Once the presents have been unwrapped and the initial excitement of new toys and games has faded, how do you keep your children busy for the rest of their holiday vacation? While children are out of school for the holidays, parents can keep children learning with fun and engaging projects throughout the last seven days of the year – from December 25 through December 31.
“Holiday vacation is an ideal time for parents to help instill a joy for learning in their children and show that they enjoy learning themselves,” said Jennifer Allen, Director for Sylvan Learning. “Sharing fun, learning activities can help children improve their attitude toward learning and provides a great opportunity for busy families to spend quality time together during the holidays.”
Seven Days of Activities for Family Learning Fun is a free, activity booklet available online from Sylvan Learning Center at http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/learning-activities/brochure.cfm, and includes seven days of fun learning activities that the whole family can enjoy. Interactive, educational projects detailed in the booklet help nurture reading, writing, research and math skills. Activities for the final seven days of the year include:
December 25 - Start a memory book. Create a memory book of your family’s favorite holiday memories. Purchase a photo album and decorate it together.
December 26 - Family reading. Spend at least 10 to 15 minutes a day reading to your children. For help selecting great family books, visit Book Adventure - a free, reading motivation program created by Sylvan Learning - at www.bookadventure.com.
December 27 - Family history. Create a family tree and incorporate pictures of aunts, uncles and grandparents. Ask family members about what they were like when they were children.
December 28 - Make your own play dough. Use the play dough to make letters, shapes, numbers or figures. Create games using the figures you have created.
December 29 - Dress up as your favorite book character. Choose your favorite book character and play dress-up, re-enacting your favorite parts in the book.
December 30 - Have a book-inspired feast. Bring ideas from literature to life by experimenting with foods from classic books. For instance, make your morning breakfast memorable with Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss.
December 31 - Explore nature. Take a walk with the whole family to explore nature. Use the Internet to learn more about this time of year and the plants and animals in your area. Or, check out books about nature and local foliage from your public library.
For more information on fun learning activities from the experts at Sylvan Learning , or to download Sylvan's free activity booklet, Seven Days of Activities for Family Learning Fun, log onto http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/learning-activities/brochure.cfm or call 480-963-5900
Monday, December 7, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
How to Choose the Best Toys for Children this Holiday Season
It’s that time of year again, and many parents will soon find themselves in the same dilemma – do they buy their children the most popular toys or the toys that can help their children learn. Fortunately, the wide variety of toys available creates a number of options that enable parents to buy their children toys that are both fun and educational.
Children use toys to experiment and increase their knowledge base. In fact, playing is an effective way of introducing and mastering educational concepts. By introducing children to quality toys, learning is encouraged and expanded as they play.
“A well-chosen toy can greatly benefit your child. Good toys nurture your child’s ideas and imagination, while growing with your child’s changing interests,” explains Robert Satter, Executive Director of Sylvan Learning in Gilbert, AZ.
“Knowing how to buy the right toys for your children is a skill that can be learned. Look for toys that are challenging, but allow for success and also leave room for a variety of play. It’s easy to be a good judge of the play value of any toy, if you know the skills that each toy can teach,” says Satter.
Sylvan Learning, the leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages and skill levels, offers parents the following suggestions to keep in mind when shopping for toys that are fun and educational.
1. Building Toys. To most parents, LEGO’s® Bionicle and Bob the Builder were the must-have toys of last year’s holiday season. Popular building toys like these can actually help children more quickly acquire the reasoning skills necessary for mathematics.
2. Computer Games. Last year, Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s Playstation 2 and Nintendo’s Wii were the hot games with older kids. While video games are not often thought of as educational, they do help build reasoning skills and logic as children navigate the different levels of each game.
3. Games. Games can be a fun way to encourage math discovery in children. In fact, many popular board games, such as Monopoly®, reinforce basic math skills. While children roll the dice and buy real estate, they also develop number sense and practice their basic math skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Even classic games like Connect Four® and Yahtzee® help with problem solving skills and computational speed and accuracy.
4. Projects. Project-based toys, such as model airplanes, cars, ships and rockets, are good for older children (ages 9-14). They help children build motor skills and teach them how to follow directions as well. Science kits, chemistry sets and ant farms also enhance reading comprehension (instructions) and critical thinking skills. While popular Harry Potter Snape’s Potion Lab looks like just another toy, in order to make the potion, children practice following directions, measuring, mixing and analyzing the results through taste and consistency.
5. Pretend Games. Young children love to pretend, especially with child-size versions of everyday adult objects. Pretending can be both fun and informative for your child. For example, the ever-popular Easy Bake Oven introduces children to basic food preparation skills, how to follow a recipe and may help ease them into helping with kitchen chores. A toy cash register helps children understand math and making change with money.
Children use toys to experiment and increase their knowledge base. In fact, playing is an effective way of introducing and mastering educational concepts. By introducing children to quality toys, learning is encouraged and expanded as they play.
“A well-chosen toy can greatly benefit your child. Good toys nurture your child’s ideas and imagination, while growing with your child’s changing interests,” explains Robert Satter, Executive Director of Sylvan Learning in Gilbert, AZ.
“Knowing how to buy the right toys for your children is a skill that can be learned. Look for toys that are challenging, but allow for success and also leave room for a variety of play. It’s easy to be a good judge of the play value of any toy, if you know the skills that each toy can teach,” says Satter.
Sylvan Learning, the leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages and skill levels, offers parents the following suggestions to keep in mind when shopping for toys that are fun and educational.
1. Building Toys. To most parents, LEGO’s® Bionicle and Bob the Builder were the must-have toys of last year’s holiday season. Popular building toys like these can actually help children more quickly acquire the reasoning skills necessary for mathematics.
2. Computer Games. Last year, Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s Playstation 2 and Nintendo’s Wii were the hot games with older kids. While video games are not often thought of as educational, they do help build reasoning skills and logic as children navigate the different levels of each game.
3. Games. Games can be a fun way to encourage math discovery in children. In fact, many popular board games, such as Monopoly®, reinforce basic math skills. While children roll the dice and buy real estate, they also develop number sense and practice their basic math skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Even classic games like Connect Four® and Yahtzee® help with problem solving skills and computational speed and accuracy.
4. Projects. Project-based toys, such as model airplanes, cars, ships and rockets, are good for older children (ages 9-14). They help children build motor skills and teach them how to follow directions as well. Science kits, chemistry sets and ant farms also enhance reading comprehension (instructions) and critical thinking skills. While popular Harry Potter Snape’s Potion Lab looks like just another toy, in order to make the potion, children practice following directions, measuring, mixing and analyzing the results through taste and consistency.
5. Pretend Games. Young children love to pretend, especially with child-size versions of everyday adult objects. Pretending can be both fun and informative for your child. For example, the ever-popular Easy Bake Oven introduces children to basic food preparation skills, how to follow a recipe and may help ease them into helping with kitchen chores. A toy cash register helps children understand math and making change with money.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
