Utah Mama

Rolling Out the Mat: Simple Ways to Boost Your Home Learning Environment

My girls are taking gymnastics  in our friend Savannah’s backyard.  Every Wednesday, she rolls out a mat and sets up a balance beam.  The class consists of doing the same tumbling moves over and over.  Savannah, who is a super-gymnast, doesn’t even get sweaty.  She just kneels on the mat and guides them through the moves.  At the end of class, she hands out Otter Pops.

Though it looks simple, I’ve decided Savannah is brilliant.  To teach gymnastics, she gives children exactly what anyone needs to learn:  opportunity and support.

We can offer our children opportunity and support to learn new things at home in much the way Savannah runs gymnastics class.   And we won’t get sweaty either.  Just think of it as rolling out the gymnastics mat.  Here are a few ways to do this:

• Each library visit, don’t forget to visit the children’s non-fiction section.  Grab books on art or reptiles or China or anything that catches your eye.  Leave them out in a place where your kids don’t normally find library books.  My bet is every kid in your house will spend time reading them.  Try it.
• Keep an area of your house stocked with art supplies.  Right now you can get them for a steal.  (Last week at Walmart, I paid 25 cents a box for Crayola crayons and 99 cents for markers.)  Place them in a basket along with blank paper, lined paper, and those cute mini-notebooks you can often find at the Dollar Store.  When your children scribble on it and tell you it is a letter or a menu, trust them.
• Also include reguarly changing coloring pages.  Dover Publications has awesome sampler coloring pages you can print each week.  Just sign up for the Dover Sampler. I like this more than the typical Disney coloring page.  Last week’s sample pages featured History of the White House, Stained Glass Butterflies, and a Frankenstein Graphic Novel.  Cool.
• Dover Publications is where I ordered my favorite coloring book Create Your Own Pictures.  I don’t actually leave this book out, but copy the pages (because I want to keep the book forever.)  Instead of giving them the picture to color, this book gives a half a picture and lets the children draw in the rest themselves.
• Always scope out T.J. Maxx for books and learning games.  The Maxx is where I found Bug Bingo, Silly Sentences, Animal Habitats, Number Play–all popular games that I regularly leave out for my kids to trip over.   Lots of times they’ll stop and play.  Sometimes they’ll invite me to play too.

I don’t always have an organized plan.  But by creating an easy learning environment, children can have regular opportunties for learning even when Mom is busy.  At the least I can think, “I rolled out the mat today.”  Like Savannah’s gymnastics class, sometimes simplicity feels brilliant.  (Or at least really good.)