by preschool teachers Lindsey Crowder and Sonora Hall
Reading and play are two of the most important ways you can encourage plenty of learning at home with your young ones. During play, a child’s development is being supported in more ways than one. Reading is a great way to support your child’s learning and will stimulate their curiosity. Not only are you supporting their literacy skills, but you can help them expand their vocabulary, comprehension and overall academic success. Here’s the top four ways and reasons to help your child learn at home through play and reading.
Create the right environment
A child’s reading environment should be positive and engaging. Try to find a cozy place within your home where they can get comfortable and settle into a story, either with you or on their own. For play, make sure you have a ton of space! You can mix up where they play to grow their creativity as well.
Let them experiment
The best part about learning through play at home is getting your child to try new things. This will give them a good understanding of cause and effect and will allow them to practice and develop soft skills they need for later in life. Similar with reading, discussions on the worlds their discovering can push them to dig deeper and explore more.
Early and often
It’s never too early to begin reading with your child, and there’s never a wrong time. While being curled up at home with a good book is great, everything from recipes to street signs to words on your TV can provide an opportunity to learn. As you play with your child, they will mirror what you do with them. Making this a consistent set of activities to do at home will help them with both their cognitive and their social-emotional development, including emotional regulation. The earlier a child begins to pick up on these things, the better!
There’s no such thing as wrong play
After reading all of this, you may be worried the play you do at home isn’t enough. Don’t worry, there’s no wrong way! Puzzles, board games, pretend, I Spy, building blocks, arts and crafts and more are all great ways to keep learning going without your young one even realizing it.
Reading and playing at home are two fantastic ways to encourage learning and growth in your young one. At these ages, they’re constantly picking up on, discovering and trying new things. As a parent or caregiver, you can help foster their development outside of the classroom and help them as they progress through life.