Editor Over a year of the pandemic and schools show no signs of opening up. Yes, the lockdown has definitely been one of the hardest on kids! Neither can they go out freely to play, nor do they find enough creative stimulation indoors. So does that mean that learning and growth has to pause? Why not start the process of skill development at home itself? Don’t let yourself get bogged down by fancy words. With little planning you CAN create a conducive learning environment at home – that too with as little time and resources as possible. Read on to know how we can help you!
What are some common areas of development that you can focus on? How can you make learning easy yet fun? How can ZOOBOO books help you?
5 common skills & values that you can work on with your kid:
1. Visual recognition
What: As your child grows, he will explore the natural environment around him. Encourage his eagerness to know more by helping him recognize colours, shapes, numbers and common objects. You can consider this as ‘pre math’ – a stepping stone towards learning mathematical skills like problem solving and lateral thinking.
How?
– Zooboo’s ‘Which colour do you like’ is perfect to start your journey towards introducing colours and common objects. Each page of this book will show them a new colour with so many fun objects to spot. Tip: Introduce one colour per week for better clarity.
– To teach numbers to the older kids, you can use Zooboo’s ‘Birthday’ book. You can easily introduce numbers 1 to 10 and slowly move on to counting objects. The illustrations in this book are sure to keep your child coming back for more learning. In time you can even start backward counting through this book.
– There a LOT of games to help kids match colours, count object to numbers, recognize and differentiate shapes. Matching coloured toys to the respective colour mat/flashcard, counting and placing stones on the respective number card or simply identifying common shapes in the living room!
2. Awareness of self & surroundings:
What: As a toddler, your child will slowly become aware of himself, his body, his surroundings. This can be a very confusing stage for him. You can help him work towards awareness of himself and his surroundings. Guide him to build self confidence and a sense of belongingness.
How:
– Zooboo’s book for the youngest readers, ‘Is that you?’ works as an amazing tool to help your young one understand who he is. Make it a ritual to read this book to him at a fixed time every day. The bond that this special reading time creates between you is priceless.
– As they grow a little older, it is important to help them to understand their emotions and express them in a socially agreeable manner. You can do so by creating emotion cards that depict basic human feelings of being – Sad, Happy, Angry, Sorry etc. Going over these cards with them helps young kids to understand what emotions they are feeling. Tip: Use sad, happy, angry emoji’s for these cards!
3. Sharing social spaces:
What: Sharing does not come easily to children. And so it becomes important to identify this as an area where you can work with them. Sharing includes their toys, belongings as well as sharing social space. Sounds complicated? Let us simplify. Children can be encouraged to learn to wait for their turn, share space in the playing area, give up a swing when their time is up – these are all values that you can impart from an early age.
– How: Since schools and classes might not be operational, you can create this in the safe environment of your homes. How? Organize play dates! Not only is it fun for your kids to play with his friends, it is also a perfect opportunity to work on their social skills.
– Zooboo book on ‘Birthday’ is another great way to introduce them to concepts like sharing, decision making, playing a good host! The character in this book helps his mother in the entire planning process for his birthday. He is shown to be caring towards his friends, helpful at home and polite towards guests too!
– Make use of your craft supplies! You can sit with them to paint out a list of ‘essential agreements’. This list can include a set of basic rules that are agreed upon to be followed. Tip: Hang these on the bathroom wall to be looked upon every day!
4. Encourage curiosity and build knowledge:
What: Children will begin to ask you questions about things around them. Indulge and persuade this innate curiosity. This is one of the best ways to teach them different age appropriate concepts.
– How: Take a walk outside to discuss about nature, trees, sky etc. Follow this up by reading! The zooboo range of books are the windows into all kinds of worlds to delight the curious mind. For example, books like ‘What is behind that door?’, ‘I got wings’, ‘Bo-peep’ are full of different natural concepts like nature, weather, climate, types of sounds, how birds fly, animal features, different games and so much more. Reading these books is an easy way to introduce so many concepts to kids.
– Tip: Redirect, don’t discourage. What does this mean? If your child wants to play with the plants yes keep them out of reach. But then also give them an alternative to explore like dirt or kinetic sand in a container to play with, pouring water through funnels in a big tub etc.
5. Vocabulary and public speaking:
What: Yes, even this is a skill that you can easily work on at home. It is natural for your child to pick up your mother tongue if that is the primary language at home. And that is very important too! However you can also start encouraging your kid to work on other language skills like learning new vocabulary, public speaking and speaking full correct sentences in English.
– How: Obviously books help immensely! Creating a routine of ‘bed time reading’ works wonders. Zooboo’s books are age appropriate and are full of new words which are apt for kids of all ages.
– Use Zooboo books like ‘Bo-peep’ to re-enact a story/play. You can make cut-outs of the different animal characters. Your child can be the hero and give out dialogues to the rest of the family. He can even narrate the story. This gives them confidence to speak in front of an audience and also help them learn new words.
– Tip: You can also play simple word games like scrabble, sing rhymes, play the yes-no game, create a scrapbook with pictures of familiar objects and make up stories.
All the Zooboo books are full of immense learning opportunities. Pick up your kids favourite Zooboo book and watch him/her grow and develop into a lifelong learner!
Zooboo does not own rights to any of the activity images. They are used for representation purpose only.
Image sourced from: www.laughingkidslearn.com, www.chalkacademy.com
