Teaching Life Skills Through Preschool Games

1. Teaching Life Skills Through Preschool Games

2. Games nurture respect, trust & love Children develop trust when their needs are met positively and consistently. Being sensitive and responsive to children strengthens this relationship and influences their development. To put it in a nutshell, Every child needs to be loved in order to thrive. This is why it is important for new moms & dads to learn how their child communicates or signals what she needs and wants. Start by observing how your child communicates when she is hungry, tired or excited. Respond to these needs quickly and with care.

3. Games build imagination & creativity Free play in early childhood contributes to the development of children’s creative thinking and problem-solving skills which call for divergent thinking including flexibility, fluency, and originality. Learning through play provides children with opportunities to develop their creative thinking skills, such as allowing them to view situations from different perspectives, thinking of alternate strategies to resolve a problem, and practising thinking in different ways. The key to developing this ability is through investment in time, the intensity of engagement, the extent of exploration, and discovery. These are also the means through which preschoolers progress in their thinking and reasoning skills.

4. Games foster cognitive growth Free play in early childhood is also important for developing cognitive skills – that is, your child’s ability to think, understand, communicate, remember, imagine and work out what might happen next. Playing games is essential to fostering the growth of a healthy brain. Unstructured play is the time when a child feels in charge and decides how she plays. In this form of play, your child is not bound by schedules or activities. Structured play, on the other hand, involves following rules or instructions to ensure a particular outcome.

5. Games ensure emotional & behavioural stability Just like when adults feel overwhelmed, they retreat into activities to calm and reduce anxiety, young children too feel the same way and need to do the same thing. Play is more than a distraction for them, it is an effective way to connect and keep children grounded. Play is an excellent teacher. A daily routine of involving children in games is a must as it helps reduce stress and irritability. It also helps boost the sense of joy and increase self-esteem. Through games, children learn how to navigate the world in a way they can understand and process. Helps them work in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts and be able to express themselves freely.

6. Games improve literacy Children are born wired to learn a language. Starting from birth, they build language and literacy skills through play and interactions. Babies and toddlers pick up new words when parents describe what they see, hear and do. Stories, songs and rhymes help a child develops listening skills and learns about the sounds in words. Research shows preschoolers tend to pay more attention after an unstructured play break. Play enhances curiosity and a curious mind is always on and is ready to learn.

7. Games encourage independence Your child spends much of her day being told what to do, when to do it and where she has to go. In the world of play, however, she has the opportunity to set the rules and be the one with the power. She leads while adults listen and take directions. Playing games allows young children to experiment with creativity and their own ideas. Practical life skills for toddlers allows young children to find new and exciting ways to stimulate their mind. As Albert Einstein said, “the monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulate the creative mind.”

8. Games promote physical fitness Children have a very strong desire and a need for physical activity, which is any type of play that gets them moving. It’s part of how they learn to use their bodies and strengthen connections in the brain. It’s also a great form of physical exercise, which promotes fitness. Regular, active play throughout a child’s life has a positive and far-reaching impact. It sharpens reflexes, works on movement control, strengthens and improves gross & fine motor skills, helps develop a greater sense of balance and all the while, have fun!

9. Games that teach life skills If you’re like most parents, you want to ensure that your child is in the best possible learning environment at all times. This is what games that teach life skills ensure and are more important than you think. So while your child might seem like she is just having fun playing, she is actually learning life skills that can help her in the future.

10. Conclusion My Gym has specially designed whole-child development programs that lay a firm foundation for personal, academic and future growth by involving your child in age-appropriate structured and unstructured physical activities and developing thinking and problem-solving skills.

11. Our Branches: My Gym Buona Vista 35, Rochester Drive, Rochester Mall, #03-24/25/26 Singapore 138639 Phone: (+65) 6684 9220 My Gym Great World 1 Kim Seng Promenade #03-106 Great World City Singapore 237994 Phone: (+65) 6235 4070 My Gym Jurong East 3 Gateway Drive, Westgate, #04-39 Singapore 608532 Phone: (+65) 6465 9205 My Gym Punggol 681 Punggol Drive, Oasis Terrace, #03-02/03/04 Singapore 820681 Phone: (+65) 6787 1178 My Gym Tampines 300 Tampines Avenue 5, NTUC Income, #05-05, Singapore 529653 Phone: (+65) 6789 7061 My Gym Parkway Parade 80 Marine Parade Road, #15-03 Parkway Parade, Singapore 449269 Phone: (+65) 6440 9916

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