Is your toddler wasting time by playing online toddler games? Here are a few great skills - needed for kindergarten - that online toddler games can help teach your child.
Letter and number recognition - Many of the popular sites for online toddler games have activities with counting and simple spelling. Even recognizing and spelling your toddler's name is good for practice and recognition. These activities, combined with daily reinforcement of counting and singing the alphabet will have your toddler ready to go when it's time for preschool or kindergarten.
Quick tip: a great way to count at the playground is one number for every push on the swing - go up to 10 and back down again. It's an effortless way for toddlers to learn to count.
Shapes and colors - Online toddler games are often filled with bright colors and basic shapes. When playing these games with your child, be descriptive in your language as you play. "Let's click on the green triangle and see what happens" is much better than "Click here".
Quick tip: pick a color of the day, and encourage your toddler to spend the day finding things of that color. Help them on a walk outside to find many shades of green, or blue, or yellow.
Hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills - Toddlers often struggle with developing the big movements of their arms and legs, sometimes called "large motor skills." It's also important for them to begin to develop "fine motor skills", the things they do with their fingers to put on doll clothes, hold crayons, use buttons, and play with things like Lego's. Playing an online toddler game that requires them to click or move the cursor also begins to develop these skills.
Sequencing - Discovering that one thing follows another is a skill that to adults seems obvious, but it's something a toddler needs to learn. If you want to get "C", but first you have to get "A" and "B", you'll follow this pattern. Sequencing is an important foundation for math, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Cooperation and limits - One of the biggest challenges of being a toddler is learning to cooperate with others. Computer time that is shared, and games that require cooperation, can be fun ways to learn how to play with others, how to share, how to ask for help, and how to handle frustration.
Keep these skills in mind the next time you are using an online toddler game, and encourage your toddler to develop these skills while playing. It's a wonderful, effortless way to incorporate learning into a fun activity.
Here another related article: Best Online Toddler
Did you like this article? Author Liz McGowen is the mother of three who writes about parenting. For a list of her favorite sites for online toddler games visit her blog at http://www.healthnutmom.com/uncategorized/online-toddler-games-my-favorite-sites
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Liz_McGowen
Letter and number recognition - Many of the popular sites for online toddler games have activities with counting and simple spelling. Even recognizing and spelling your toddler's name is good for practice and recognition. These activities, combined with daily reinforcement of counting and singing the alphabet will have your toddler ready to go when it's time for preschool or kindergarten.
Quick tip: a great way to count at the playground is one number for every push on the swing - go up to 10 and back down again. It's an effortless way for toddlers to learn to count.
Shapes and colors - Online toddler games are often filled with bright colors and basic shapes. When playing these games with your child, be descriptive in your language as you play. "Let's click on the green triangle and see what happens" is much better than "Click here".
Quick tip: pick a color of the day, and encourage your toddler to spend the day finding things of that color. Help them on a walk outside to find many shades of green, or blue, or yellow.
Hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills - Toddlers often struggle with developing the big movements of their arms and legs, sometimes called "large motor skills." It's also important for them to begin to develop "fine motor skills", the things they do with their fingers to put on doll clothes, hold crayons, use buttons, and play with things like Lego's. Playing an online toddler game that requires them to click or move the cursor also begins to develop these skills.
Sequencing - Discovering that one thing follows another is a skill that to adults seems obvious, but it's something a toddler needs to learn. If you want to get "C", but first you have to get "A" and "B", you'll follow this pattern. Sequencing is an important foundation for math, reasoning, and problem-solving.
Cooperation and limits - One of the biggest challenges of being a toddler is learning to cooperate with others. Computer time that is shared, and games that require cooperation, can be fun ways to learn how to play with others, how to share, how to ask for help, and how to handle frustration.
Keep these skills in mind the next time you are using an online toddler game, and encourage your toddler to develop these skills while playing. It's a wonderful, effortless way to incorporate learning into a fun activity.
Here another related article: Best Online Toddler
Did you like this article? Author Liz McGowen is the mother of three who writes about parenting. For a list of her favorite sites for online toddler games visit her blog at http://www.healthnutmom.com/uncategorized/online-toddler-games-my-favorite-sites
1 comments:
Do you have any recommendations for good games? My little girl is three and would love to spend a bit more time online. I think it's a great idea - it's all about balancing computer time with physical activity with independent play with nap time! Thanks!
Post a Comment