The Busy Parents Guide to Learning at Home in Just 10 Minutes a Day
If you’re in the throws of parenthood like myself, your schedule is rarely slowing down and often times filling up like crazy. Between work, appointments, extracurriculars and sports it isn’t often that we have a day just to chill! This can make it hard when you are trying to prepare your kiddo for school and making the jump to Kindergarten. While some undivided time to focus on academics is important, I’m here to remind you that 10 minutes a day will help your children prepare for their exciting leap into school.
Why 10 Minutes Matters
Young children, especially those in the early childhood age group learn best through consistent everyday experiences. A short activity completed regularly is often more effective and “sticks” longer than an activity done less consistently. Just 10 minutes of time together can help strengthen their literacy skills, number recognition, fine and gross motor development, problem-solving abilities and confidence! I truly believe the most important of the take aways from “10 minutes a day” is it creates positive feelings about learning. I do see the value in worksheets and more structured work but that’s not the starting point with young children. If we introduce them to learning in their daily life in these small short bursts, they will build a love for learning and those worksheets that are truly helpful will hold more value from a child that is excited to learn, rather than pulling teeth to get them done!
How Do We Achieve This?
10 undivided minutes each day is pretty attainable! Here are a few ideas of my own but feel free to add your own spin or other ideas entirely and rotate them out to keep things fresh and exciting!
Read Together- Read a picture book together, talk about the characters, make predictions of what is going to happen next and then after the story discuss if your predictions were right! Point out sight words or hand your kiddo a magnifying glass and have them play detective, on the lookout for sight words as you read!
Turn Snack Time Into Math Time- Math is more than just counting! It’s shapes, measurement, patterns and so much more! Take a simple snack time and sit with your child and have them count their snack, separate different items into different groups (color, shape, size), make a pattern out of their snack and after all that fun is done, the best part, eating it!
Go On A Letter Hunt- Choose one letter and search all over the house for it! Maybe on book covers, food labels, on clothing and toys! Set a goal and see if you can meet or beat it!
Let’s Get Strong (hands, that is)- You would be surprised the amount of kids who come to Kindergarten and do not have the hand strength to use even the tiniest kid scissors (mine included!). Playing with play-doh, coloring, practicing using scissors and even getting stickers off their sheet and onto a scene to use their imagination helps build strength and dexterity needed for everyday activities in Kinder!
Practice Real-Life Skills- You can spend 10 minutes daily practicing cleaning up, following directions, washing hands independently, getting dressed with appropriate outwear, tying shoes! These are all simple skills that if your child goes to school knowing, it will make their days (and their teachers) quite a bit easier!
Counting Games- On the car ride to your next activity, give your kiddo a challenge! That might be to count how many of a certain color car there is or how many restaurants we pass along the way. Car rides are a great time to keep the learning and conversations going for busy families!
Remember, Keep It Simple!
You don’t need a full classroom set up to teach your children. Routines, shared experiences and conversation are all part of the process! If you can set aside 10 minutes out of your day to be intentional with your children, it will make a world of difference when they transition to full time school. Small, everyday moments add up to big gains!
Happy Learning!
-Victoria