I love taking my boys out to different places. I feel that getting out of the house and visiting various locations in our community exposes them to people and experiences that help shape their personalities and cognitive skills. They are both very curious beings and I have such a great time watching them express their curiosity in their own ways.
Over the years, I have learned through reading or my own experience that this on-site/hands-on learning aids in achieving better grades and comprehension of school material, increased cognition and higher inquiry skills. I believe this is due to developing a strong level of background knowledge that allows the child to connect to what they are learning. In education, we teach students to make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. I find that I have to spend a great amount of time guessing how much background information I have to give my students before reading even the shortest of text or giving them a writing prompt. My students who have never left Bellevue, let alone travelled across the bridge into Seattle, are the ones I have to think about and preteach vocabulary and concepts for.
Kids can make these links at any age. Some examples of one of my boys making connections to his background knowledge are
And who knows? Maybe their experience at one of the places we go to during their childhood with inspire them to pursue a certain profession. A future zoologist? Fire fighter? Veterinarian?
I love imaginative play. I came home from work a few days ago to homemade soup in a restaurant in the play room. It was fabulous to play with Parker, following his lead in the land of his imagination. Yesterday, I couldn’t find my pots and pans and the kitchen utensils were spread around the house. After searching the house, I found the pots and pans in the play room restaurant. Both of the kids are pretending to prepare food, cook, and serve. They are having so much fun and I love seeing them use their imaginations to create their own environment for play.
Pretend play can help children learn to develop executive function. Executive function is a set of cognitive skills that allow a person to achieve a goal. While playing different roles, children control that character’s behavior and emotions. They can develop the skills of planning, time management, working memory, and self-regulation. Experiencing success with these skills while in another role, children can generalize them as part of their own behavior. Childhood play is important for social, emotional and cognitive development.
The challenge for me will be to provide enough props for Parker and Brandon to use for any situation they can come up with. Be it the grocery store, the jungle, a train ride, or a trip to the moon, I look forward participating in any adventure my kids take me on.
By the way, I found my vegetable steamer in the backyard full of rocks. Still not sure what my boys thought they were cooking.
