Making learning fun can help to make each new lesson engaging. It can also help kids to associate learning with enjoyment, encouraging them to develop a life-long passion for furthering their knowledge. Below are just a few different ways in which you can make learning feel like playtime.
Educational days out
A great way to make learning fun is to incorporate it into days out. When planning a place to go for a family outing, consider places that have educational value. This includes places like museums, local historical attractions, children’s farms and zoos.
You don’t even have to spend money to have an education day out – a trip to a local park or forest could be a chance to teach kids about nature and the world. Such days out could be particularly beneficial for toddlers as you can point out plants, animals, colors and shapes and help them to learn new words.
Pretend play
Another way to make learning fun for young kids is to engage in pretend play. This typically involves playing with toys or role-playing scenarios like going shopping or seeing the doctor.
You can use pretend play to teach social skills to toddlers including turn taking, empathy, patience and teamwork. Pretend play can also be a chance to teach kids new words and facts about the world.
This post offers more examples of learning through play that could be worth considering when looking for ways to make learning fun.
Card games
There are many different card games that you can buy aimed at kids that have an educational aspect to them. This includes letter cards for learning how to spell words, number cards for learning to do maths and various themed cards for learning facts about everything from animals to planets.
Even some regular card games can help kids to develop math skills and logic skills. Examples include rummy and higher or lower that require players to understand the relationship between numbers.
Take your time to explore different card games online. Such card games may be possible to play with multiple kids. Just make sure that if you are playing with young kids, you choose card games that are not too complicated.
Treasure hunts
Treasure hunts can test your child’s problem-solving and exploration skills. You can also incorporate learning into them through puzzles and clues.
For example, you could scatter number cards around with treasure under one of the numbers and then get young kids to answer maths questions to find the right number. Alternatively, you could provide questions or riddles leading to the location of the treasure that incorporate interesting facts.
Such treasure hunts could be held outdoors or indoors, and could be for one child or multiple children. Meanwhile, the treasure itself could be anything from a toy to candy.
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts activities are great for fostering creativity and self-expression. They are also a powerful educational tool.
What types of things can you teach your kids using arts and crafts? For young kids, coloring-in activities and crafts that require measurements can be great for teaching math skills. You can meanwhile teach kids how to create words using alphabet bead jewelry kits or by challenging your little one to make their own storybook.
You can also teach kids the names of different colors, textures and materials using arts and crafts. For example, by using different coloring pens, you can help young kids identify all the colors.
Picture books
Books can be used to teach kids words, facts and valuable skills. This includes fiction and non-fiction books.
To keep young kids engaged, choose books that are visually exciting. Picture books come in many shapes and forms and can help kids to better understand everything from different places around the world to different emotions.
Books with fold-out sections and cut-outs are particularly fun for young kids. You can even buy books that incorporate textures that you can feel or buttons that produce sounds.
Songs and videos
You can also use music and videos as a learning tool. Music can help to make everything from letters to facts more engaging and memorable, while videos can provide visual stimulation and help kids to learn everything from words to colors.
There are many musical toys that can teach kids the alphabet or how to count from 1 to 10. These are worth looking into if you have babies or toddlers.
Many popular kids TV shows have an educational element to them. There are also several movies aimed at kids that have an educational aspect. Many also have great moral messages that can be valuable for kids.
You’ll also find many educational songs and videos aimed at young kids on YouTube. Of course, there is also a lot of slop on YouTube and you need to make sure content is age-appropriate, so try to carefully curate what your child is watching when using this platform.
Educational apps
It’s also possible to use apps as a learning tool. There are many apps aimed at kids that incorporate games, videos or puzzles while also teaching things such as shapes or colors. Some educational apps are even based around niche subjects like nature or history and may even have AR features to allow kids to interact with the physical world (such as plant and animal identification apps).
When selecting educational apps, read reviews and try to choose apps that are suitable for your child’s age. If you are trying to minimize your child’s screen time, educational apps may not be the best tool to use.
Conclusion
This post outlines just some of the creative ways to make learning more fun for your child. Use days out to provide an interactive experience, use pretend play to role play situations, use card games to add a competitive edge to learning, use treasure hunts to satisfy your child’s adventurousness, use arts and crafts for some hands-on learning, use picture books for visual learning, use videos and songs for a memorable multi-sensory experience and use educational apps to combine learning with screen time.