Kids Learning Games and Toys Can Make All the Difference!
As someone who has worked with children at a kindergarten level, I have seen first hand how important learning games can be in the development of kids. Games are always encouraged at crèches and kindergartens, and not just because they keep the kids occupied.
As kids, learning games skills that you use to compete against and play with your playmates is often considered to be more important than more conventional learning skills. Many schools are now putting greater focus on finding a good kids learning games, rather than trying to teach academic skills at a foundation level.
Any kindergarten teacher will be able to tell you that the kids who sits by themselves without joining in on a kids learning games progresses slower than the rest of the class. In one kids learning games we ran which encouraged group participation, there were two girls and a boy who did not join in. Instead of grouping on the outside, they sat separately, playing by themselves.
This had happened before, and I noticed that these kids remained sullen and quiet for the rest of the day, not participating in any other activities. When I asked Tory, one of the girls, why she hadn’t joined in during the kids learning games, she said she didn’t know how to play.
If a kid finishes the first two years of school without learning to participate in a kids learning game properly, he or she will go on to elementary school a step behind the other kids.
While they might be at the same level academically, socially they will be held back by their inability to join in a kids learning games. When other kids are taking valuable lessons from the kids learning games, the kid without the ability to interact with others will feel left out, and as a result will learn very little. This is called “exclusion phenomenon”, and it is a process that children to exclude themselves from activities of which they do not feel a part.
This can be kids learning games, or it can be something more serious, like math. The exclusion is comforting, and removes the threat of being in a situation that is foreign. When kids learn to avoid kids learning games, and that this avoidance results in a good outcome for them, they will continue to apply this behavior to any kid learning games or school activities with which they feel uncomfortable. Teaching kids to enjoy participating in kids learning games is one of the most important first steps to a successful primary education.
