Playing and Learning: Same Thing

We all want our children to be brought up well educated to establish not only a great working life, but to hand them a solid understanding of the planet so they can make the most of their lives. And there appears to be this endless battle of separating your youngsters away from their playthings or the TV to force them to do their homework. In schools it would appear that the fun is removed from studying, so no wonder children are bored. There is an alternative to this problem though. Instead of this uncalled-for separation of studying and having fun, it’s better to integrate playing and studying and make studying fun again.

Children will study much more when learning is simply enjoyable, OR if they realize a practical purpose as to why they’re learning a particular lesson. The former is often a lot easier than the latter.

An example: ask the children to imagine a birthday cake, and 6 friends. So how much cake should each person get? Tell them to draw the cake, and then cut out a slice for each person. They don’t even know they’re learning the concept of fractions.

These days, it’s now widely understood that once you present a subject to a child in an enjoyable way (e.g. spelling), children are much more likely to take an interest in it later on. If you just sit them down, have them face a chalkboard, then ask them to take heed of the instructor droning on, the chances are you’re encouraging daydreams rather than encouraging interest in the subject.

In terms of toys, what to buy the youngsters? Nowadays there’s a tremendous array of toys. Bear in mind that youngsters enjoy playing with practically anything, even an empty box! So anything from educational wooden toys to party games for children, so long as the focus is on studying and encouraging your children to become more inquisitive (which advances self-learning).