50 Simple Learning Activities for Young Children

I want to do so much more than just teach my children.  I want to engage them, to encourage them to ask questions and seek answers, to explore and wonder.  I want my children to be passionate, skilled, curious and confident world changers.  I want them to be amazed by the awesomeness of creation. I want to create an atmosphere of education.

And I want them to laugh a lot too.

Here are 50 simple and fun ways we create an atmosphere of education as part of our everyday life. This list barely scratches the surface, every new day presents many opportunities to learn and teach and discover!

1. Read to them. A lot.
2. Make a birthday countdown chain out of construction paper
3. Measure things with gummy bears.
4. Build things with marshmallows and toothpicks.

5. Look up traditional dances of other cultures on youtube.  Push back the furniture and let the kids dance along!
6. Check out youtube videos on origami.  Follow along.
7. Take a book of riddles on long car rides.
8. Put an egg in glass full of vinegar for a few days to make the shell dissolve!
9. Collect rocks.
10. Sponsor a child through Compassion International.  Learn about where they live and what life is like for them.
11. Look up youtube videos of animals. What sound does a giraffe make?
12. Make cheese! It's easier than you'd think.
13. Visit a farm.
14. Go to the library.
15. Go to the zoo.
16. Go to a museum.
17. Sing.
18. Bite your cucumbers into the phases of the moon.  I didn't even know the phases of the moon until I read this book to the kids.
19. Cook a meal together for a family in need.
20. Read some more.  Try anything written by Robert Mccloskey.
21. Play outside.  Explore.
22. Give them paper scraps to make paper dolls with.
23. Interview grandma or great grandma about what life was like when she was young.
24. Call a friend or family member to practice phone skills
25. Do a puzzle.
26. Use world map placemats. Identify places friends have moved to or tell your children about places you have traveled to.
27. Make up stories together where each person contributes a sentence at a time.
28.Plant something in a pot on a windowsill

29. Show them how to sort the recyclables.  Explain to them why we recycle.
30. Let them help turn the compost.  Explain to them why we compost.
31. Ask them questions about their dinner.  Do they know where their hamburger came from? What about their broccoli?  Does it grow in the ground or on a tree?
32. Chase fireflies
33. Play Simon says.  Practice right and left.
34. Read a story and then act out the plot.
35. Send them on a nature scavenger hunt.
36. Cut a tree out of construction paper and use photos of family members to make a family tree.
37. Print these Paper Dolls From Around the World.
38. Memorize scripture verses as a family.
39. Tell them funny stories during bath time.
40. Learn to identify birds or flowers by making nature study crafts with old crayons.
41. Bake with them.  Halve or double the recipe and talk through the math.

42. Watch fire safety videos on youtube. 
43. Learn an instrument. My husband has been using the Suzuki books to teach himself and the kids how to play the violin!  And after only a few lessons, it stopped sounding like someone was swinging a bag of angry cats around the living room!
44. Fill a bucket with water and take it to the porch.  Collect a selection of household items and have the children guess whether each item will sink or float before dropping them in the water.
45. Play board games.
46. Create a moon log.
47. Make nesting can maps.
48. Put pieces of pipe cleaner in a plastic bottle and use a magnet to manipulate them!
49. Play with alphabet fridge magnets.
50. Microwave some soap?  Why not?

If you like this list you may also like my list of 99 Ways to Simplify Life with Kids.

Thanks so much for visiting The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking.