One of the biggest trends in education over the last decade is edutainment, or education through entertainment. This approach is not just for children, but also for adults. Edutainment involves fun games that help children easily remember important and useful information, such as traffic rules and the basics of etiquette. Here are four ways to incorporate edutainment into your child’s learning.
Road Safety
It’s important for children living in a city to understand the basic rules of the road, especially when it comes to pedestrian safety. This includes traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, and public transport stops. To help your child learn these rules, you can use toys like miniature matchbox cars and toy traffic lights. You can even create stories to engage your child in the learning process. For example, you can ask them what would happen if they broke the rules of the road or if they encountered a fire truck with its siren on.
Names, Addresses, and Etiquette
From the age of three, children can remember and repeat their own name, their parents’ names, their address, and who to turn to if they get lost. To help them remember this information, you can incorporate it into playtime. For instance, you can build a house with a designer set and add a plate with your address on it. You can also use characters with the names of your family members who say “thank you” and “please,” and help each other with tasks. It’s important to demonstrate this behavior in real life as well.
Basic Arithmetic and Money
Learning basic arithmetic operations like addition and subtraction, and understanding how to count money, is an important life skill. You can make this learning fun by incorporating it into games. For example, you can play “store” with your child, and after they have mastered the basics of counting, move on to board games that involve economics. There are even modern games that use portable terminals and bank cards. This format is more engaging for children and helps keep them interested for longer periods of time.
Hygiene Rules
The pandemic has made hygiene and health issues more important than ever. To teach your child about hygiene rules, you can make it into a game. For example, you can use a doctor’s set to play “ambulance” in the city or use a designer set to create a scenario around personal hygiene at home. You can also use a sand clock to teach your child how long they should brush their teeth for. This helps them visualize time based on a tangible object, rather than abstract concepts.