Want to know the fastest way to clear a room? Tell your child you are going to sit down together and learn something! Children generally feel like they spend enough time learning at school and want their time at home to be less about lessons and more about fun. So, what do you do if you want to keep the learning going? Bring on the fun! When you make the experience exciting, your child won’t even realize that he’s also absorbing valuable information.
Try these fun activities to make memories with your child while helping him gain knowledge at the same time:
- Cooking challenge. Let your child pick out a recipe that appeals to him and then get messy in the kitchen together! Baking is full of math such as fractions, time, and measurement, plus the science of temperatures and chemical reactions. The best part? You get to eat the results.
- Get building. Break out the Legos and challenge each other to building contests. Your child will be flexing his spatial awareness, creativity, and engineering skills without even realizing it.
- Take a walk. Head outside to explore the natural world around you. You can collect rocks, leaves, and other items to research and learn more at home. Talk to him about things you are observing to help him tune into and create awareness of the environment and how to be a good steward of nature.
- Get crafty. Your recycling bin is a treasure trove of creative possibilities! See what unexpected things you and your child can make with the supplies you already have at home. Or, if your child wants to learn a specific skill, such as knitting or oil painting, take a trip to the local craft store to stock up on supplies. Crafting offers a great opportunity to develop fine motor skills and it can also help with attention and focus, as well as with learning about colors, shapes, patterns, and more.
- Board, not bored. Board games like Monopoly or Catan foster strategic thinking, reading, and math skills. Break out games like Battleship to practice strategy and math plotting skills. Even simple games like Candy Land help children work on counting, turn-taking, and good sportsmanship.
- Make music. Bring on the instruments or turn household items into music makers to learn about rhythm and beats while making melodies together. You can also teach your child to read music and help him learn about time signatures, pitch, fractions, and more.
- Puzzle it out. Puzzles are great for cognitive development! Teach your child to do Sudoku or crosswords and challenge each other to complete a puzzle. Jigsaw puzzles get your child thinking while developing fine motor and problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, and patience. Introduce your child to a variety of puzzle types to find the one that he likes best.
- Get dirty. Gardening teaches children about biology, ecology, and the responsibility of caring for living things. While your child is digging and planting, he’s also learning about the lifecycle of plants – not to mention patience as he waits for those tiny seeds to sprout and grow.
- Tell stories. There is so much to be learned from the richness of storytelling! Take turns telling each other stories or collaborate by taking turns to create a single story together. Your child will broaden his imagination, deepen his understanding of vocabulary, and strengthen his knowledge of story structure.
Have your child put pencil to paper to create a short story or comic and now he will be practicing his fine motor skills and reinforcing his understanding of the directionality of writing.
- Be scientific. Have fun with experiments like creating slime, erupting a volcano, or making rainbow milk. Use a search engine to read more about “easy science experiments to do at home” and you’ll find no shortage of fun activities to try! You’ll have a blast together, but your child will learn scientific concepts like chemical reactions, cause-and-effect, states of matter, and more.
- Teach others. If your child is into technology, help him create a YouTube channel or podcast where he can teach others about something he is interested in. Not only will he learn more about his preferred subject as he sources information to share with others, but he’ll also improve his public speaking skills, writing abilities, and technical prowess, as well.
- Bring history to life. Take history out of the textbooks by making it something your child can see and touch. Ask your child to dress up as a historical figure and act out a historical event. Or, have him take an old shoebox and turn it into a diorama of a pivotal event in the past. You can even encourage your child to build a model of a historical building or artifact such as a Karankawa wigwam or a piece of Egyptian pottery.
Learning shouldn’t be limited to the classroom or a textbook! With the right approach, your home can become just as important a place of learning. By keeping it lighthearted and playful, your child will be developing important life skills without even realizing it and you’ll be making memories together that can only deepen your bond.
Alison Bogle is a writer living in Austin with her husband and three children. A former fourth grade teacher, she now enjoys writing about children and education. You can also catch her talking about articles from Austin Family magazine each Thursday morning on FOX 7 Austin.
