After nationwide closures of pre-Ks and early-childhood education centers due to coronavirus, millions of parents are caring for their young children at home.
Many Mississippi parents wonder how to continue their young children’s learning, said Louise Davis, a Mississippi State University Extension Service professor in the School of Human Sciences. With a little bit of structure and some fun activities, children can continue developing the skills they need.
“Set up a space for your children to learn, where they can conduct activities, so they know that’s their learning space,” said Davis, a longtime early-childhood education authority. “Put art supplies in a box and decorate the box. Color it and label it with the child’s name.”
Jamila Taylor, director of Early Head Start and Head Start programs in Harrison County, said the art box can be placed in a prominent spot. Choose a fixed location like a desk in the child’s room, or use an as-needed spot like the kitchen table.
“Now that the child has a space to be productive, parents can encourage young children to gather items and sort them in their learning area,” Taylor said. “Children can make groups in various ways to highlight the differences among colors and shapes and between large and small, longer and shorter, and less and more.”
Children can collect items like books on the inside or items like leaves on the outside, Davis said. Encourage them to order the items, such as largest to smallest; or pattern the items like “toy, book, toy, book.” Older children can create more complex patterns.
Make a book of their own
As young children begin collecting and sorting, they might enjoy making a book of their own. Full instructions are available in the MSU Extension publication M2345, “Making Homemade Books.”
Davis said the parent and child should begin by choosing a theme, which might be a letter, a color, a shape or an idea. For example, a letter theme might be “T,” and everything added to the book could start with that letter. A color theme like green allows a child to draw or cut and paste only green images. A shape theme like triangle can inspire a child to choose and draw images featuring triangles.
Finally, an idea theme such as friendship provides an opportunity to develop images of people acting kindly and working together.
The child can color, cut and paste, or print and paste images onto construction paper, and the parent can slip the sheets into clear plastic bags to make pages. The parent can use a hole puncher to make holes along one side, and the child or parent can use yarn or twine to tie the book together.
Davis encouraged children to present their homemade books and read them aloud. This fast, fun activity teaches the child a variety of skills.
“When children are learning a process, developing a theme, and building and doing, they have to think,” she said. “When they’re active in their learning, children retain knowledge and build on it.”
Taylor emphasized that, despite the difficult changes associated with the coronavirus, parents should still enjoy this time with their children.
“Parents can include these activities as they develop new routines,” Taylor said. “Doing activities together can enhance the relationship between parents and children.”
Davis reminded parents that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting young children’s screen time to none at all for children under 2 and no more than one hour a day for children up to 5.
To help young children better understand coronavirus and reduce their anxiety, Davis recommended families read “Something Strange Happened in My City,” an online book available at socialstorycenter.com/social-stories/. The online coping tool, rightnowiamfine.wordpress.com/, provides a coloring book and more helpful information.
The Mississippi Department of Education has a range of learning-at-home resources for all school-aged children at mdek12.org/search/node?keys=Learning+at+home+Resources+for+Districts.
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