Got 1 Minute? 3 Art Games to Boost your Kid’s Strategic Thinking, Problem Solving and Visual Recall

By Ruthie Briggs-Greenberg

It’s Monday. You have to get your kids to school, and you’re only on your first cup of coffee. What can you do that will help them think better and not annoy you? An art activity! What, you ask, is an “art activity”? It’s something that exposes kids to art. Why should you do it? According to the National Endowment for the Arts, kids with more art experiences had higher GPAs than kids who lacked those experiences. How do you start? Pour that second cup of coffee, set the timer for 1 minute and do one of the following:

GAME 1: (The timer is set, right? Did you pour that second cup of coffee?) Ask Junior “How many things can be done with spoons?” Now wait. If Junior hasn’t had breakfast, they might say, “I don’t know.” But, if Junior just had a bowl of sugary goodness, the answer may be, “You can eat with spoons, dig with spoons… Uhhhhhh…..” Then Junior may fall silent. This is where you say, “Keep going…”  Junior may come up with one more answer, something involving “you can fling a spoon.” The minute will pass.

What’s the answer? An unknown number of things can be done with spoons. Think outside of the box, or in this case, the silverware drawer.  This idea of thinking beyond what is obvious frees your child’s mind to use their imagination.  Imagination leads to solutions. Let’s get back to the spoons.  If you weld spoons together, you could build skies, or a wall, and then you could make a house of spoons, (no, it’s not cheating, I never said, “a spoon,” or that the spoons had to remain in their original form). The question leads your child, and you, to think strategically to solve a puzzle. This method of thinking creatively frees up your mind to design, imagine and build ideas that don’t exist. That’s how art starts. You’ve spent a minute and engaged in strategic thinking.

GAME 2: Grab a pencil and a piece of paper. Ask Junior to draw a bicycle with circles, and lines. Did you set the timer for one minute? If your coffee has kicked in, you can try it too. What does this game do for Junior? It makes them think about design principles of how shapes fit together for practical use. If you want a hint, a very basic bike can be drawn using 5 circles and 11 lines. Wait a minute, how is this art, you ask? It is art because it involves organizing shapes and lines and creating a design. So you’ve just covered design, which fits under problem solving.

GAME 3: Open the cupboard and let Junior look at it for 8 seconds. This is not the time to obsess over the fact that there is high fructose corn syrup in half of the breakfast cereals. Close the cupboard. Ask Junior, “How many colors can be made from the colors on the boxes inside the cupboard?” You’ll probably get this, “I don’t know”. Who thinks about cereal boxes and art? Ask Junior to open the cupboard and see if there is red, yellow and blue inside, if so, you have the three primary colors. All colors can be made from the three primary colors. Play a color addition game (go on, the first part wasn’t even 20 seconds). What is red plus yellow? Orange. Was there a yellow box on your shelf? A blue one? Sure there was, everyone has that blue box of pasta on the second shelf, so now you have yellow plus blue. You get the picture. Now you’ve covered visual recall.

Wow, look at you, covering strategic thinking, problem solving and visual recall all before your 3rd cup of coffee! Junior used art, or thinking about art, to fire up those synapses before class. Thinking about art will carry over into other areas of study, such as math, language, and science. Ultimately art allows individuals to create something from nothing by strategically analyzing a problem and solving them. If you have five minutes, tour the world’s greatest museums online. This may lead to conversations about the historical context that art was created in, or the purpose of art. If you ask Junior what they think about a painting they are looking at they may say, “I don’t know”. That’s ok, school doesn’t train our kids to think of possibilities, it teaches kids to have answers. Get Junior thinking and they will come up solutions to all kinds of life situations. 1 minute art games lead Junior to strategic thinking, problem solving and visual recall, and you did it all without a 4th cup of coffee.

Photograph by D Sharon Pruitt via Flickr/Creative Commons

Jumpstart Your Child’s Pre-Education

Whether your preschooler is just starting to learn her letters and numbers or she’s gearing up to start kindergarten in the fall, there are simple ways to help her learn and practice reading, writing and arithmetic – three of the key learning aspects of early childhood development that teachers use to gauge kindergarten readiness. Consistency and practice are essential to mastering these skills, but fear not, you can easily incorporate these fun learning opportunities into your child’s summer routine and encourage your sitters to do the same.

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Reading

  • Research has shown that the single most important thing that a parent can do to help their child acquire language, prepare for school, and to instill a love of learning is to read to them. Check out the Scholastic Reading Recommendations List for Ages 3-5 if your bookshelves need some replenishing.
  • Schedule a time every day to read to your child and talk about the letters and words, characters, and what happened first, next and last. It’s helpful to children if you use your finger to follow the words as you read so they can follow along.
  • A rich vocabulary and strong language skills are building blocks for learning to read. Engage your child in regular conversation, avoiding baby talk in order to enrich their vocabulary.
  • Enrich language by singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes together.
  • Encourage your child to tell stories by giving you a puppet show, playing dress-up, and playing other make-believe activities.
  • Have your child put photos of herself at different ages into the correct sequence.
  • Let her play with magnetic letters on a cookie sheet or other magnetic surface. Practice the sound each letter makes.
  • Cut out letters from magazines to spell her name and other simple words.

Writing

  • Tracing helps kids to make the precise movements necessary for forming letters and improving hand/eye coordination. Very young children can trace a straight line – have them trace from left to right to mimic the process of printing from left to right. Ages 3 and 4 can handle tracing zig zags and curves, and by age 5 most children can trace letters and numbers. Here are several printables to help with tracing.
  • Help your child practice writing his name, ABCs and numbers 1-10 using different tools to make it fun – colored pencils, chalk on the sidewalk, shaving cream, sand and finger paint.
  • Keep a summer journal. Ask her to draw a picture of something she did each day, and with your help writes a word or more to describe it.
  • Let little ones help with writing grocery lists or making cards for friends. This helps to see the different ways we use writing in our daily lives.
  • Make labels for belongings, such as an art box, notebook, or cup so that your child routinely sees words she can start to associate with objects.

Numbers and Counting

  • Take advantage of warm summer days by spending time outdoors on a nature walk. Turn your walk into a scavenger hunt where you not only find but also count the items on your list. Go Explore Nature has a good scavenger hunt list and guidelines.
  • Encourage kids to think of the world in terms of numbers by consistently getting them to see and recognize numbers in their world. For instance, say, “Let’s get out three crayons to color with today,” or “Will you help me put five plates on the table for dinner?”
  • Use coins or items around the house to experiment with adding, subtracting and the use of “more” and “less.”
  • Look for and point out numbers in her world, such as addresses, page numbers, recipes, and price tags.
  • Read stories and sing songs about numbers, such as “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.”
  • Cooking with your child offers many opportunities for practicing numbers. Count your ingredients, measure and talk about how ingredients are added together to make a whole.

With a little help from you and your sitters, your child will master these important skills and be ready to tackle kindergarten. Check back with us for simple ways to help your child adopt the other key aspects of early childhood education, including physical, social and emotional development.

Sharpen School Skills with Fun, Educational Games & Activities

meg_son_drawingExperts estimate that kids spend the first 2.3 months of the school year learning what they’ve forgotten over the summer. Yikes!

Help your kids brush up on their skills, before the first school bell rings, with these effective learning tools that can easily pass as fun games and entertainment.

Smart Games to Prepare for the School Year

Alphabet Tracing Chart 

Free, printable alphabet handwriting worksheet in a fun Back-to-School theme.  Traceable worksheets help preschoolers through First Graders learn to write letters A to Z in upper and lower case.  The worksheet features a start dot on each letter to help kids remember where to start writing the letter. Tip: Laminate and use fine tip erasable markers for repeated use.

Traceable Alphabet
Photo: First-School

LEGO Math Practice

LEGO activities are a visual way for kids to do math. And for the LEGO enthusiast, this might just be the sure-fire way to encourage math practice. The printable worksheet is great for kids to work on addition and subtraction. For younger kids, simply use LEGOS to work on colors, sorting and counting.

LEGOS
Photo: The Kent Chronicles

Book Picks for Kids 2-12

Research has shown that the single most important thing that a parent can do to help their child acquire language, prepare for school, and instill a love of learning is to read to them (Russ et al., 2007).  If you need a few new books to add to your repertoire, check out Cool Mom Picks Roundup. They have compiled an awesome list of their editors’ own children’s favorite books, including picks for ages 2-12.

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Photo: Cool Mom Picks

Melissa & Doug Letter Puzzle

Little kids can work on motor skills, letters and numbers with a simple puzzle that includes all 26 letters of the alphabet in uppercase and lowercase, along with 26 gorgeously detailed illustrations of various animals. $11.99 at Target.

Letter Puzzle
Photo: Melissa and Doug

 

Top 10 Educational Apps for Preschoolers

If you’re in the camp that believes in embracing the power of technology as a teaching tool, try out these educational apps for preschoolers. The list includes practice games for handwriting, letters and numbers for iPad and iPhone devices. Costs vary.

Apps
Photo: Handwriting Without Tears

Magazine Letter Printables for Literacy Station

You can avoid the time and mess of cutting letters out of magazines for your child to use for literacy exercises – such as finding the alphabet or creating words or phrases – with this super cool Magazine Letter Printable, just $7 from Etsy.

Magazine Letters
Photo: Olive Loaf Design

5 Games for Speaking, Listening and Thinking

Verbal games are great for developing speaking and listening skills, and thinking and reasoning abilities. They are ideal to play on a long car trip, or while your child’s hanging out in the kitchen while you make dinner. Try them with kids age 3 and up.

Childhood-101-Speaking-Listening-Thinking-Learning-Games-for-Kids
Photo: Childhood 101

All of these games and activities are great to leave with the babysitter. Find trusted babysitters and nannies at UrbanSitter.com.