Guest Posted by: Jenny Wise | jwise@specialhomeeducator.com

specialhomeeducator.com

This is the time of year when people are excited to spend time outdoors, but spring and summer have their share of showers and storms that may trap you and your children indoors. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have lots of fun inside. The world of online learning awaits you. Read on for tips on how to educate your children and improve their coordination while making it all seem like fun.

 

Children learn life skills from the arts

 

Experts believe that children learn a number of valuable lifelong skills from participating in the arts. Among those skills are problem-solving, confidence, and the ability to approach something from different perspectives or “thinking outside the box.”

 

Take the simple act of molding something out of clay. Your children first have to decide what they want to make, then consider how to do it, and then figure out how to create the object. They use problem-solving skills in three dimensions and creativity throughout the process, and they also learn how to fix and learn from their mistakes. The folks at The Artful Parent have put together a great set of three-dimensional art projects that your children can make, and these ideas come with a suggested set of art materials to have on hand.

 

If your child is more interested in learning to draw, there are many YouTube channels that offer a whole curriculum for drawing, from beginning to advanced.

 

Another entertaining activity for your kids is learning to read and play music online. Springboard has put together a list of the 30 best opportunities. They include guitar lessons, lessons in the history of rock and roll, and lessons in how to appreciate classical music, among others. If your children are very young and not quite ready to take on learning a musical instrument, they can still express themselves through sound by participating in a family music circle. Simply grab a few pots, pans, and spoons, and you have everything you need to make a kid-friendly drum circle that will entertain little ones for hours.

 

Learn to dance

 

Many children, especially girls, are drawn to ballet. Ballet teaches a tremendous skill set including balance, endurance, flexibility, and patience. Ballet is great for children who have ambitions to be serious dancers.

 

For children not so drawn to classical dance, social dancing is a great skill to learn. Social dances, like ballroom, salsa, tango, and square dancing, all teach coordination and balance. These are also dances that children can do for their entire lives. Teaching your child social dancing at an early age can be a great gift.

 

A to Z Home’s Cool offers free, distance-learning classes for children of all ages. The site also includes testimonials from dancers who have learned entirely through distance classes.

 

YouTube also offers many free online dance lessons. Your kids can learn hip-hop, ballet, and flamenco. If, on the other hand, you just want to get your children moving, there are hundreds of YouTube exercise videos appropriate for children. Many of them feature children as the shows’ stars.

 

Offline

 

If you want to get offline for a little while, you can do a science experiment in your own kitchen. “Make Your Own Elephant’s Toothpaste” is a creative experiment you can do with simple ingredients like dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and yeast. It’s a completely safe project when done under adult supervision that produces a visually spectacular chemical reaction.

 

In short, just because the weather is inclement doesn’t mean the fun has to stop. The internet offers a myriad of free and low-cost lessons and activities that are both fun and educational.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay