Continuing the Learning at Home: Enjoying School Activities Outside at Home

Life with young children and toddlers is often a busy and exhausting challenge. It can be hard to keep up with doing activities to help them learn at home when you have so much else going on in daily life. However, entertaining and educating your preschooler does not have to be elaborate. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions!

One creative and fun thing you can do with your child at home is sensory bins. These can be made with anything you can find in your house. Take a large, shallow container and fill it with your chosen materials. Edible items are helpful here, as your child may be curious to taste what they are playing with. You may choose to use uncooked rice or beans, colored beads, and add fun tools like shovels, dump trucks, or anything that your child may find interesting to add to the fun of it. These bins can keep your child occupied for a while, exploring different textures, colors, and tastes. This could even become a sorting activity for your child! The possibilities here create lots of opportunities for variation in play.

If you find that your preschooler is feeling antsy, taking them outside is another entire sensory experience in itself, and there are no messes to clean up later! Your child will learn so much from their natural environment as they listen to the sounds of nature, and the smells and the feelings of the earth. Children will often find their own activities once they make it outside, which takes the pressure of creating ideas off of you. It is also known that spending time outside is a major factor in boosting your child’s natural immunity against illnesses! Taking an hour a day to allow your child to explore will help them learn in immeasurable ways.

Another way you can get your child involved in learning at home is by including them in your daily activities. Children naturally want to be a part of what adults are doing, and allowing them to take part in these activities gives them valuable skills to create responsible humans. A Montessori approach to learning is to bring the child into the kitchen. They can help cut veggies with a toddler-safe knife, teaching them fine motor skills. They can help wipe up spills they may make, which teaches them the value of being careful, as well as teaching them a sense of responsibility. These are vital life skills that can start early and set them up for success for the rest of their lives!

There are so many ways for your child to learn as they move through the world. As their parent, you have an amazing opportunity to shape them into the responsible, intelligent people they will become. Helping them develop can be simple, and rewarding. Remember that you are doing one of the most important jobs that there is. Be kind to yourself. You and your child are learning together!