More than plants grow in Spring. Did you know that Spring can help grow children’s learning in math, science, language, kindergarten readiness, and more?
While writing today’s blog post I found 2 bits of information that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. The first was a video from First 5 in California. During the early years, when we talk and read to kids their brains develop 700 new neural connections every second! That is just a staggering amount of activity. In only a minute, that would be 42,000. What a tremendous lot of processing happening in the brain.
The second item was about a book called Sorting Through Spring, by Lizann Flat and Ashley Barron. In the book there are suggestions for helping kids learn about shapes, numbers, patterns, and more. That would all be part of the 42,000 brain connections. No wonder when we read books to kids they need a break after a few pages.
Hopefully, when you and your child have a chance to go for a walk outside, you will be able to see some signs of spring. Afterwards at home, you can read a book about spring. When kids hear in stories about things that they themselves have experienced, they develop a deeper connection. Instead of just hearing the story, they can enter into it, reliving their own experiences. They can see the story and feel what’s happening. That will add new layers to books, their enjoyment, and their learning.
Perhaps, even more impressive than the numbers, is the way that these neural connections form. They are created from simple, ordinary experiences like reading a story and going for a walk. We don’t have to be scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, altho we could be, to support children’s learning. We can do it with fun and play. What connections will you and your child make today?