Educating a small child can be an interesting task. Learning starts way before school, so you as a parent must be prepared to teach them things before they ever enter school. The more that your child knows before they get into school, the more they will excel in certain areas. There are many ways that you can teach your child things before they enter school. You have to use your imagination and make learning something fun for them so that they will retain the knowledge that you want them to. Below, there are many examples of things that you can do to teach your young child the basics, while making it fun.
1)The Alphabet
It’s really easy to teach a young child the alphabet song. Constantly singing it to them makes remembering the song easy, however how are you suppose to teach you children what the individual letters are so that they will know when they sing the song, what each letter is? Teaching the alphabet can be fun for both of you.
Choose a “Letter of the Day” for you and your child. Sit down with them, and make the day all about one single letter. You can have treasure hunts for items around your house that start with the letter. You can also read a story to your child and ask them to point out the letter when they see it. Draw the letter on a large piece of construction paper and let your child color the letter in. Make up fun songs or rhymes about the letter. All of these things will help your child remember what the letter looks like. When you move on to the next letter, review for a short period the letters you have already learned.
2)Numbers
Numbers can be a lot of fun for kids. Counting is pretty easy for children however it can seem repetitive and boring sometimes. Use fun things to make the numbers fun or even silly for the kids. Before you know it, they will be having fun using numbers.
One thing you can do to teach your child numbers is to count the things you do everyday. If your child asks for cookies, count the cookies as you give them to the child. Let them count small candy or snacks. Show them the clock and explain time to them. Give them stickers as a reward and let them count the number of stickers they have earned. Make up number songs and sing them with them. Show numbers on your fingers every time you use numbers under ten. Review the numbers they have learned on a daily basis before you start on something new.
3)Colors and Shapes
Shapes and colors are things that kids love to learn! Young kids are always curious about the things that are around them. When you give those things a name or a color, kids will find it interesting and want to learn even more about them.
With colors and shapes you can have color and shape hunts. Roam around your house or yard and find things that are specific colors or shapes. Cut pictures out of old magazines of shapes and colors and let your child glue them to paper, making a collage of the particular shape or color you are studying together. Give them lots of positive reinforcement and they will remember all the things you are teaching them.
With lots of things that you teach your child, you can put things together. For example, you can have a day where you study the letter “O”, talk about the number “1” and the color orange, as well as the circle. You can then give your child 1 orange and tell them that orange starts with O, that an orange is the color orange and that it is also a circle. Children find this very interesting that all these things can be related by one object. As long as its fun and you make it a positive experience, then your children will learn a lot before they ever walk into a school building.