Cars

Kindergarten Readiness: Play & Learn with Things That Go

What goes as much as trucks, cars, and trains? Kids! They are always on the go. As kids play with toys that go they are also developing brain connections and kindergarten readiness skills.

When younger children play with cars, trains and trucks they are exploring cause and effect. Cars and trucks move when pushed; they stay still when not being pushed. Kids discover that they can control, more or less, the direction that toys move. Their play develops hand-eye coordination and small muscle control, as well. There’s lots of new words and ideas such as up, down, around, over, under, beside, behind, fast, slow,and other vocabulary.

Later, children add an imaginative dimension to their play. The cars and trucks are going somewhere; the train needs to get loaded and and starts and stops at the station. In pretend play, children practice being in control of a situation, making decisions, and problem-solving. When children play with others, they practice social skills like sharing and negotiating.

Not only boys, girls enjoy playing with cars, trucks, and trains too–although boys seem to have better sound effects. Cars, trucks, and trains are fun to count. What colors are they? Wheels are circle shapes. There’s lots of readiness for kindergarten learning. What else do you notice children learning as they play with things that go?

 

Car Fun

TGIF and on Fridays lots of families prepare for weekend getaways. If your weekend involves travel with kids chances are you have things in the car for them to do. Here is an in case that is both fun and promotes all kinds of learning. Materials needed: 1 clipboard or plastic tray to hold paper, paper and pencils, markers or crayons–not wax crayons, tho; they melt in hot cars!  Tell your child that it’s okay to copy down anything that looks interesting. It could be highway numbers, road signs, names, cool shapes and colors on billboards, licence numbers, pictures from trucks and vans, the shapes of buildings and houses, bridges, trains, rivers or lakes, letters, windows, things they see on ads to eat or wear or buy, whatevers.

Kids notice the oddest, tiny details, especially of things we would prefer that they didn’t see, which does prove that they are watching. Observing, naming, wondering, making connections, letters, numbers, shapes, colors, vocabulary, language, fine-motor skills, visual focussing, recording, and questioning are only some of the skills and strategies children use in this activity. This may only appeal for a few minutes but those minutes done a few different times add up to a whole lot of learning for a child. More deposits in their learning brain-bank accounts.
Could this be fun for your family?