Lockdown restrictions mean that a lot of kids are currently away from their usual routine and it can be difficult to keep your kids educated while they are at home. Education comes in all shapes, sizes, and approaches and doesn’t necessarily equate to math lessons or textbook learning.
For younger children especially, a novel approach to education is sometimes required since they may not understand the practices of general education, so a good approach is to mix and match entertainment with learning.
To keep your children learning and playing at the same time you could try some of the following:
- Fun lessons
- Reading
- Creative entertainment
Lessons don’t always have to be tedious and fun activities can be incorporated into them while kids love reading stories with educational value and creative expression is just as much a part of developmental learning as reading and writing.
Make Use of Online Resources
The best educators are the ones we remember for the rest of our lives and they are usually the most fun. Teaching a lesson doesn’t need to be boring for either the children or yourself and fun lesson plans (click here) can be used as a way to pass the time and keep the kids on their toes as well.
While they’re off school it might be a good idea to keep their young minds active rather than let them play on their console or phone all day. Resources are available for all grades from excellent sites all over the internet and one-to-one learning like this can be very beneficial for kids who don’t enjoy school.
And if they truly learn best when they’re with a teacher that isn’t also mom or dad, you can always find low-cost classes on nearly any subject and with just about any interesting twist on it on Outschool – think dinosaur math for early learners!
Never Too Young to Read
A good book is one of the greatest pleasures in life and it’s never too early to start your children off on a literary journey that will follow them through adulthood. Research has found that children who are read to often will learn to read fluently much faster than those who don’t and are twice as likely to score in the top 25% of best readers at school.
By the age of 6 or 7, your child should be reading fluently by themselves, and reading to them at a young age can help them develop this skill greatly. Should you live near a library, many of them offer reading classes for children with entertainers as well as creative writing.
Artistic Expression is a Key Development
Learning isn’t just about arithmetic and literature and covers a wide range of topics including artistic expression, even if your child is no artist. Just like adults, children have the same moods and emotional issues but they don’t know what they are or how to recognize them. Therefore, just like adults, kids also need an outlet.
Creativity is an excellent way for children to purge their emotions by painting, drawing, or sculpting with clay. Children who are particularly stressed will use drawings to convey what they need to since they may not have the vocabulary to do it, so engaging with children and watching what they express can be an excellent way of gauging their emotional wellbeing.