The holidays are busy and provide students and their families time to take a well-deserved break from regular routines. During seasonal breaks and vacations, it’s important to keep students’ brains active and alert, so they are ready to return to school and ready to pick up where they left off.
Kim Freehan, director of early learning at Mesa Public Schools, shares keeping young learners engaged doesn’t mean sitting down for hours of homework, it means participating in activities to make young children think.
“Teachers have noticed a decline in children’s fine motor skills the past several years,” Kim says. “Fine motor skills are the activities that build strong muscles in the hands and wrists. These muscles work together so children can be more independent, allowing children to write, draw and cut, and open a package of food, button a shirt, or put a straw in drink containers.”
Children’s brains grow the fastest during the first five years of their lives, and they are built to learn new things. Research shows that every time we learn something new, our brains make new physical connections between the brain cells — or neurons — in our brains.
Looking for ways to engage your young learner? Here are some tips from Kim:
• Construct holiday decorations, or cards using a variety of tools like chalk, pens, and pencils.
• Make holiday decorations by stringing beads, macaroni, and sections of straws.
• Let young learners help with mealtime including tasks like stirring, shaking, chopping, cutting, and mixing ingredients.
• Open and close containers with lids, jars, plastic containers, and kitchen storage containers.
• Enjoy spending time together working on puzzles or playing games.
• Read aloud to your child every day. Reading uses more complex vocabulary and provides opportunities to discuss new vocabulary with your child.
• Sing together, because it introduces and reinforces new vocabulary.
• Let your child select their favorite books and songs.
• Narrate your adventures in the store or car, and talk about what your child is doing.
For more information regarding early learning programs, please visit mpsaz.org/earlylearning