Great Ideas For Enriching Your Child’s Life
December 5, 2014If you are forever despairing at your kids for having the TV on or games on their tab, don’t fret. They may genuinely be picking up useful skills and information. Some kid’s shows wrap up education in glitz and glamor, but the core lessons are there. They are presented in volumes and quantities we could never achieve at home on our own. With the art of TV presentation, they also seem to have our little ones fixated for a full 25 minutes at a time!
Games too may be more beneficial than you think. A lot of what we teach in the home might be little more than explaining something verbally. A game requires the child to interact with the concept and experiment with it to fully understand the lesson. Admittedly, the vast majority of games are mind numbing and provide no useful stimulation whatsoever. Try out some games yourself to pick and choose which show some promise.
Banning the TV or console games completely may just put barriers up between you. But it is important to provide wholesome alternatives. All kids should have hobbies. They could be across a number of areas like homemaking, sports, music, literature and art. A good week of activity should include examples of each.
Homemaking provides important life skills like cooking, hygiene, and repairs. Music feeds the soul and increases intelligence as well as providing your little ones with skills to communicate with others. Sports are incredibly important to maintain health and fitness later in life, but also to develop gross and fine motor skills in children. Socially speaking, team sports provide excellent skills for working environments as adults. Art and literature define us as a species. Kids should be encouraged to express themselves on the page in words and pictures, as well as discussing the ideas presented by others.
If your kids are quite creative, they might like to try their hand at making decorated fabrics like handkerchiefs or tee-shirts. Buying them a sewing machine like one of those at www.grandmalikestosew.com will give them a creative outlet as well as teaching them important homemaking skills. If you have a budding musician, try enrolling them in a children’s orchestra where they will learn to work as a team and meet like-minded kids. Singing songs and playing guitar together is a good way to assess a child’s potential for music.
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Writing stories each week, or even just reporting on their week of activities gives their creative mind a boost when putting pen to paper. They could draw a picture to represent one of the things they did or saw. Try to expose your children to as many sports and physical activities as you can. Swimming, football, climbing and baseball, all provide great exercise. They also enhance balance, coordination, and problem-solving skills. If there are few opportunities for team sports in your area, try hiking together. You could buy a fun backyard trampoline to encourage exercise for children who are not keen on sports.