6 Simple fun activities to teach a preschooler - Part 1

There is a common misconception among some of the young parents that, a child is not on track in knowledge development, if he or she doesn’t know her alphabets, numbers or rhymes. But then there are many more important and fun things to teach a growing child, which boost growth and development in children in the early years.  These activities help in developing a child’s motor skills, language skills, thinking skills and social skills.

Every single moment in our daily life is an opportunity for our children to learn. A very simple fact about child’s learning is that they learn everything through exploration and play. So why not we utilize this to teach our little kids? Here are a few ideas to help them learn in fun way. In fact, these are ideas that I have personally implemented with my own son and found them to be very very productive. A part 2 of the same blog will follow with many more ideas.

1. Science concepts: Make bath time a learning experience by using rubber toys, balls, balloons, and plastic toys to observe what would sink and what would float. Child could make a guess and notice the pattern. But make it interactive. Ask the child why she thinks the balloon floats or why the wooden block sinks etc. This simple activity will teach them basic concepts of science and density. Or provide cups of different sizes and let the child measure the same quantity of water in different cups and see how many cups each size makes. Help them arrive at the conclusion on their own that smaller the cups, more the number and vice versa. Fundamental concepts taught easily!

2. Shapes and structures : Make dosas, or paranthas, in one specific geometrical shape each week so the child could learn the shapes. If you are not very good in free-hand drawing, use cookie cutters and pour a spoon of batter and spread it with the spoon inside the cutter. Also, reinforce the shape when the child is eating for example chips and nachos. What shape is the potato chip and what shape is the nacho?

3. Numbers and Counting: Counting skills improve by repetition. So when your child drinks milk, keep counting aloud each sip and see how many sips your child takes in all. Once in a while keep counting in reverse order.

4. Colour Identification: Among all other skills, preschoolers take longer to master colour identification. So mention the colour of the object in your conversation for eg: let’s pick up those green leaves; did you see that tiny little green frog; black hair; white teeth; blue sky; purple dress etc. One can start using the colours in the conversation right from the time the child is 6-months old.

5. Measurements and Time: Take the help of your child to add ingredients, while cooking. It’s a great opportunity to talk to them about different types of measurements. Cup measurements, spoon measurements, temperature, weight measurements etc. They can see how the oven uses temperature control and timer, how washing machine uses timer etc. Gradually, they will learn to know the hours and minutes too.

6. Sorting: Sorting is a very essential milestone that a toddler needs to achieve. Sorting is a precursor to logical thinking and cognitive development. While playing with the animal toy set, you could teach the child to sort them based on different attributes such domestic, farm or wild, carnivores, herbivores or omnivores, insects, mammals, amphibians, reptile or arachnids.  Younger children can sort on the basis of shape or colour (when hanging the laundry to dry, ask your little one to hand you the yellow clothes pin or the round one etc.). Also teach the child about animal baby’s name, the sound the animals make, and the way the animals carry their babies. It need not be a serious-learning session. Make it more fun by playing dumb-charades. You could take turns to act out how the animal carries its babies for eg penguins carry on their feet, crocodiles in their mouth, monkeys around their stomach, bear on the back etc. My son used to love this game and then we extended this game to learn all other animal behaviours such as how they walk, how they look, how they protect themselves etc. 

There are an infinite number of ways to make learning a great experience. Use your imagination to come up with fun games and ideas. After all learning is a continuous process. So let’s make learning fun and an enjoyable journey. Keep a lookout for more tips and ideas in my next blog.