Play and Learning is a major component of early childhood. From babies, toddlers and beyond, children use play to discover and understand their world. Play can help children with language, fine and gross motor skills development. Play is a key component of developing emotional intelligence as children learn social-emotional skills through play. In this section you can find a variety of play and learning ideas, from the benefits of pretend play, learning self-care skills, how to use play as part of your discipline strategy, independent play activities and more.
Independent Play: Using Play Invitations To Encourage Imagination and Learning
Independent play helps children feel confident, builds a sense of capability, concentration skills and creates many opportunities for discovery and learning. While children do not need intricate and overly elaborate toys or play opportunities to develop well, offering diverse play materials and new opportunities is a great way to help children enjoy their independent playtime….
6 Fun Ways to Encourage Reading & Writing
Once children begin reading and writing on their own, it can seem like a whole new world opens up to them. Signs posted along the road, magazine headlines, signs at the grocery all become sources of information. While there are many “academic” focused ways to encourage reading and writing in those early days of stumbling…
Love Books Summer Exchange: Transforming Trash into Toys we Treasure
Transforming Trash into Toys this summer turned out to be a wonderful experience for my children as well as a huge reminder that simple is often more than good enough!!
The Importance of Hands-On Learning Fun
Children love sensory play, messy science experiments, and hands-on activities. While it seems like children are “just playing” during this time, they are actually learning quite a bit. Hands on play activities are important for children to develop and practice many different skills. In this post, Mary Catherine, author of Fun-A-Day is sharing the importance of hands-on…
Science & Art: 2 Fun Experiments For Young Children
Science experiments can be a wonderful way for children to learn, not only about science but also about working as a team, developing patience and following directions. Science experiments are also wonderful for boosting cognitive flexibility, focus and curiosity.The following two experiments are fairly simple but full fun and learning:
What are the benefits of playing online games for children?
If parents create reasonable guidelines with their children and create positive agreements around playing online games then struggles like kids staying up late playing on their computers; disinterest in school activities or work and problems with children isolating themselves do not need to become an issue.
There are a multitude of fun and age appropriate games online that can provide opportunities for children to exercise their creativity, set goals, practice persistence, develop responsibility, and even learn new information. Games like taking care of a virtual pet like horse games or building cities, puzzles and more can be quite fun.
The Long-Term Benefits of Good Reading Habits
How often should you read to your child? Sharing your favorite book from your childhood with your kids is a unique and rewarding experience, as watching a child learn to read can be one of the proudest moments in a young parent’s life. Reading with your kids daily is not only a deep bonding experience…
35 Toys That Encourage Learning & Independent Play
Toys are everywhere this time of the year – and yes, toys are a wonderful way for children to play, learn and discover. But so many toys get opened up, children play for a little bit and then the toy sits in the corner, forgotten….So which toys really capture children’s attention? Often it is the…
Play & Discover: 6 Learning Activities For Toddlers & Preschoolers
The best learning activities for toddlers are simple and encourage learning through exploration. From figuring out patterns, matching pairs, color sorting and more, play activities are a great hands on way for toddlers & preschoolers to experiment and learn. The following six activities are fantastic opportunities for children to work on cognitive, motor, social…
Stimulating Summer Activities for Your Kids
***Today I am sharing a guest post from Heather. She is sharing her ideas for creating stimulating summer activities for children.*** Despite the fact that kids count down until school lets out of the summer starting in January, once summer actually hits parents are often flooded with the constant cries of, “I’M BORED!” To counteract…
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