Most parents have heard that play is important to a young child’s learning, but the two are often disassociated because as kids grow older into adulthood, play is increasingly seen as something done for leisure or entertainment value. However, given a preschooler’s limited life and educational experiences, they primarily learn through their play.
In fact, numerous studies over the years have shown that play is a critical component to a young child’s learning and is essential to their growth and development. While some parents may be tempted to separate play from learning sessions to ensure dedicated time for learning to count and their ABCs, it’s not only possible but crucial to incorporate play that combines academics with fun!
Think about it this way: starting from infanthood, children soak up information in the world around them simply by observing and interacting with others. When they start to play pretend games, they mimic the observations they made in everyday life to make a game out of them, such as when they play “house” or “school”. Kids play games because they are fun, but they learn from them, too! When it comes to academics, the best way to form foundational skills is to make games out of them, and this is where Kids Academy can help!
Gamified Learning with Kids Academy
We already know that children learn through their play from a very young age, but unless parents intentionally plan learning games, an academic study doesn’t typically appear in organic play until kids have been intentionally exposed to it. Offering them access to gamified learning apps can help introduce early foundational academic skills in a fun way that children love.
Kids Academy’s website and Talented and Gifted - child-friendly learning app offer features encouraging kids to explore learning concepts through fun-filled activities such as the following:
· Songs and Nursery Rhymes
In this animated song, Down by the Bay, bright colors and fun illustrations are used to draw attention to the rhyming words that make this song so memorable. Cute graphics and engaging characters make the song seem less like learning, and more like play as they sing along with this popular children’s tune.
· Animated video lessons
For older kids, we have a whole host of instructor-led lessons that teach specific skills in math, ELA, science and more! For our younger crowd, we know that the earliest learners lack the attention span and need their lessons to seem more like a cartoon. That’s why we offer cute animated video lessons such as this one that teaches children to sort by size and color using an adorably illustrated and voiced elephant character.
· Interactive games filled with cheerful designs and bright graphics
Games, such as the stacking towers game shown below, incorporate the elements of video games into learning so that children are unaware that they are working on important academic skills. In this game, preschoolers work on sorting to order the objects from biggest to smallest.
· A motivational game that encourages interaction with an adorable character, Eddie
Dress-Up Eddie is a fun feature embedded within the Talented and Gifted app that motivates kids to learn by earning rewards that allow them to customize the character to their liking. What’s more is that by interacting with Eddie the Elephant, children play and explore the options that help them to practice math and vocabulary skills through earning and spending stars.
In addition to learning games, Kids Academy offers interactive worksheets that are auto-scored and allow children to test their knowledge as they interact with the page in the app or on the website. We know that worksheets might not seem like the most appealing activity, but ours combine highly engaging topics that pique a little learner’s interest, like this cute tracing worksheet:
Incorporating elements of play into learning doesn’t have to be hard! When instruction feels more like a game, kids are relaxed and motivated without focusing on the fact that they are working on new academic skills. Let Kids Academy introduce your children to important foundational knowledge, all while treating them to exciting interactive activities that incorporate elements of play to inspire both fun and a love of learning!
