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

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...

All About Spelling - Our First Day

I have been really excited about trying out All About Spelling with my 2 boys in our homeschool - especially my 5 year old. Today we had our first All About Spelling lesson. The boys really enjoyed it and although my 7 year old rolled his eyes when I pulled out the phonograms - he participated and discovered that in fact, he didn't know everything and wasn't aware that 'A' also makes the 'ar' sound. So far I am super impressed with the curriculum. It was quite time consuming to set up but once it was done I realised that all that laminating, cutting and sticking was worth it as the program was all ready to go! I really like the fact that it uses 'steps' - not lessons. This means you can spend as much time as you need on each 'step' until it is mastered. This gives you the freedom to work at your own pace and not feel pressured to get through a certain amount of lessons per week. Some curriculum do my head in when they try and ...

Modern Homeschool Today

Search This Blog