The key to learning is motivation. That's why kids learn much better when they are engaged in fun activities. Apart from outings and group activities that preschoolers naturally love, the computer can be a very effective tool in motivating and helping them learn. On the Internet, parents can find online content in form of interactive educational games, animated lessons and videos that naturally attract and engage young kids. When they play these educational games and watch informative animations and videos, kids absorb all the learning subconsciously. More importantly, it helps them grasp and understand the concepts instead of just memorizing pieces of information.
Benefits of Educational Games and Videos
It is proven that analytical games can sharpen mental skills and encourage logical thinking in preschool kids. These problem-solving games and puzzles make kids think in lateral ways. When they solve the puzzles, it instills a sense of confidence. Language lessons can be quite boring, but they can come alive in the form of games that teach phonics, reading, writing and even English grammar. Early maths skills like counting, arithmetic, fractions can be taught quite effectively using puzzles and games. With few repetitions, preschoolers can easily grasp these concepts and progressively move to higher difficulty levels.
When it comes to learning about our natural world and science, there's nothing better than videos and animated presentations. Take for example plant life cycle or volcanoes. Think about watching a five-minute time-lapse video of a seed germinating into a plant, or a volcano erupting with ash and lava. It is surely lot more interesting and enlightening than learning from a book. This makes all the difference in the kid's learning process.
Parent's Responsibility
As parents, we have the responsibility to help our kids choose the right kind of online content and games. The basic criteria for selection being educational value, entertainment factor and ease of use. A lot of games that are only based on quick hand-eye coordination should be limited or avoided. For preschoolers, choose games that require using only the mouse and rely more on audio instructions. As they grow, kids will find other stuff on the Internet based on their likes and dislikes. Parents have to adopt a pragmatic approach where they not only restrict violent or mature content, but also offer alternatives in form of educational games that are engaging, fun to play as well as challenging for the preschool kids. Just like TV, if you make a proper choice, online educational games and videos can be entertaining and quite educative.
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