#36 "Magic Words from a Slightly More Experienced Mom" ~Learning While Playing~

Hello everyone ^^
Thank you for visiting "Magic Words from a Slightly More Experienced Mom"!
I'm Yuko Otomo, a childcare worker currently in the thick of raising two boys.
You can find what I want to convey through this note here
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It's already the middle of December, isn't it? ^^
It feels like New Year's is going to be here in a flash, and things are hectic in our house, but I hope everyone is staying healthy and not coming down with anything.

This is the season when things get even drier!
Let's make sure to stay hydrated and keep our bodies and environments moisturized to fend off the viruses that are swarming around this time of year!!

Well, this week I'm going to write an article about "learning while playing" ^^
There is so much packed into play that you can't learn at cram schools or through home study ^^

Learning while playing

What is the power to live?

I am a little troubled by the fact that short childhoods are becoming all about lessons and studying.
When I was a child, even if I took some lessons, I feel like I was just playing every single day.
And I feel like I learned so many things through that play (though I didn't realize it at the time).

The abundance of real-life experiences leads to the power to live, and I think it allowed me to think about what to do when something troublesome happened.
What's important for the power to live is how far adults can watch over them.

Guiding children so they don't fail. I always want to be a parent who can watch over both successes and failures from the sidelines, rather than being a crutch that prevents them from falling.

Learning about "numbers" in daily life

For some reason, people have a mental block against "arithmetic," don't they?
If we're talking about things children like or dislike, it's like green peppers ^^:

For example, just being able to count to 10 in the bath doesn't mean they've grasped a sense of numbers.
To understand the concept of numbers, it's important to understand the relationship between "quantity" and "number."

At snack time, try bringing out cookies and asking, "Which one is bigger?"
At first, you can learn about "quantity"—big and small—using cookies that are clearly different in size when looked at.

Beyond that, encountering familiar quantities through comparisons like "long and short" or "high and low" is the first gateway to understanding "numbers."

Interest in "letters" learned from children's interests

There is also a lot of learning about "letters" in daily life.
In our house, thanks to the Pokémon effect, there were opportunities for them to read on their own, like reading encyclopedias or reading the moves on Pokémon cards.
Because of that, our bookshelves were overflowing with books that matched the children's interests at the time.
Also, didn't the bedtime picture book time have a big influence on their interest in letters?
Actually, it's important not to miss those moments and to set up the environment for them.

Introduction of picture books that combine "numbers" and "letters"

The Three Bears

The bears of different sizes—large, medium, and small—and the plates corresponding to each one also expand their interest in "numbers."

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

When body sizes are different, footsteps sound different too.
By adding variations for each animal while reading, you can convey their size and weight to the children.

The Mitten

Animals enter the mitten one after another...
A book that allows children to naturally develop a sense of "quantity" as they read.

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me!

Height, length, size...
You can visualize the concept of "quantity" by looking at the pictures.

Bam and Kero's Shopping

The story follows a chronological order from waking up in the morning, going out, playing, and finally getting sleepy. Time is an invisible "quantity," so it might be a little hard to grasp, but you can fully enjoy it just through the picture book!!

How was it?
There is so much to learn just through daily life, even more than in extracurricular lessons ^^

Learning from things you are interested in actually has more potential for growth than studying at a desk.
Please keep your radar tuned to what your children are interested in and try to prepare an environment for them ^^

Thank you for your hard work this week as well ^^

Besides picture books, I post picture books and parenting books (and other things, haha) on my "Rakuten Room."
I hope you will take a look when you have some time ^^
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