Learning while Playing with Toys

Somewhere or the other, we all want our kids to learn well and learn quick, but admit it or not, sometimes we miss on teaching them the steps to get to a certain conclusion. That is why learning while playing with toys is an important yet underestimated concept.

When children set out to learn a certain “something”, the journey to learn that is critical.

Let’s take an instance – How do you think a little child goes about learning to add 2 numbers?
Yes, of course, 2+3=5, but how did the child get to this conclusion, or how do you coach a child on learning that certain logic, which is different from 2X3= 6?!

1. Did we give them the answer helpfully and smilingly?

We do sometimes, Guilty!!

2. Did they just hear the answer once, and immediately register it to memory?

Maybe, but not always!

3. Did they see it in a book and write it down 5 times, so it became a fact?

That’s just rote learning, isn’t it?!

4. Did they learn to count first, practice it for a couple of months counting anything and
everything they came across?

Pretty Much!

5. Did they then count 2 and 3, put it together and arrive at the answers making many mistakes along the way and learning from them?

Absolutely!!

All parents use a mix and match of these techniques to help their children learn, however, just one style of these 5 is the most dominant. Each style demonstrated up here creates a different type of learner, and certainly, the last group of learners would emerge as the wisest and the most confident of them all, as their journey has been most meaningful and enriching.

Just because their journey has been most meaningful and enriching, learning while playing helps learn every step. It teaches them to catch the fish, and not just eat it.

For young children, true happiness comes from doing an activity. Their interest lies in the enjoyment that happens during play, and rarely target just completing it and finding an answer. Their focus is always on the process and not the outcome.

That’s precisely why learning while playing always occurs when children engage voluntarily in purposeful activities. So if we give them a series of the right tools, they tend to take it as a play while learning becomes a by-product of the fun. They are sure to journey through all areas of learning while playing with great gusto and enjoyment arriving at answers at each stage on their own. So while children are all gung-ho about the method, parents and coaches achieve a different high witnessing their learning while playing become as easy as eating a piece of cake.

Just like each of us have different journeys running simultaneously all teaching us something different, so also at any point in time, the child is not on one particular journey alone. The child may be at a point where she/he is

 Starting to use 2 hands for some activities

 Learning to read 3 letter words

 Becoming aware of cause and effect

 Becoming familiar with the sequence of numbers

Every child is unique in every way, including how and when they start and move through these methods.

Learning is never a single occurrence but usually a series of steps to continue learning. To learn even one single concept involves a series of steps.

Every Skola journey takes children systematically through a series of experiences that are incrementally challenging. This helps children gain the confidence by mastering each level before they move on to the next.Children are enabled to discover and learn something new at each and every stage. Each stage is facilitated by playing with certain toys, which allow children to challenge themselves in an interesting way.

Visit www.skola.toys to understand children’s learning journeys and view toys that facilitate incremental learning while playing. Skola is where joy meets learning, and the toys are simple enough to encourage engagement and enthusiasm in young minds.

Enable our future generations to play, explore and discover through “Learning Journeys designed as Play”

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You may also like to read Buying Toys is not a Child’s PLay.

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