Sand Play - A Fun Way To Learn

Believe it or not there were three children missing from that photo.

Last week my friend popped around with her six children to see how our homeschooling was going.

While we enjoyed a cuppa and a chat, the kids got busy! We sat and watched as all nine kids worked together to build a volcano. This involved building and collecting water from the rainwater tank to make the sand nice and wet. It also gave the appearance of a volcano for a few short seconds while they squealed with delight.

Why is sand good for kids?

Sand play promotes physical development. Large muscle skills develop as children dig, pour, sift, scoop and pat as well as small muscle skills.
Sand play is good for eye-hand coordination and small muscle control which improves as children learn to manipulate sand accessories.
Maths concepts can be developed during sand play through the use of measuring cups and spoons and different sized containers. Kids learn concepts such as heavy/light and empty/full.
Sand also develops social skills such as teamwork including sharing, negotiating and compromising.
It also stimulates creativity and the basis for learning science concepts

Learning....just happens

It's easy to forget that learning takes place naturally when children are given the freedom to play and explore. This was just a playdate with some sand and water but the kids were learning and developing valuable skills.

Piaget (1945) noted that children have an inner drive to build an understanding of their world as they explore and interact with materials like sand! It is through the freedom to play that children develop concepts about how the world works and these develop as children get older.

We can never underestimate how much children can learn through something as simple as the backyard sandpit and a little bit of water!

Comments

Car-schooling with Jonathon Park Audio Adventures

I once asked a seasoned homeschooler how she managed to fit so many activities and events around 'schoolwork'. She told me she had mastered the art of car-schooling! Plenty of learning takes place in the car: Organic discussion of topics, answering questions, reading and the odd math quiz...and then she mentioned audio books. We had only ever attempted an audio book in the car, once, and then a little person shoved chips into the CD player and that was the end to audio books. But recently I got a new car - one from the 2000's - that has bluetooth capability and all of a sudden, audio books were back! The problem? Finding ones engaging enough that kids actually want to listen, that doesn't make me fall asleep while driving and is relevant for 3 boys aged 8 - 12. Enter: Jonathon Park audio adventures. These. Are. Brilliant. These are highly engaging stories based around a family of creation scientists who go on all sorts of adventures wh...

Inspiring Character That Lasts - We Choose Virtues Giveaway!

One of the benefits of homeschooling is the opportunity to help shape our children's character. In fact, one of the points from our own homeschooling mission statement is that I desire.... To build strong character in my children believing that good character is more important than academic success Children are not born with a set of values and beliefs about the world - they are taught. This means they do not always naturally become kind, patient, content and diligent - they need to be guided, gently corrected and encouraged to embrace the kind of virtues that God desires within us. I find this a challenge with my incredibly spirited, strong-willed children (yes, all of them fit this description). I have often allowed myself to feel discouraged and disappointed in their behavior rather than see it as an opportunity to teach and shape their character. Another benefit of homeschooling is that we can encourage these vir...

Why I Chose Skwirk For Homeschooling

Over the years we've used a few different online learning resources but I'm particularly excited about trying something NEW for 2015. Skwirk has had a make-over and quite frankly, it's awesome. There is nothing quite like it around at the moment and it has some great functions that work well with homeschooling. It provides animation based lessons for younger ones as well as great options for independent learning for older kids all the way up to year 10. As an educational tool it is aligned with the Australian curriculum so if that's important to you, or you just like to occasionally see where your kids sit in relation to their peers (like I do) this is a good thing. The subjects it includes are maths, English, science, geography and history. My plan was to use this for my 5 year old who is 'technically' in his first year of school next year. However, once I learnt all the features of the program I'm thinking it will be a great resource for encour...

Modern Homeschool Today

Search This Blog