It is the middle of August and those of us who have children or work with children start thinking of back to school. School brings structure to a child’s day and expectations for performance. Current research tells us that children who perform best academically, socially and emotionally work hard but also have to “let down” by relaxing and playing. So, I thought I would recommend toys and activities that put together the two, academics and play, together.

Days of the week and months of the year- it is important for our kids to know these sequences so they can then learn the temporal (time concepts) today, yesterday, tomorrow, before and after. A calendar also helps a child learn to schedule and look ahead to their week.  Organizational skills are known to be the cornerstone skill for learning. Help you child learn this important skill while having fun.

Phonological awareness skills (letters and sounds) are the basis for reading skills. Using letter blocks to learn the letter name and then the sound associated with the letter sets the basis for reading. Using the blocks you can then “build “words- c-a-t, blend it together to read cat, m-a-n or s-i-t. Now you can substitute the first letter with another letter- cat becomes mat and sit becomes hit. You have just taught your child to rhyme. From there you can play a rhyming game.

In each grade of school one of the main goals is to teach children to solve problems. How do we begin to think about problems and solutions? Puzzles and sequencing games! A puzzle presents a problem- “What piece fits where?” and we solve the problem through trial and error through guessing and strategizing. We can begin to teach our children these skills by presenting them very early in their development with fun and interesting puzzles. What about story telling? Every story has a sequence, a beginning middle and end. Teaching a child to sequence information to tell a story sets the stage for developing this skill.

Let’s arm our kids with fun facts and funny trivia. The more they know the more they can contribute to the conversation. Let them be a Smarty Pants with sets of information for each age group, Kindergarten through 5^th grade.

School time is almost here- time for focusing and learning. But remember- we learn more when we can combine learning with play and play is FUN!