H A N D S - O N T E A C H I N G T I P S

Unleash a Love of Learning in Your Child!

TIP #3: You’ve Heard of
the “Three R’s”—
Introducing the “Three G’s”!
Games, Gizmos, and Gimmicks

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I’m not for fooling a child, but when it comes to learning, if he forgets he’s actually learning and thinks instead that he is playing, that’s fine with me! I don’t know a child that wouldn’t rather be playing games than filling out workbooks. We often think of drill as only flashcards or repetitive writing. There are many alternatives that will help the information stick in a much more enticing way!

GIMMICKS: When I refer to gimmicks, I’m meaning songs, poems, and sayings that appeal to a child’s creative side. A child will remember information much better if he hears it in a song and can relate it to its tune. Do you remember singing the song in grammar school, “Fifty nifty United States, from the thirteen original colonies!” Perhaps I’m dating myself, but I learned that song in first grade and never forgot what our newly fifty states (I had learned the song in the mid-1960s) had begun from. There are many jingles and limericks that help us remember punctuation and grammar rules, mathematics facts, historical facts, presidents, books of the Bible, and others. I’ll guarantee you, if you taught your child the long and short vowels with a song, they would have a greater retention of the sounds than if you drilled strictly with flashcards. There’s nothing catchier than a good tune to stick in your head!

GIZMOS: What are “gizmos”? Basically, in this case they are hand-held helps to assist in drilling facts. One example might be an electronic game that will flash or beep if the math fact or spelling word is correct or wrong. Sometimes they come in the form of a book with a wand with which you tap the answer you wish to give. Again, you’d be told if you were right or wrong according to a light or sound. Another gizmo that my children loved was “Learning Wrap-Ups.” These are hand-held, specially designed objects where a string wraps from information on one side to its match on the other side. They utilize several senses and help the child master facts. Learning Wrap-Ups came in all kinds of topics: math facts, vowels and consonants, states and capitals, musical notes, sign language letters, and much more.

GAMES: I love incorporating games in learning, and there are MANY available! Just walk down a department store aisle and you will find educational computer games and board games galore. Start making wiser choices about the games you purchase for your family. Many are obviously used for academics, while others teach skills such as strategy, creativity, and how to think “out of the box.” Common card games, such as “Go Fish,” can be substituted with matching cards that can relate to a topic of study.

My favorite kind of game is the file folder game! A common, colored file folder can open up to become a game board that can easily be filed away when done. By decorating with a pathway of your choice, you can create a great way to drill spelling, answer history or science questions, learn about authors, a country, presidents, an ancient civilization, or practically any topic you wish. I have had the best success with the children retaining information when using question cards on a topic we had studied. And here’s a bonus! Have the children research the material they studied to make the question cards themselves. Not only will this give them the “leg up” they need to play the game (they will of course know the answers to their own questions!), but it will force them to really study the materials and resources in order to extract facts for questions. If you have several children, divide them in groups and send them off to collect questions. By having the children divide and conquer the materials they’ve been taught, you won’t even have to make the question cards. The more they can participate in, the better!