06/14/2024
Early Childhood Education Summer Tip #2
This one is for the parents!!! Ever struggle with taking out and putting away groceries while trying to wrangle the kids? Give your child a task to work on while you take care of what you need. Parents remember, if you feel that your environment around you is chaos it tends to create stress an anxiety within you. Just like children, environmental stimuli can affect adults negatively. Control your environment; set limits/boundaries and never forget you are the creator of your home environment.
Today after grocery shopping with my little I had so much to unpack. Thankfully Costco is one of the easiest grocery runs to unpack - thanks to Keurig pods. No this is not an advertisement; although, Keurig I’m all yours if you want more posts😂
Anyways, my little enjoys putting away our Keurig coffee pods, but come on I always have to make it educational. For this activity I had my little sorting by colors.
First, quickly talk about the colors in the box. Example “look it’s yellow” or “where is the purple one”. This helps children to start to identify the colors and it’s an introduction into learning the task at hand. Then I start the activity by creating a visual example of the desired out come. This creates a built in model prompt for my child so they can better understand the task at hand. I preset some pods by color in three sections so my little could begin to match as he puts the pods away. He has so much fun with this and it’s really kept him busy for some time. It is important to leave some open spaces to create an opportunity for exploration, creativity, and critical thinking. Those empty spaces with no colors yet can help you identify if your child is generalizing the skill of sorting by color with this activity.
What are the benefits? Let’s be honest, the main benefit is your child is busy and now you have some free time 🤪 Oh you mean educational benefits? Of course! This simple task helps promote visual motor skills, color identification, sorting, fine motor skills, cognition, critical thinking, problem solving, and so much more!
Another fun way to keep your kiddo busy learning this summer! Keep following for more tips and tricks because parents deserve some time to themselves too.
