Encouraging Learning Through Your Child's Passion for Dinosaurs
We all want our children to love learning and accomplish their goals. Mastering new skills can give your child a deep sense of satisfaction that can build his or her self-esteem, encouraging your child to become a confident and happy youngster. If your child already has an obsession with dinosaurs, then you can use this to their advantage. By encouraging learning through their passion, your child can master new skills, effortlessly, while just having plain ol' fun.
Encouraging your child to enjoy their spontaneous pretend play is a great way to get involved with your child's learning and provides many excellent ways to teach new skills. Spontaneous pretend play develops from the age of 2, and toddlers can spend many hours focused on their games because they are having fun while they are learning. Spontaneous pretend play helps children to make sense of the world around them which is very important for young children.
If you have a child who is completely obsessed with dinosaurs, then that's great! It opens up all kinds of opportunities for focussing, practicing, and mastering new skills. A young child's interests can be very transient, and, naturally, he or she will develop new interests and passions. The trick is to observe your child and show interest in and encouragement for what they love to do. You also can enjoy playing with your child and supporting their passion, which will encourage understanding and bonding between the two of you.
If your child has a particular area of learning that you would like to help them strengthen, then use their passion for dinosaurs to help them! Maths and literacy are often the main areas where children need extra support. Here are a couple of simple ideas to help your child develop their skills and confidence:
- Maths - You can encourage your child's counting skills by making some dinosaur eggs. Simply draw and cut out some dinosaur eggs and write different numbers on them. Give your child a hole punch and ask them to punch out the correct number of holes on every egg, essentially “cracking” the egg. You can also do basic addition and subtraction questions! This activity will also help develop fine motor skills.
- Reading - Cut out some dinosaur footprints and write a different word (or sentence) on the bottom of each footprint. You can make a path for your child to follow around the house. Every time he/she steps on a footprint then turn over the footprint and ask your child to read what's on the bottom. You can construct simple sentences or elaborate stories, depending on your child's abilities.
Here are some FREE Dinosaur Footprint Printable to get your started:
Pursuing their passions helps children to feel happier and more confident because they can discover the motivation to set personal goals and achieve them. The familiarity of their passion helps them to feel more settled, and they can pursue a variety of learning experiences through something they already feel familiar with. This is great because your child can learn to master new challenges without feeling overwhelmed. Simply, learning will come naturally to them.
So enjoy your child's passion for dinosaurs (and everything else!) and enjoy the journey of getting involved and learning along with them.