Gift Guide: Brain Building STEAMFun for Kids
Educational Play References and Resources - Food for Thought, for Parents and Care Givers
Experienced parents and teachers know that creative play is essential to child development. There's plenty of research available on the topic as well as many interesting articles to help parents-to-be as well as families understand the importance of letting children play. Play and exploration are the foundation of STEAM learning theory.
This isn't a new thought, but it's one that sometimes gets lost in the hectic schedules of modern families.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" ... it's not a truism, it's a reality.
Microscope Set
A real microscope is a cool gift for kids into science. Learning about biology through microscopic inspection is fascinating and fun.
I had a real microscope as a kid and it was one of my favorite "toys" as a preteen. Getting a close up look at bugs, leaves, even onion skin opens up a whole new world to curious children.
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Inspire Young Chemists with Elemental Building Blocks
Simple number, letter, aniimal and shape blocks are fine for most kids, but if you're hoping to inspire a scientist or want to add some fun to home school chemistry lessons, get your youngster started off with anifty set of handcrafted wooden cube periodic table building blocks. |
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Learning Resources for Parents and Educators
All Work And No Play Makes For Troubling Trend In Early Education
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090212125137.htm
Playtime for children is a "fundamental avenue" for learning. Parents and educators who favor traditional classroom-style learning over free, unstructured playtime in preschool and kindergarten may actually be stunting a child’s development ...
Non-traditional pre-K school teaches self-learning
http://www.sunjournal.com/oxford-hills/story/994558
Laurie Bailey brought her children up with the belief that they know what they want to learn and how to go about doing it. It was her philosophy
Nontraditional Learning Environments: Do They Prepare Our Students for Life-Long Learning?
http://www.wpi.edu/Images/CMS/Outcomes/Non_traditional_learning.pdf
This work investigated whether Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) nontraditional interdisciplinary projects program increased readiness for lifelong learning (LLL) and self-directed learning (SDL) ...
Traditional vs. Nontraditional Learning
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc/classweb/winter05/aas116/hw2dnv.pdf
Nontraditional learning and teaching comes from shifting the image of the instructor that knows everything to the students having some input and sharing their own knowledge in addition to the instructor's findings.
The impact of teacher-directed and child-directed pretend play on cognitive competence
http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/viewarticle2.aspx?contentId=13234
This is a research digest from the DfES Research Informed Practice Site (TRIPS) that deals with a project looking at the impact of pretend play on young children's cognitive development. The researchers find that both teacher-directed and child-directed play build kids brains. |
