How can Parents Promote Early Childhood Education Through Play?

By Mr. Raghav Himatsingka, Co-founder, Raising Superstars: Every stretch of a hand, every look at a curiously held object, marks the beginning of a lifetime journey of discovery for every child.

Imagine how such tiny hands and those early reflexes represent the stepping stones of an exciting journey ahead.

These seemingly small but vital actions evolve into intentional movements to enhance psychological, physical, and emotional development in the growth of the child. In its most natural form, play becomes the medium by which children explore the world, stay active, and build essential life skills.

Defining Play-Based Learning

Play-based learning includes an in-built approach of early child development. It is where the child is seen leveraging their innate capabilities, passion, and interest to grow.

Children can learn competencies that are crucial for their success in the competitive world; these include problem-solving, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.

Such open-endedness gives the children spaces for their growth and such exploration leads to psychosocial development and maturation.

How Parents Can Support Learning during Early Childhood?

Teaching through Games!

Parents are the first teachers in a child’s life providing a strong foundation in the former’s physical, psychological as well as emotional development. Following are some of the strategies parents can use in assisting children learn via play:

1. Combining Structured and Unstructured Play

Both structured and unstructured forms of play are beneficial to children. Structured play is where rule-bound activities like board games or trips to the zoo apply, whereas unstructured play is anything creative or spontaneous, for example, drawing or building with blocks.

Both types of play are essential particularly for the development of social, emotional, and intellectual skills of children as it enables them to channel their creativity and engage in problem solving with others.

• Participating in the Play with Children

Playing together with your child reinforces emotional ties as well as enhances their development. In this regard, interactive playtime—those that involve constructing towers out of blocks, painting, or dancing—stimulates imagination, curiosity, and self-esteem.

The combination of playing and learning together with your child is very enjoyable. It demonstrates to the child that learning can be fun.

How to Motivate Children to Participate in Play Based Learning at Home?

You do not need fancy equipment or a long, well-thought-out plan to encourage play-based learning at home. Sometimes it is in the ordinary, day-to-day activities that the most profound learning occurs. Here are some ideas:

1. Set up a Nurturing Learning Environment

Children can learn the best in a playful and secure environment; for example, by introducing puzzles or storytelling activities, or even taking the child on short adventures to explore new places can enhance their exposure.

These activities help build critical thinking and problem-solving skills in them while building social and emotional awareness. For instance, you can play with toys that would require them to experiment and learn to distinguish between different textures, shapes, and colors.

Similar engaging activities, such as playing with stacking blocks, will help improve their comprehension regarding balance, cause-and-effect, and motor skills.

• Choose Appropriate Toys and Activities by Age

Provide the right toys and activities at apt ages to the child. Toys that stimulate the mind are things like building blocks, picture books, and shape-sorting games. Activities like theater games, art projects or music lessons promote creative thinking.

Even things like sensory balls encourage tactile exploration, improve understanding of different textures, and help develop fine motor skills.

• Make mundane routine activities an opportunity for learning as well.

Play doesn’t have to be limited to just one moment—incorporate it into your daily routine! You can turn cleaning into a matching game by having the kids do the same. Sort toys by color or size. or counting the number of plates when setting the table.

Simple activities such as promoting skills such as calculation, color recognition and problem solving. Without having to feel like “Learning” in these little moments that children Learn as much as you can—without being challenged.

Window of opportunity: Regulating childhood play

Childhood is a “window of opportunity,” a critical time when children’s brains are most ready to learn. During these academic years The foundations for future learning and development are laid.

Those who make the most of this time frame through early intervention. And learning through play is the foundation for lifelong success.

This approach fits the method used by many early learning experts. This emphasizes that a child’s developmental period is critical in cultivating core social-emotional and cognitive skills.

By engaging in structured play such as shape sorters or sensory toys. You can stimulate their imagination and perception to ensure that they are ready for the future.

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