Games for preschoolers are not just about fun, although they can certainly bring a lot of entertainment! It is important for your children to play because there are many benefits to games, including the skills they teach. Here are just a few:
1. Play helps develop social skills
When children play, they learn social skills such as how to cooperate and communicate with each other, how to be patient and take turns, and how to resolve conflicts. These are great skills, especially for making friends. Many games also help children learn to express themselves, with and without language, through play, storytelling, and art.
2. Play develops cognitive, critical thinking, and motor skills
Almost all children’s games challenge the way children think or move. They help them with critical thinking skills like attention, memory, control, and flexibility. And physical activity helps them work on both fine and gross motor skills, such as running and coloring, balance, and coordination. Even simple tasks may seem like games to them, like playing with shapes or counting simple objects, but they are learning and developing cognitive skills as they play.
3. Play builds confidence in children
One of the best ways to build confidence is to take risks, and play gives children exactly that opportunity. As they learn and experiment with new games, they realize that they have the ability to do things they never thought they could do. They gradually develop independence as they learn that they can rely on themselves, and not just adults, to make decisions.
4. Play inspires creativity
Imaginative play helps children develop their creativity. You can see this if they start to use normal objects to simulate games or pretend to take on different roles, such as a doctor, a superhero, or an astronaut. When children use their imaginations, they are revealing that they have the ability to create something new, which is a great step towards more sophisticated and innovative thinking.
7 games for children of early childhood education
1. Duck, duck, goose
You may remember this game from your own childhood … but did you know that while playing, you were learning strategic thinking? The children sit in a circle and one child walks around the outside, eventually choosing another child to be the “goose.” At the time the player chooses, he touches a player’s head and says “goose.” Then he runs around the circle and the goose leaps to his feet and chases after him. The objective of the goose is to catch the player who chose him before he can sit in the place of the goose.
The strategy children can learn is that if they choose a friend who is not paying attention, they have a better chance of getting around the circle safely without being caught.
2. Musical chairs
This game can be frustrating at times but it also teaches children to deal with disappointment and communicate patiently. Arrange the chairs in a circle and make sure there is one chair less than the number of children playing. While playing music, the children will walk around the circle, and when the music stops, everyone should try to find a chair and quickly sit down. In each round, one child will come out, and this sometimes results in a little natural conflict as children learn to determine who sat in a chair first.
3. Red light, green light
Do you need to help children practice patience and resist their urges? This is the perfect fun preschool game! A child stands at the end of a large space and walks away from all the other children lined up relatively far from him. When he’s not looking, the other kids can move towards him, as fast as they want… but as soon as he turns around, they have to freeze or he will catch them and they will come out. Children should ask themselves questions like, “How fast can I run?” and “when can I start?” to avoid getting caught.
4. Sleeping lions
This game challenges the preschoolers to ignore distractions and to stay focused. A girl walks around and tries to wake up all her friends, who pretend to be sleeping lions. If they move, laugh or open their eyes, they are out. The last to ignore all the foolish attempts to wake up is the winner. It is difficult for young children to concentrate like this, but it is good practice for all the distractions they may face in different settings as they grow older.
5. Memory / Concentration
Children can play this Early Childhood Education game alone or with a few others. Helps with attention and short-term memory. The game can be played in a number of different ways, but they all involve challenging children to reveal hidden coincidences. Generally, the game consists of laying out cards with matching pairs turned over so that they are not visible. The children turn over two cards at a time until they find a pair. The goal is to match all the pairs, and children must pay attention and remember where the previous cards were placed to win.
6. Four corners
This preschool game is great for many energetic gamers. It also helps develop social skills like listening and speaking. For playing this game, you have to label four corners of a room with different colors, shapes, or numbers, whatever you want them to learn. A child is “it” and must be blindfolded. Then all the other children choose a corner to stand on. The child who is “it” says the name of one of the corners, and all the children in that corner are now “out”. The children choose new corners and the game continues until only one child remains and the winner is declared.
7. mTiny
When you’re looking for early childhood education games, the ones that have survived for generations are great. But don’t forget that children live in an increasingly digital world and that experimenting with technology is just as fun and important. After all, technology and the skills that go with it are part of your child’s future and can set him up for success. This is exactly why we powered mTiny, a robot for early childhood education. mTiny combines all the components of preschool classroom games such as creativity, confidence, social skills, and critical thinking into a perfect learning system for the digital age. They learn to solve problems and develop their resilience and curiosity. It also provides the stimulation and engagement that children need to learn and feel challenged, and encourages interest in math, English, music, and other subjects.
What is mTiny, exactly? He’s an adorable robot that comes with a stylus controller, easy symbol coding cards, a large puzzle map, and an instructional storybook. Children learn the principles of coding with a robot specially designed for them. Perhaps one of the best parts is that although mTiny uses technology, it does not have screens. No internet, no phones, no television, no tablets; just an interactive robot with fun emotions and sound effects that kids can learn to control.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Author Bio
Name- Radhika Bhushan
Bio- Radhika Bhushan is a founder of SKB little folks, a formidable entity within the space of education in Kanpur has based her life and work on the core belief that brilliance is achieved from a holistic and well-rounded education. She graduated from Lady Irwin College in Child Development and went on to later receive a degree in law from Kanpur University.
