As a parent, I intend to raise my child as a socially and emotionally intelligent being, one who reaches his highest potential in all walks of life. I strongly believe that early childhood is the best period to impart and develop the necessary and all-important skills, viz: critical thinking, creativity, communication and problem-solving abilities. As a result, I am always on the lookout for ways, methods, tools, techniques and resources that can bring out the best in me as a parent-teacher and my child as a young learner.
Here I bring to you ten activities that will help develop problem-solving skills in young children:
- Building with Blocks
Building blocks are toys that come in different shapes, sizes, types, materials (such as wood, foam, cardboard, silicone or plastic) and for various play purposes that can help children in their construction games. And when the building blocks are a bit more sophisticated, as LEGO are, a much more comprehensive range of things can be built. Early childhood is the best time to nurture a child’s imagination and through it, creativity, as young children have more active imaginations than adults.
During a child’s free playtime, let them experiment with the blocks, identify and sort blocks based on colour, shape, and size; let them build free because anything a child builds or rebuilds requires thinking on how to put pieces together and bring ideas to (closest) its desirous shape, design or function.
During guided playtime, you can challenge them to build something you’re sure they’ve seen before. As they begin to visualize the thing in their minds, you can sit back and watch them attempt the challenge. Or how about offering them a book that has fun ideas and can get children thinking and building for themselves or people around them! One such book is ‘100 Ways to Rebuild the World‘ by Helen Murray.
- Playing Memory Games with Cards
Memory games help in testing and improving a child’s memory. There are different kinds of memory games. You can begin with matching card games.
Place the cards face down on the table. Each player turns over two cards to find a matching pair. If they do not match, the cards are turned face down and returned to their original position. If they match, the player keeps the cards and continues the game. When all the cards are paired, the player with the most pairs of cards wins the game.
The key in the matching card game is to remember where the cards were; that’s why it’s called the memory card game because if you can remember where the cards were, you’re going to have a lot better chance of finding a match and winning the game.
We use UNO playing cards which is easily available on Amazon.
- Putting Together Puzzle Pieces
Solving puzzles are an effective way to provide children with exciting learning opportunities. It helps develop fundamental skills, such as shape recognition, mental focus, decision making, patience, and attaining a sense of accomplishment. Children must have a daily (if possible!) exposure to puzzles. Games and puzzles like Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles, Math puzzles, Chess, Scrabble, and Rubik’s cube are great for developing thinking and reasoning skills.
For young children, starting with jigsaw puzzles (picture based as per the age group) is a great way, and for toddlers, shape sorters, peg puzzles, shape stackers are the best, and if they are wooden ones, nothing like it!
Shakuntala Devi’s Puzzle books are famous in India, but they are for elder children. Solving reasoning puzzles is also important for children of 6+ years.
- Practising activities in Activity Work Books
Activity books help children develop a wide range of skills, including reading, understanding, and critical thinking. They engage in various steps to complete an activity, which naturally improves their cognitive skills.
A few of my favourites are here as an example:
- Spot the hidden object:
Set up a goal for your child and get them started with the activity.
For example, show them a situation in which a monkey has lost all its bananas.
And then say, “Let’s find those bananas for the monkey.” Now, let them search through the picture and encourage them further after they’ve found each one to stir up their interest.
- Spot the difference between two pictures or spot the difference between two given sentences, dot to dot activities, pattern matching
These are some of the other great exercises to get the children practising new and different that target and hone other skills.
Activity workbooks for children are easily available locally in India or on Amazon (type in the search bar ‘activity work books’ and you’ll have lots of them to filter from but our favourite publications are Wonder House Books, Navneet Publications, Dreamland Publications and Om books).
One more thing, suggested age group isn’t only the important factor in making the purchase decisions; flip through the pages, read reviews and personally (if you can) go through the content to determine a book’s appropriateness for your child.
- Attentively executing what ‘Simon Says’
In the game ‘Simon Says’, one person is designated as “Simon,” while the others are the follower-players. Simon, standing in front of the group, instructs and asks the players to follow instructions carefully and consciously. The players obey commands that start with the words “Simon Says.”
If Simon instructs, “Simon says touch your head, shoulder, knees and toes”, all players must follow that. Players must not move if Simon says “move” without saying the words “Simon says” first. Those who move are out of the game.
This game helps children learn to distinguish between which instructions to follow and which ones to ignore. Playing this fun game offers multiple benefits like improving listening and grasping skills, developing sportsmanship, fostering spontaneity, following instructions, and correctly executing tasks.
- Playing Board Games
Childhood must be a combination of good food and board games, what do you say!
Playing board games is a great way to develop problem-solving skills in children.
In addition to bringing a lot of fun, board games indirectly help children develop valuable skills. For example, games like Snakes and Ladders and Ludo help children develop persistence in the face of failure.
Monopoly (also known as a Business Game), a contemporary game based on strategy and tactical skills, helps a child with financial literacy, the most important in building 21st-century life skills. It is never too early for a child to have financial skills and budgeting knowledge. It sharpens the mind of the young ones and teaches them monetary control. The feeling of being organised and having complete control of your assets is what Monopoly promotes.
- Coming out of Mazes
Maze games can take various forms and can be done even without an activity book.
If you wish to give your child a more realistic experience, you can create a large maze on a walkway. Make a few passages, one or two of which will lead nowhere. Ask your child to get herself/himself out of a maze!
This kind of game improves strategic thinking and motor skills, which significantly help in improving problem-solving skills.
- Reading Story Books
Children learn a lot from stories, and reading aloud can be one of the best ways to nurture a child’s imagination. Reading to a child has proven to be “brain-changing.”
Young children instinctively love listening to stories that have rhyming words, rhythmic lines and repeated sounds. You can make the story session more interesting by asking situational questions like
What would you do if you were that old man?
Do you think the monkey was right and why?
Questions like these allow children to think, and make connections with things they already know, decide if character/s resonated with them or not, and understand the moral of the story.
As parents, making sure what side of the story children are learning from is really important, and we can gauge that only by asking them situational questions.
- Playing the classic- Hide and Seek
Hide and seek is one of the traditional and well-known games played by one and all, irrespective of the age group. It is a game of rational thinking and patience. The finder has to think and memorise all the spots where the people could hide. At the same time, the hiders have to look for the best places to hide quietly, without making a sound. Patiently waiting is also an essential part of this game.
It helps in enhancing intuitive thinking and improved attention too. If your child is tired of playing indoor games, this game would be a great saviour!
- Engaging in Imaginative Plays
Engage your child in imaginative plays and encourage them to look around for objects or everyday items to utilize for their play instead of their usual toys. It can help spark their imagination even more and help them relate to the world around them much better.
For example:
a) ‘laundry baskets’, which are used to store dirty or used clothes before washing, can be used by your child to sit inside to enjoy drive-thru experiences, Vroom! Vroom!
b) A ‘stick’ in the hand can become a magic wand or a cricket bat or a sword.
c) Vegetables and fruits could be used as currency for Monopoly.
Concluding now…
The games listed above were chosen from a large selection of games, toys and books that can both entertain and educate young ones. These are also the ones we expose our children at home to. You can create similar games based on these concepts to make your child’s learning process fun and super easy.
Happy Parenting!
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