Learning At Home/Learning Toys At Home

Learning At Home

Starting the learning process at home before your child enters school is important. If you begin teaching them while they are at home, they will do better when they do start school. Turning your home into a learning environment is easy. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Read! Read! Read!

Keep a variety of books available to your child. Visit your local library weekly to keep the selection varied and interesting. Picture books, non-fiction, autobiographies, magazines, homemade books - have them all available and encourage your child to pick one up. Books with tapes are also great to have around. Kids love to follow along as they listen to their favorite story. Set aside a specific time each evening solely for reading. Read to your child, let them read alone, or have them read to you.

Write! Write! Write!

Writing is a wonderful way to stimulate your child's creativity. Have them walk around the house and point out 20 objects. Write the words down for them, then together make up a funny story. Together cut out pictures from a magazine, then glue each picture on an index card. Shuffle the cards and have your child pick out a few. Have them tell you a story about the ones they picked. Write down the child's telephone number and address and post it on the refrigerator where they will see it everyday. This is important for their cognitive development as well as for safety reasons.

Educational Fun

Incorporate learning into fun activities. Put a puzzle together with your child. A puzzle of the United States is a great start to learning about the different states. Doing an animal puzzle? Tell them interesting facts about the animals as you put it together. Shapes, numbers, letters - all of these important preschool skills come in puzzle form. When outdoors, look up the names of different plants together. If they see an interesting insect, look it up to learn more. Let them help you in the kitchen. Reading a recipe requires not only reading, but also fractions and measurements. Invest in some educational software for the computer.

Not So Bad Television

Try as we might to limit our kids television, face it, kids love watching television. With all the interesting, educational shows on these days, that's not so bad. There are programs about nature, science, history, and animals, just to name a few. Pop some popcorn and watch one with your kids. Afterwards, ask them what they thought about the program. But, even with careful monitoring, kids will occasionally see something you think is inappropriate. Explain to your child why you don't want them to watch that

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