Preschool children should have a variety of different activities and games to encourage physical and mental development. Young children by nature are easily distracted, having very little attention span and any attempt to introduce them straight to academics will be met with frustration and failure. On the other hand, they would embrace learning willingly and well if imparted through fun and games.



How important are fun and games in the process of learning

Children are born learners because they become curious about their surroundings as soon as they can fix their eyesight. Haven't you noticed the curious eyes of a newborn looking at every object around their field of vision? All you may have to do is to turn that curiosity to actual learning. Once they come to know that they have to learn to achieve something or even to please those whom they love, they will do that on their own.

There is nothing special about it. Children learn various things such as drinking from a cup, using a fork, using the potty, walking, talking by watching and copying. Teaching children by example is a very practical way of guiding a child through a new task.

Then there are other things that they learn like eating from a plate, not writing on the walls, keeping the toys in order, not breaking the toys, etc in order to receive a happy nod from people they love and adore.

Another type of learning children go through in their preschool activities and games involves their participation and taking turns. Take for example a lesson in spelling where they are asked to hunt for the right letter from a tray containing an assortment of letters, taking turns telling a story.

Preschool activities and games can make a world of difference to children in their learning process during school days. What they learn in these preschool days has a high retention value, and so the imprint stays for years and has an impact on personality and attitude. How receptive they will be also depends on this.

A recently conducted study on children who dropped out of school found that those that went through preschool activities and games and encountered early socialization skills were less likely to become high school drop outs.