Around the World, on your Couch

1. Read a book. Your library is probably full of books to help you and your kids explore the world. Check the nonfiction section for travel guides, history books, cookbooks, and more. In the fiction section, you can find books about the folklore, history, or other novels set in a different country.

2. Make a craft like a piece of art from a foreign country.

3. Listen to music. Your local library probably has a selection of cd's with music from around the world. Check one out. Dance, sing, and enjoy a new sound. Or, you can check out YouTube. Search for international music for kids, or try your cable company's digital music channels.

4. Hear or read a first-hand account. Do you know someone who has lived in a foreign country? See if they would be willing to tell your children a bit about that country.

5. Learn about the native animals from a given region.

6. Explore the folklore. Read some of the traditional stories of a culture; those that have been passed down year after year after year

7. Experience the food. Take a trip with your taste buds! Trying new foods is a wonderful and fun way to experience another culture.

8. Play a game. Games are universal and your kids can experience a new culture by playing a traditional game.

9. Make and play a traditional instrument. Every culture has music and dance associated with it. Why not learn to play some traditional music from around the world.

10. Celebrate a new holiday or festival. Celebrations are an important part of every culture. Learn about a new culture by celebrating its holidays. 

Source: Creative Family Fun

Children Learn Through Play

As infants, children explore their physical and social world through their senses. Adults can facilitate learning through play by providing infants with opportunities to see, touch, taste, and smell a variety of phenomena. At this stage, give-and-take games such as peek-a-boo with loving, responsive adults help infants learn to interact socially.

At the toddler stage, children begin to develop the ability to engage in early pretend play - imitating familiar events in their lives. Toddlers experience strong emotions which they are not yet able to fully understand. By acting out emotion-laden scenes in their play, such as reassuring a doll that mommy will return, toddlers learn to cope with fears and they gain the self-control that will propel them to the next stage of development.

As children enter the preschool and kindergarten years, they begin to explore the world through indirect experiences such as stories, pictures, and television programs. Information gained in this way becomes the basis for imaginative play which takes children beyond the here and now.

At this stage, play activities such as drawing, building with blocks, dance, music, and crafts help children expand their knowledge and understanding of the world while developing eye-hand coordination and other motor skills. Children also become increasingly focused on peers at this stage. They benefit from play activities, props, and toys that encourage them to interact with others and engage in 'dramatic' make-believe play.

As children move into the elementary school years, the focus shifts from dramatic or pretend play to 'games with rules' and organized sports which require strategy and skill. Games with rules include traditional board games, card, video, and computer games, as well as physical games such as tag and 'red rover.' Through these play experiences, children hone their ability to relate to others, their gross motor skills, and their eye-hand coordination.

At about age 9 to 12, team sports take on increasing importance, helping children refine their abilities to reason, think strategically, and interact with others. They also refine these skills through play activities such as crafts, advanced building sets, science projects, sophisticated jigsaw puzzles, and computer and video games.

In many cases, play activities at this age become the basis for life-long interests and hobbies. While children begin to play less in the traditional sense as they move into their teenage years, they begin to transform their interests and hobbies into the 'play of the adult.'

Learning - and learning through play - is a continuous and rewarding journey!

Sources: Association for Children's Museums, Northern Illinois University

Reconstructing Life Experiences

Kudos to New Creations Preschool who understands the value of dramatic play. In their article they state:

"...[A] favorite area for a lot of kids is our Dramatic Play Center. This area provides dress-up clothing, housekeeping materials, a doctor kit, a birthday party kit, and such things as pizza/restaurant props.

While you may think the kids are just playing and having fun here, they are developing important skills in many areas—language, social, emotional, motor, and cognitive. In “What are the benefits of dramatic play in early childhood,” Jennifer Streit sites how each of these areas benefit. She also points out that the Association of Childhood Education International (ACEI) states that dramatic play is imperative to a child’s growth in all areas of learning and cannot be replaced by adult instruction.

Dramatic play is the child’s way of reconstructing and reenacting his/her life experiences.  Their play shows us how they think our world works. Children also express their feelings of frustration and anxieties through role playing, which they may not express through conversation with an adult."

Play is educational

Parents want their kids to be well-rounded: equally skilled academically and socially, with an appetite for fun and happiness. Why, then, are teachers gearing children away from play?

An article by Janice D'Arcy of the Washington Post said,

"Providers told researchers that they felt pressure from parents to keep children from vigorous play that might lead to injury and also pressure to focus instead on academics. ...[Another] barrier was financial, as some providers said their funds were too limited to purchase up-to-code safe, outdoor equipment. (An ironic twist in this finding is that providers told researchers repeatedly that these “safer” playgrounds were oftentimes the least interesting to children.)"

But is there a happy medium?

In the same article, Kristen Copeland, of the Cincinnati Children's Medical Center, responded,

“Children learn through play — through puzzles, games, and questions and answers. They also learn on the playground — they learn about nature, weather and the seasons, motion, concepts of distance and speed, and cause and effect. They learn how to negotiate and talk with their peers.
And, they learn fundamental gross motor skills, like how to throw and catch a ball, and how to skip. They don’t teach these in school. But children who have mastered these fundamental skills are more confident, and interact better with their peers later on in school.

Lastly, research has shown that children can concentrate and learn better after brief periods of vigorous activity. So ‘active time’ does not need to come at the expense of time dedicated to ‘academics’ and ‘learning.’”