Pre-school children learn an amazing amount of information and many skills and concepts in the first few years of their lives. They do so mainly through play. Parents can enhance their child's learning experience by using imaginative strategies to ensure that learning is associated with fun and excitement.
Learning should be like a trip to the seaside. It should excite, enchant and entertain.
Many adults can remember the thrilling chaos of packing swimming costumes, toys, food, drinks and not forgetting the dog. They might recall the agony of the long drive and the traffic jams, then the excitement of catching the first glimpse of the sea through the surrounding buildings. Finally, there was the ocean - a heaving, blue, mysterious invitation to splash, run, jump, roll, swim, scream, and laugh. The warm, gleaming sand was just waiting to be turned into a grand castle, a racing car with buckets for wheels or a giant funny face!
Pre-school learning ought to be like that. Parents and caregivers of pre-school children can instil that feeling of anticipation and joy when first they set out to teach their pre-schoolers.
Take learning to colour and paint. This is an activity that can entertain children for hours and it is easy to make it more than a quiet past-time.
Parents can start with a trip to the stationery shop which can be made into an adventure with a little imagination. Beforehand, children can be allowed to select pictures of paint pots, brushes, crayons and drawing paper from an old store catalogue or magazine. These can then be cut out and stuck onto a piece of paper. What a great shopping list for a pre-reading child!
Apart from the delight of choosing lots of colourful items in the shop, the pre-school child will also learn about which shops sell which items, about categories of goods as they look for pencils and crayons in one place and paper and books in another and the exchange of money for goods (let them hand over the money).
At home, a special space can be created where the child can draw, paint and colour. It should be clear, clutter-free with everything nearby in handy containers. These are easily made from shoe boxes (for pots of paints and paintbrushes), used plastic tubs (for crayons), clean ice cream cartons (for clean water to wash brushes) and egg cartons (to mix the paints in). If necessary, steps can be taken to ensure the child is able to work freely without worrying about making a mess of carpets and furniture.
Everything is then in place for the pre-schooler to let his or her imagination take over. If the child wants to really spread out, a roll of lining paper from the wallpaper shop is a great idea. There can be no limit to the size of a monster or a car or a drawing of mummy. The paper can simply be rolled to whatever length the child needs.
Playtimes can be greatly enhanced with music, movement and stories. Children love to dance and sing. Parents can join in by dancing with the child to a nursery rhyme or hopping around like Brer Rabbit. The child will enjoy helping to make a star to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to or going on a treasure hunt around the room with Mum or Dad. The pre-schooler can be encouraged to make up his or her own song accompanied by drums (biscuit tin and wooden spoon), flute (cardboard roll from the kitchen paper towel) and rattle (rice or pasta in a plastic bottle).
When children associate feelings of happiness and excitement with an activity, they learn that activity more readily and this is especially so when parents join in. With a little planning and imagination, parents can provide pre-school children with the opportunity to have happy experiences that will help them develop a positive attitude to learning.
Mary Anderson is an author, illustrator and owner of Cayac Publications, a publishing company based in Bromley, Kent, UK. Her main areas of interest are education, writing and illustrating. Find simple, clear educational books for pre-school children on
http://cayacpublications.com/Source: Ezinearticles.com
