them the freedom to really explore their imagination and the world around them. It’s a relief for parents, as it takes the mental load off them to find yet another thing for their toddlers to do.
Watch how they interact at different times and include them in their play. Help them out by joining in, teaching them words when using new items, and allowing them to explore their immediate surroundings on their own terms. It is one of the best things you can do. Plus, it never hurts to allow your child to experience boredom or trigger free play.
Singing and Dancing
Music and singing are exceptional ways for your child to earn. They’re easy ways to help develop their vocabulary, engage them with sound and noise, and use their voice. The more you expose them to music and singing, the earlier you can use both to facilitate a fun learning experience, and the easier it will be for them to really grasp the benefits of this.
Singing can help your toddler express themselves, learn new words, string sentences together, and identify speech patterns. It can also help build connections with others and develop social skills.
When you add dancing to the mix, not only are you increasing the ways your child can express themselves, but you are also fostering a sense of more awareness of their own body and functions and how to control themselves, as well as boosting exercise in their day.
This should make parents feel excited and engaged in their child’s learning journey, knowing that they are providing a fun and beneficial experience for their child.
Researchers have also found that music can accelerate brain development, so throwing that Spotify playlist together and getting your toddler singing and dancing like they were performing for a sell-out crowd has never looked so attractive, has it?
Reading
Reading is one of the best ways to ensure your child learns as much as possible. However, although numerous studies have found this to be extremely beneficial, it does not always mean sitting down with a book.
It can be reading anything. And it doesn’t always mean you are reading to them or even your toddler knowing what the words are; just that they know there is some type of print there to be ‘read.’ The earlier your child becomes familiar with print concepts, the easier it is for them to understand that the written word is a form of communication and can be beneficial to the learning process in multiple ways.
So whether you’re letting them read to you from their favourite book, they read boxes or signs when out and about, or they read words on a screen or TV, making printed words part of your day and reading in different ways with your toddler can significantly improve their learning ability and communications skills. This should reassure parents that they are on the right track in their child’s learning journey, knowing they are providing their child with a diverse and effectual reading experience.
Art
Art is an amazing form of self-expression; however, at a toddler’s age, it can teach many new skills, including improving dexterity, embracing creativity, and problem-solving.
Suppose you’re looking for options that can help your child develop fine motor skills, identify colours, learn about the results of different actions, or understand how different mediums work together. In that case, incorporating art in some way into your schedule can be massively beneficial.
Adventures
This can involve at-home adventures, creating new worlds, building dens, and exploring different parts of the home, for example, to help them learn more about their immediate living area or how different materials work together. It can also involve getting out and exploring your local neighbourhood.
Take your toddler on different adventures; maybe you can look for ducks or signs of wildlife in your local park, or you can find different leaves off trees or flowers and insects, for example. You can take different paths, make it fun, and create games while out and exploring. But instead of going about your business and taking your toddler along for the ride, make it into an adventure they can get involved in and enjoy, and you never know, before long, they might pick out the adventure on your behalf, showing you exactly how much they’ve learned from your time together doing the same things.
Cooking
Cooking is a skill that everyone needs as they move through life. However, not everyone can cook well, and not everyone can master the art of cooking with toddlers.
However, getting them in the kitchen, allowing them to assist in making food or treats, and being a part of the process can be extremely fun if you let them, and most importantly, it is an incredible learning opportunity for your child. Of course, you need to start off small and with simple things they can do; chocolate crispy treats are always a winner, as are cupcakes and biscuits. But accepting that it will end up in chaos or you might not get anything edible means you can take the pressure off and focus on the fun.
Plus, once they’re done and you’ve finished your culinary creations, they can assist you in clearing up, even if washing the dishes results in water all over the place, because that is a fun learning experience.
Conclusion
Learning doesn’t need to be nor should it be rigid and tedious, especially for younger children. Infusing fun into their day will automatically mean they’re learning as they go, and you don’t need to embark on any extra learning opportunities outside of using the world around you.
There’s also no need to overcomplicate matters either; the easier and similar it is, the more effective it’s likely to be. So get in the kitchen, try cooking and making a mess, then clean it up again. Get out into your local area, go for a walk and make it a fun adventure. Get arty and crafty, read, sing, dance, and most importantly, let your toddler make their own fun. Before you know it, they’re already learning without any stress.
Image Credit: depositphotos.com
