Learning should be FUN!

When I was a public school teacher, I wasn’t a fan of the writing curriculum our district adopted. I didn’t think that it was very engaging or developmentally appropriate for most of my students. It rushed first graders into writing stories about small moments, when most of them were still struggling with letter formation, the most basic sentence structure, and using the correct pencil grip. Lucy Calkins’ methods made me loathe teaching writing. After two years of watching my students continue to struggle and not master the basics, I decided to start doing my own research and find a better way.

I spent my summer researching writing development in early childhood. Through my research, I learned the importance of developing pre-writing skills and scaffolding, which is breaking down skills and concepts into smaller chunks. I ended up purchasing my own writing curriculum that was created with this in mind and watched my students thrive the following year. While the new curriculum made a difference in my first graders, I was still intrigued with the fact that writing skills begin long before a child picks up a pencil. Pre-writing skills start with developing fine motor skills through play and hands-on activities with toddlers. This is why I started doing sensory bins with my daughter when she turned 18 months old. The bins encourage sensory exploration and are a great way for toddlers to work on developing fine motor skills needed for writing. Children are able to work on building hand strength through digging, scooping, and grasping the different materials and items in their bins.

What I noticed was mind-blowing. She was able to concentrate and play independently for 30 to 45 minutes at a time, her fine motor skills developed very quickly, her imagination grew, she began problem-solving and sorting, and her language developed as a result of talking me through what she was doing. When I put together a new sensory bin, I wouldn’t instruct her on how to play. I would simply describe the materials and items included, then step back and watch the magic (and make sure that any non-edible pieces weren’t consumed during play). We have been doing these long enough that she has played with the same Christmas-themed bin two years in a row. The first time I watched her learn about size by figuring out that some pieces were small enough to fit into a big clear ornament and others wouldn’t. The second year this continued, but I also witnessed her sorting pieces by color, or type of objects, again all unprompted and unguided. The same sensory bin, in the exact same construct, allows for so many different ways of play and learning depending on the child’s age and development. Seeing her little brain learn and grow through play is one of my favorite parts of being a mom.

After she turned two, I felt she was ready to apply the skills she learned playing in the sensory bin to other activities, so I started a learning journal for her. My goal was to continue improving the skills she was already working on and keep learning fun. To my surprise she fell in LOVE with her learning journal. I made what I thought was a week’s worth, one page per day, but she wouldn’t leave the table until she completed them all. So, I continued to make them.

I want to point out that I don’t pressure her to sit down and do these activities daily. Some days we do a few pages and play in the sensory bin, and some days we are running unexpected errands and don’t do anything. My main priority is to encourage play at her age. I will present her with options and let her choose what she wants to do. If she chooses to do a page in her learning journal or another activity I’ve made for her, then we will do those as long as she wants. When she’s ready to move onto something different, we clean up and move on.

Although we slowed down during our move and the holidays, I’m trying to get back into the habit of creating activities for her. When I was in the classroom, I followed a few teaching accounts on Instagram and loved that they did themed units. They would take what they were learning in science, social studies, or language arts and apply that to all subjects to keep the students’ engagement high. For example, if they were learning about arctic animals in science, they would read books about arctic animals, have their current math skills be arctic animal themed, etc. I wanted to do something similar with Brylee, but keep the themes relevant to holidays, something we were doing as a family, or her current interests. So far we have gone through colors, weather, farm animals, apples, and I just finished up some activities for her current obsession – dinosaurs. I’ll be sharing those activities in another blog.

Fun learning also doesn’t need to be something you prepare ahead of time. Brylee will often help me cook and count as we go through the recipe, she’ll ask me to help her count rocks or cows when we play outside, we will search for certain colors as we drive, or find toys of a certain color in the bath. We are doing so much learning everyday and Brylee has no idea, she’s just having fun. What are some ways you encourage learning with your child in everyday play or tasks?

I absolutely love that I get to continue my passion for teaching with Brylee, allowing her to learn at her own pace. Through play, she develops not only necessary fine motor skills, but also problem-solving abilities and creativity. Research shows that this play-based approach has been shown to result in better academic outcomes, laying a strong foundation for her future learning. I encourage all parents to embrace play as a vital part of their child’s education; by weaving learning into everyday moments, we can inspire curiosity and create a love for learning.