Learning a new skill has to be fun for kids, or anyone really when you think about it, and our job as parents is to make it as fun as possible to help kids develop a life-long love of learning.
Sweetness, now at 4 ½, is starting to show interest in learning to read. We’ve always had letter things around (floaty letters for the bath, letter magnets, Sesame Street, songs) and she learned her letters by the time she was two. By playing games and through the afore mentioned things, she eventually learned the basics of the sounds these letters made. She’s now in that precious stage where she’s putting it altogether.
Today it is so much easier to find fun ways to teach our kids with the Internet, and thus the world, at our fingertips. One resource I’ve recently discovered that has kept my idea pot full is Pinterest, of all things.
There are some great parents out there pulling together some great ideas and one of my recent favorites is a fellow Seattle company called Playdough to Plato. They offer a program to help kids learn to read, but how I found them was their Pinterest page, full of great ideas for making learning letters and learning reading skills fun.
Take for instance this neat idea, from one of their pinboards titled “Fun With Letters”: Making alphabet soaps to focus on a letter of the week. How cool is that?
And it doesn’t end there with Pinterest. You can see at the top where Playdough to Plato got that idea. A click over there and another world of ideas is opened. I can waste a whole day getting ideas for rainy-day projects, having fun while teaching and just plain keeping things interesting.
If you’ve not jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon yet, consider giving it a try. You can follow me and see all the folks I’m following if you like. I try to pin neat stuff I find. But I encourage you to check out people who I’ve repined. Lots and lots of neat ideas out there.
My tip today is to find new and exciting ways to make learning fun to help develop a lifelong love of learning. One resource in an ocean of them is Pinterest.
If you’re on Pinterest, please leave a comment with your Pinterest link so I can see the great things you’ve found, or share your favorite person you follow. Thanks!
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You guys were always great about “play with a purpose.” One of many qualities I admire in your family. =)
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