Seeking fun and engaging learning activities for young children

[JonathanWong]

Hey fellow parents, I really need an advice, how do you keep your young children excited about learning? Can you share your quick tips on learning methods, educational goals, and your strategy for your little ones' education journey?

Moreover, have you tried using AI or apps in your child's education? Do you have any educational apps or tools that you recommend ?

Let's swap ideas and inspire each other!

Board games for starters. Parents really underestimate the learning value of board games.

Young children are naturally curious about everything and excited about learning. I think the problem comes when people (mainly schools) try to enforce learning about specific things when a child isn't interested or ready. When they are keen, you really can't stop them.

You may be interested to learn about the "Benezet experiment", in which schoolchildren were taught no formal maths at all before the age of eleven. When tested at age eleven, their rote computational skills were worse than their peers who had had instruction... but their understanding of mathematical concepts was BETTER. They were then taught maths in the usual way for a year. At the end of that year, they had "caught up" on rote computational skills. Their reasoning skills were still better, and remained so in follow-ups for years to come. This suggests that formal arithmetic teaching in the early years is not only unnecessary, but even harmful.

As for reading, Peter Gray surveyed parents who had allowed their children to decide when to learn to read, many of whom had taught themselves to read. Admittedly this is anecdotal and not a proper study, but it seemed that outside the school environment, there was no particular advantage in learning to read early rather than late. Children Teach Themselves to Read | Psychology Today United Kingdom

So really, it comes down to ensuring they have access to resources they can use, taking them out places, and letting them engage with the world around them. You don't have to "make it fun" because it IS fun. Going to the library or museums, watching YouTube documentaries about whatever interests them, jigsaw puzzles, video games, playing in the park with friends, reading to them, playing board games, building dens. Children have different interests, and responding to those is key.

There are various home ed Facebook groups where you can say what your child has been enjoying lately, and people will recommend particular things the child might like to do, videos they might like to watch, books which might excite them, toys or other activities. That's quite helpful because it can be so specific. For example, my child likes engineering, and we've shared info about building toys and kits as well as national schemes which offer engineering days out and residentials for teens.

How old is your child, Jonathan? What do they like to do? If you want to say a bit more, it may be that people here can make suggestions, or point you toward websites or groups where you can get more ideas.

This has actually made me feel better. My son is 6 and autistic. Just started the home ed journey and we love the flexibility fir him to be himself. He's relaxed alot . But I've been stressed about reading as he just isn't interested and the more anyone pushes the harder it gets. But perhaps he's just not as ready as his peers

It's hard when everybody around you is so focused on reading. In our society, reading ability is practically used as the "litmus test" for a good education, and everyone starts panicking if a child hasn't mastered it at a similar age as other children.

That panic is sensible... at school. At school, as children progress through the primary years, the curriculum is increasingly delivered by means of reading. Whether the child has understood what they are being taught is increasingly established by means of writing. So it is a key skill... at school. It's difficult to imagine a different model at school. Teachers don't have time to have individual discussions with children. They usually only teach each child for one year, so they don't know them well. What's more, whole-class teaching means that a child can be left behind if they don't understand what the others understand.

Contrast that with home education. Our kids can learn in other ways if they can't yet read. They can watch videos, have discussions, ask parents to read to them, or do hands-on learning. Also, a tailored individual education responds to the child's needs. You wouldn't dream of moving on and "leaving your child behind" if they haven't yet picked up a critical idea. They can learn whatever is actually right for them, not whatever might be right or expected for a typical child of their age.

In my two decades of home educating, I've never met or even heard of a home educated child who reached adulthood without acquiring functional literacy, with the exception of those who had profound learning disabilities. (I have heard of a few who couldn't really write at all, but they could type.)

Why do we care so much about literacy? Of course, it's because reading is such an essential skill in our world. Reading is necessary for many purposes in life. But for that very reason, sooner or later kids will see the need to do it. They will want to play a video game that requires reading, or choose their own food from a menu, or identify the right bus to take into town so they can go without their parents, or enjoy a comic, or message their friends. Why would they NOT want to do it?

The problem comes when we want them to do it before they have really seen the point, or perhaps before they are developmentally ready. School pushes the idea that earlier is better, but this does tend to set up a vicious circle of failure and frustration which can be avoided if we wait.

hey, have you tried loomina? ai app with loads of quizzes, images and so on to keep the young ones engaged!