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Enjoy Playful Learning Experiences at Home or On the Go

Open-ended play experiences help children develop creativity, imagination and become better learners. There are many opportunities for hands-on exploration and imaginative play for curious learners at the Museum. This curiosity can also be fueled at home, in the car or virtually anywhere! Check out these skill-building play ideas below or on our Play-at-Home ideas page.

• Build language skills and stir creativity through storytelling by encouraging your child to look at a picture and create her own stories. Learn more about your child's development at the Minnesota Parents Know website.
• Promote logical and mathematical learning by introducing children to blocks and other building materials at earn early age. At first, children will explore the characteristics of the materials, but with continued exposure, they will expand on these skills to create towers, forts and elaborate patterns.
• Develop linguistic skills by reading stories with predictable patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Try to think of other words that rhyme or ones that start with the same letter or sound. Magnetic letters and alphabet blocks are a fun and easy way to experiment with rhyming words or beginning sounds.
• Enhance music appreciation using household items to create instruments with your children. Create drums using pots, pans, plastic containers and wooden spoons. Use two pan lids as cymbals. Two tablespoons taped back-to-back can be used for tapping on your knees. Be creative and find the many sound possibilities in your home!
• Build socio-emotional skills and reinforce adult-child relationships when you invite a child into a space that is normally reserved for “grown-ups.” Cooking together can help your child develop cooperation skills. You will also discover some wonderful teaching moments as you measure ingredients, read recipes and make predictions about how things will taste.

Check out these additional ideas that will boost early learning at home or on the go.

Do you have a play idea of your own to suggest? Post it on our Facebook page.