Many
parents can’t afford enrolling their children to playgroups. They act as if no
remedy is possible. Why not DIY playgroups to stimulate your kids?
In Hong
Kong, many wealthy families will enroll their infant or kid to various
playgroups (maximum I have heard about is 12 in a week), to have the child better
equipped to face the challenges in the competitive world nowadays. It’s very
expensive to join the playgroups available in the market and many families can’t
afford the expense. Will you simply accept this entry barrier and do nothing?
Or make an effort to create your own playgroups that are similar to the
commercial ones? You can still stimulate your kids at a frugal way and achieve similar
competitiveness if you will.
To DIY playgroups
for your kids, you need to work harder than other parents for the setup but the
investment will pay off when your kids are growing smartly and have confidence
to face challenges and solve their own problems.
Essential
things for the DIY playgroups:
1)
A good teacher, the parents in the DIY case – they must be creative,
patient and proficient at the teaching subjects.
2)
Good venues -- spacious for both indoors (a spacious corner at home) and
outdoors (children’s playground nearby and children’s library), colorful and
safe.
3)
Helpful tools to facilitate the learning, for example, play mat for
crawling, flashcards for learning new vocabulary, and educational toys for
training of the eyes, ears and limbs.
4)
Good company of similar age, if possible – children can inspire one
another; this prolongs the kid’s attention and involvement to an activity or
item.
Many
people believe in the sponge theory (the learning ability of 0-6 years old is
the highest). It is also essential to know the best timing to acquire a
particular skill.
Best timing
for various developments:
Age 0 –
1: crawling and the ability to control the major muscles.
Age 1 –
2: language development and interest in moving around to explore.
Age 2 – 3: social development and habit of
reading.
With the best timing in mind, parents as
the DIY playgroup teacher could specialize their efforts to generate
a satisfactory result,
maybe even better than the paid ones.
Benefits
of DIY playgroups for your kids:
The
playgroups organized by commercial institutes are often expensive with keep competition
to get a place. There is no guarantee that the teachers are definitely creative
and inspiring enough to stimulate the kids, and if not, the money spent would
be a waste.
It is important for parents to attend the playgroup, free or paid, with their children. DIY playgroups at home, you will save time from
traveling to different
venues and be able to devote more time to the kid’s actual
learning.
Parents can
adopt baby gyms at home to boost the
crawling and muscle development. The setup is not difficult to arrange. You need a toy to hold the infant’s attention, a super mat, your attentive and consistent effort to stimulate the baby.
It’s said that kid’s attentiveness or
concentration lasts for 30 minutes only. In the DIY case, you can take a break
or shift to a brand new learning aspect for every 30 minutes. The flexibility
will be more fruitful than idling oneself to wait for the teacher and other
children for the
next move in the commercial playgroups.
It’s also said that learning a new
vocabulary takes application five times to stamp the word on the kid’s memory. Five
times, fewer or more
in reality, suggest that continuous efforts must be
inserted. Having a
group of kids, the teacher won’t be able to do the consolidation for each
child. Parents often need to do the forging.
In commercial
playgroups, the common activities are sing and play, circle time, handwork,
refreshments, story-telling and playing in the garden. Parents can learn from
the samples displayed in YouTube to play the teacher role as well. There are
books and blogs giving helpful tips about playgroups and how to stimulate kids
learning.
The most
difficult element to duplicate from the commercial playgroup is having other
parents and their children to participate. You can bring your kids to play in
the park, befriend other parents and kids there and check to see if they are
interested in joining your DIY playgroups. If your home is not spacious enough
to hold many people, think about the park or the beach nearby.
One-time
alternatives:
Seek and
participate in some promotional events organized by companies marketing their
infant’s or child’s products, for example, the crawling competition for infants,
free play in the giant ball pit or inflatable bouncer,
and trial play for new toys. Also, check out the family activities organized by
the government and charity organizations. These occasions will expose your children to
other kids of similar age, giving them more courage to face strangers and
express themselves in the new environment.
Without
enrolling to the expensive playgroups, a child is still competitive if his
parents could provide similar and relevant stimulus, spend time with the kid to
explore the world together, let him play with other kids to enhance the
communication and social skills.
Opportunities
are everywhere, grasp at whatever you have access to. Your kids can be benefited
in a frugal way without leaving their potentials untouched.
Author’s
note:
Doing
exercises at home with your children is an inexpensive way to keep every family
member physically fit and share more time with one another simultaneously. If
you have no idea what exercises to do, the article below may give you a helping
hand.
Exercise at Home From Head to Toe
