How do you get from this to this? When do your children go from goofy, crazy kids playing pretend to Mature, responsible grown men? We’ve all heard the expression (Time fly’s) well it does, I’ve learned. I miss the old days when everything was a new discovery to my boys. When they were learning something new for the first time and their exhilarating expressions when they actually learned it.
Time is a precious thing. A wise man once told me -“teach them as much as possible because before the age of five they are like sponges. The more they learn now the smarter they will be later in life.”
Before I share with you the top 10 educational and fun things to do with your kids. I want to mention that all of these things helped to shape them and our family dynamic.
When my boys were younger, we read to them everyday. From the time we brought them home from the hospital. I would lay them down and read. Dr. Seuss mostly. We all really enjoyed Mr. brown can moo! and as i’m not ashamed to say, I still do! As they got older, we would read more challenging books. Space case, tale of desperoux, the one and only Ivan, the Who Was series. We would read these as a family taking turns reading out loud. Because we did this, I feel that’s why they learned to read and write so early. They were always very well spoken and held conversations from a very early age. People would comment on how well spoken they were.
They were always hungry for more education. We went to the aquarium, science museums, and zoo’s as much as possible.
Tip :
Some public libraries offer free day passes to these places you just need to reserve your day. Never paid to go always got the passes!
Encourage them to ask questions, learn from the demonstrations at these places. Take the time to really explore their interests. Let them see what happens. Now, I am not saying this is all we did. We built forts in the living room or would convert the dining room into the Island of Sodor. – Yes we had that many train pieces, but that in itself is educational. The physics of building a fort that would stay up or fall what made it fall down. The math involved in creating the layout and working out the plans for Thomas to make it through the dining room. If you only knew how into Thomas my oldest was. You would understand the complexity of it and how accurate it needed to be!
As a family we made learning an experience and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. Now as they are both in high school they are learning so much without us. They are experiencing life and learning to navigate through all of life’s obstacles. They are in separate schools, separate programs, they are venturing away from family learning. Now they teach me things, explain things to me. They have their own hobbies and interests and their ways of learning are different from each other.
There isn’t anything I would change. They are truly growing into respectable, well, educated, well rounded individuals and I owe it all to that wise man let’s call him “Mr.” Who offered up the best piece of advice when my children were born. Without me striving to make learning fun they wouldn’t be who they are.
So, here are some of my educational tips and tricks that were always so fun!
Top 10 educational and fun things to do with your kids
- Teach them as much as possible before the age of five
- Read – read to them, then with them for as many years as possible
- Ask them why? Encourage them to find out the why’s and how’s
- Play with them, build forts, trains, video games, board games, do the puzzles and coloring hide and seek. Show them how fun learning can be.
- Do Museums, zoo’s, aquariums, farms. (check with your local library to see if they offer these passes)
- Cooking. – we’ve even played our own version of chopped (everyone made a meal using three ingredients.) Then we had their aunt judge who won!) teaches them measurements, how to read labels caution and safetly in the kitchen.
- Lego’s – amazing for the imagination and so many thinking and mathematical skills
- Create something with them. (My son destroyed my coffee table with all his trains and cars over the years. so together we went through and cut out comic book covers and decoupaged the entire coffee table. That table now has so much sentimental value for all of us
- Bring an idea to life. Once my son wrote a story book for fun when he was about four or five. We scanned the pages into the computer and sent it to staples to be printed and bound. The look on his face when he saw that he was a published author was priceless. For anyone to write a book it’s quite an accomplishment. It was absolutely impressive and only cost about $12.00
- Learn with them. Show them that now matter how old you are, learning is a constant. It’s ok not to know something and learning is a way to discover so much.
Proudly powered by WordPress