Get Your Little One Ready for School with These 10 Fun Learning Games for Preschoolers. Because Fun and Games Can Also Be Educational!

Children learn from everything they observe. When they are in school, they observe and pick up whatever their teacher teaches them and from what their friends speak and do. At home, you are their best teacher. They observe your actions, pick up your habits and even imitate your words. School isn’t the only place for learning activities as children’s learning skills cannot be confined to the classroom. So when your kids are at home, why not make learning fun and enjoyable?

Here is a list of 10 learning games that are very effective and engaging for preschoolers at home. Try doing one activity each day or a few during the weekends to keep your children occupied.

Being a mother or a guardian of a preschooler, you must have heard a lot about phonics. Phonics is the relationship between sounds and alphabets in the English language. It is the sound of each alphabet in a word, that gives it a distinct meaning.

For example, teaching your kid that the letter D has the sound ‘D’ in ‘doll’, will help him read or recognize the word. Today, phonics is taught in kindergarten to make it easier for the children to read and write.

While your child’s school must be showing a lot of videos and flashcards to your son or daughter while teaching them phonics, a quick session at home with some phonics books, helps them revise the concept and learn at a better pace. For more tips on how to practice phonics with your kid visit this article on Scholastic.

Your child is just learning colours. Perhaps, he/she can recognize a few colours at the age of 2 and that is quite wonderful. You can widen their knowledge in colours by playing with them a few games at home that helps them keep busy and also learn something useful.

We all have different objects with diverse colours at home. Begin simple exercises at home by making your child spot colour red anywhere in the house. You can take this game to a more advanced level by making your child colour in different shades you tell them to. To learn more about how to play this fun game visit this link on Flintobox.

Music with your little one will always be fun. Engage in some cool music time by playing your child's favourite nursery rhyme on TV or audio and make them repeat the rhymes. This entertains your children to no end. If you find your child exceptionally good in music, then now is the perfect time to start. Perhaps, you could begin with some easy piano lessons to enhance their music skills. Need help with how to do this? Visit this page on Very Well Family.

Don’t worry, there is still time before you actually get busy preparing the active volcano science projects for your school going kids. Science experiments for preschoolers at home are relatively easier. Introduce simple concepts by showing them how salt mixes in water and how oil floats. You can also teach them how to mix and match paints to make different colours. For example, red and white paints can make the colour pink. These simple creative activities at home can broaden their knowledge and make them smarter.

There are numerous science kits available today for all ages that you can use as well to find something fun to do. To learn more about this visit this article on Very Well Family.

Planting a sapling at home is an activity most of us have done at home. This time, why not take it a little further by making it a little more fun! First, get two clay pots and let your kids paint the pots. This could be a nice colouring and craft activity.

Next, get some mustard seeds and soil and teach them how to plant a sapling. Teach them the basics such as sunlight, water and soil that a plant needs to grow. Make your kids water the plant every day. Such simple activities boost their learning at home and also make homes an exciting place where they can experiment and revise with whatever they learn in school.

Learn 25 other playful games like this on Little Bins Little Hands.

Playing doctor-doctor, kitchen-kitchen or teacher-teacher has been a part of our childhood for most of us. We all have fond memories of enacting as different people and using miniature doctor sets or kitchen utensils while playing at home. Such games are not only entertaining for little children but such role-play games also establish better ideas of the roles different people have in our lives.

You will be amazed at how children observe and mimic your daily activities when they enact similar roles. Play doctor-doctor with your children and teach them how to use a stethoscope or see a patient. You can also engage your friend’s kids of similar ages and make them play.

Watch this video on YouTube to learn more about this fun game.

Puzzles help develop problem-solving and memory skills in children. Get them easy puzzles from your nearby store and let them solve them. These could be number, alphabet, colour, shapes or other such puzzles. Puzzle-solving is also great for developing a child’s cognitive skills. They also learn the qualities of perseverance, patience and determination.

Chunky wooden puzzles are great for beginners and you can advance the levels as they grow and learn. These are also great activities to keep your children productively busy, while you want to seize some moments for yourself. To learn about puzzle games to play with your kids at home visit this article on Happy Hooligans.

Jewellery craft for kids is another great activity to keep preschoolers busy at home. It sharpens their creativity, imagination, designing skills, colour-coordination, motor skills and patience levels. You get ready boxes of colourful threads and beads in the market.

You can buy these boxes and engage your children in jewellery making at home. Making your little girl wear her own-made beads necklace to a friend’s birthday party will make her feel empowered and more confident too. Such little activities, when channelled properly also help you teach some basic qualities to your children right from the very beginning. Learn about Jewellery Craft here on Moms and Crafters.

While they are learning the alphabets and numbers in school, you can revise their lessons at home in a playful way. A child often feels proud to showcase people at home all that they have learnt in school. Write and number or an alphabet and ask them to name it. These little activities can be done in the car while going somewhere or even while bathing. Take your kids to the beach and make numbers on the sand and ask them to read. Learn more about Letters and Number recognition games here on proudtobeprimary.com

Storytime is the best time of the day for your little one. These need not be at night only while being tucked in bed. Whenever you have some time to spend with your children, read them a story or you can also sit and listen to an audiobook. In the modern era, if you incorporate technology into your child’s learning schedules in a good way, then you both can benefit from it.

Listening to an audiobook is always better than watching it on video because listening gives your child imaginative wings and he/she can imagine the story in their heads, which boosts brain development. You can always ask questions later to analyze how much they have understood. Learn here how listening to audiobooks can help your kid develop communication and listening skills..

If you are feeling tired already thinking about teaching the alphabets or nursery rhymes to your children, who can be a handful, at home, then ditch the conventional ways. You need not double up as a classroom teacher and a mother at home and shoulder both the responsibilities. There are some easy-breezy methods in which you make learning at home a lot of fun.

Even schools these days encourage teachers to teach the children in exciting play and learn methods. Remember, you are your kid’s first friend and to engage in a role play with your child will not only make the activity a lot of fun but also make them grasp things better as they are most comfortable around you. Playing doctor set or teacher-teacher at home with dolls makes the atmosphere a lot of fun and enjoyably productive too.

Instead of reading out books or showing pictures, why not let your child learn through some educational videos or images on the internet. Video images in 3D often grasp their attention better and they are able to learn the concepts in a better way. The additional features of sound and music in these videos play a deeper impact on their little minds.

Introducing activities according to your child’s interest, helps them grasp concepts better. For example, after explaining to your child about a fruit vendor, encourage him/her to draw whatever they have understood. If your child is fond of colouring and drawing, this activity will turn into a fun activity where your child understands first and then puts his thoughts on paper. Pick a topic of interest too. For example, if your child is fond of birds, let him colour various birds’ images.

Flashcards have become a thing of the past now. Children these days, find it more interesting to actually visit a place to learn about it. Visit the doctor, a hospital to see a nurse, a fire-station to see a fire engine, a zoo to see the animals and many such other field trips can be taken up during weekends to enhance your child’s learning. Such field trips are done by schools on a regular basis too, but as a parent, you can take your children to more such places and help them learn.