When society makes failure synonymous with all things bad or something to avoid at all costs, children are learning at an early age that their worth is tied to the success of their actions. Failure can be scary. Failure is a part of life, whether it’s a 5-year-old finger-painting a masterpiece or a 55-year-old failing to use a new computer program. It doesn’t matter if the failure was avoidable or not, failure will happen to the best of us. 

But how do we help kids deal with these failures? How do we teach them that failing is okay and that they should try again?

It’s hard for most educators to cede control of their children. But allowing them to make mistakes and stay safe is vital in the learning process. Here are some ways you can help your child learn to fail safely:

Emphasize their growth mindset

A growth mindset changes the way the brain reacts to failure, and it helps children learn from their mistakes. They don’t interpret failure as a reflection of their self-worth, and quickly bounce back to recover from their mistakes. Failure is inevitable. That is why it’s so important to encourage your children to embrace a growth mindset. When kids feel empowered to improve, that’s when they’re most likely to succeed — and with a growth mindset, they’ll be more open to trying new things and embracing challenges.

Let them fail

Since the time our children were infants, we’ve offered them a safe, secure life. When they fall, we rush to their side and make sure they’re okay. We go to great lengths to avoid adversity and challenge because we want to protect them from experiencing hardship or failure. But shielding children from adversity isn’t the same as protecting them. It’s essential to allow your child to experience failure. Without difficult situations to navigate, kids won’t develop critical problem-solving skills—and nobody expects a baby to ride a bike without training wheels. Teach them how to cope with failure, so they don’t fear it — and make sure they earn prizes when they overcome a challenge.

Share your experience

Children like to emulate what they see. You can model positive ways to handle setbacks and challenges by being open about your struggles. You can point out that when we fail at something, we often learn from it and even get better for having tried. Likewise, when you learn to fail forward, your kids will learn from painful experiences and grow from mistakes.

Kids can be a little unrealistic in thinking their ideas and plans will always lead to a remarkable life. So you need to teach them that it’s okay if things don’t always work out the way they think.

Empathize with them

By meeting your children with empathy when they fail in front of their peers, you’re modeling that emotion for them. They can see what it looks like when someone is hurt or disappointed and find the words to express those feelings. This doesn’t mean they should be immune from all criticism. But it does mean that if they make a mistake, it’s okay, and the sooner you teach them that, the better!

Final Thoughts

Learning to fail can be painful at first, but it is an essential part of the learning experience, for children will only succeed in life if they can acquire the knowledge and skills needed to handle whatever life throws their way. Our young learners need to know that failure is an integral part of the learning experience. Else they may become afraid of trying anything new for fear of doing it wrong. 

Educators and parents can be a key part of bringing in this cultural change. Educators can design and build schools, pedagogy, and curriculum in a manner that encourages students to learn from failure. This can truly prepare students for transformative success.

Parents too are an essential cog of the learning experience. By providing a nurturing environment, they can be a much-needed guide to children. So that they learn that getting it right at the first time of asking isn’t essential, and that it is more important to do the right thing. The best education doesn’t necessarily come from the classroom. But from how adult role models teach kids to be resilient in the face of whatever life throws their way. 

Know of an inspiring educator or educational story that encourages life-long learning in students? Send us a message at marketing@squarepanda.in or comment below, and we’ll feature your story!

Touch. Sight. Sound. Hearing. Taste. 

A child’s experience in this world is one of multisensory stimulation. It is likely that evolution itself supports optimal functioning in such an environment. While all children reach their developmental goals at different paces, research suggests multisensory learning is one of the most effective strategies to enhance the learning experience.

*About ‘Multisensory’ And ‘Multisensory Learning’: The term ‘multisensory’ means using more than one sense at a time, while ‘multisensory learning’ incorporates learning techniques that use multiple senses at the same time. For example: Adding audio or visual aids into teaching and assignments. Not every lesson does (or needs to) include each sense, but such an approach does require more than one sense to be stimulated at a time for better learning outcomes.

Multisensory activities are based on the concept of ‘whole brain learning’, which is the belief that the best way to teach concepts is to involve all areas of the brain. In his book, the Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (1987), American biologist Gerald Edelman wrote that more elaborate brain connections are formed with multisensory learning as compared to single sensory learning, greatly enhancing comprehension and retention. To learn more about connections in the brain and how they help with memory retention, consider reading how to help children retain learning.

Multisensory learning also proves effective to different types of learners: visual learners, auditory learners, tactile learners, and physical or kinesthetic learners. This ensures multisensory instruction reaches every learner in the classroom.

To help children enhance their multisensory awareness, we curated simple multisensory learning activities that tie into early childhood education and can be easily incorporated into the classroom or home:

Note: Each activity can be used (and tweaked) depending on children’s learning levels and interests.

Activity Name: Handprint Birds

You Will Need:

• Paint
• Glue
• White paper
• Coloured pencils and/or crayons
• Kid-safe scissors

Method: Paint children’s palms with one colour, and their fingers multiple colors like red, yellow, and green. Guide them to place their hands, palms down, on a sheet of white paper to create a handprint. On the thumb area, help them draw a beak using colored pencils or crayons. Draw an eye, a pair of feet, and you have a handprint bird! You can cut this out and make a sign or card, too.

Learning Outcomes: Fine motor skills, colour identification, creative exploration

Activity Name: Colored Corn Art

You Will Need:

• Glue stick
• 1 cup of regular corn kernels
• Vinegar
• Water
• Food coloring
• Containers for mixing food coloring (bowls, plastic cups, etc)
• A sheet of paper

Method: Fill half the container(s) with water and add an equal amount of vinegar to it. Ask children to choose food coloring(s) of their choice, and mix them into the container(s). Then add in a small amount (about half a cup) of corn kernels and leave them to soak overnight. The next day, ask the children to dry the corn kernels with paper towels. Ask each child to get a glue stick, a sheet of paper, and some of the colored corn. Encourage them to use some creativity to make fun designs with the different colors! (Note: it’s easier to add glue to the sheet and then stick the corn to it.)
Learning outcomes: Fine motor skills, socio-emotional development (patience), creativity

*Not recommended for younger children as there is a choking hazard.

Activity Name: Apple Basket Word Sort

You Will Need:

• Red or green paper
• Colored pencils or markers
• A basket
• Kid-safe scissors

Method: On apple-shaped cutouts (created by children from red and/or green paper), write CVC (i.e., consonant-vowel-consonant) words like MAP and HAT. Write as many words as the children can identify at their age. Mix up these ‘paper apples’ and place a basket in front of children. Call out the words at random and ask them to pick the right apple cutout and place it in the basket.

Modification: Repurpose this to enhance foundational numeracy skills; switch out the words for numbers.

Learning Outcomes: Vocabulary, colour identification, sorting, creativity, fine motor skills

*For online classes, you can ask parents to help you. 

Activity Name: Popsicle Scarecrow 

You Will Need:

• Glue
• Popsicle sticks
• Pens/pencils/crayons
• Buttons, beads, threads, ribbons (for extra ‘decoration’)

Method: Ask children for help in protecting the garden. They need to make a popsicle person to scare away pests like crows and mynahs. Glue the narrow sides of 4-5 popsicle sticks side-by-side, to make the body. Break one popsicle in half to make the arms, and glue them lengthwise. Use two popsicle sticks as the legs. Draw on some features, and even stick cotton or thread for the hair. Add to the multisensory approach by putting this scarecrow into a real garden, if you can access one. If not, you can even put it into a potted plant.
Learning Outcomes: Fine motor skills, creativity, environmental awareness

Activity Name: Road Trip

You Will Need:

• Toy vehicle (car, truck, etc) OR you can use any random object as a ‘vehicle’
• A plain sheet of paper
• Pen/pencil/crayons
• Tiny popsicle people
• Matchboxes
• Small cotton balls/balls of paper

Method: Take your little learners on an imaginary road trip. Draw a winding road on the paper. Decorate the sheet with matchboxes (for buildings and houses), add in some cotton/crushed paper as rocks and boulders. Drawn fields that are guarded by scarecrows or farms with scarecrow people in them. Place the vehicle at the start of the road; ask children to move it along the path. As they travel from place to place, ask them to create stories, identify the elements, and gradually make their own little roadmap.

Modification: Improve early literacy skills by writing names on buildings (school, hospital, etc.), and asking children to read, and later spell it themselves.

Learning Outcomes: Imagination, creativity, fine motor skills, storytelling, early literacy skills

Activity Name: Button Tree

You Will Need:

• Multicolored buttons (red, yellow, orange, brown, green)
• Colored pencils, crayons, and markers
• Glue stick

Method: Trace out a tree trunk and branches together with children. Give them glue sticks and ask them to glue buttons to the branches to make a colourful button tree.

*You can use cotton balls, rolled up bits of paper, actual dried leaves, or anything else to make this tree.

Modification: In later levels, you can ask children to group particular colours together, add fruits, little hand painted birds, and anything else they can think of.

Learning Outcomes: Fine motor skills, colour identification, sorting and grouping, environmental awareness, creativity, exploration and imagination, observation.

To drive their intrinsic motivation to keep coming back and learning, children need to engage with the learning process. This is where multisensory activities and instructions fit in; they present information through more than one sensory system at a time, encouraging optimal learning.

At Square Panda, we understand the value of multisensory learning. Our programs — for children and for educators — include content that uses all the learning pathways in the brain (auditory/visual, kinesthetic/tactile) to enhance multisensory exploration for robust educational outcomes in early childhood education. Learn more about our holistic NEP 2020-aligned programs: ecce.squarepanda.in

Share a video of your little learners working on the above activities, and we’ll make sure to mention you on our social media.

Think someone you know will benefit from this article? Forward it to them.

With what do you equate early childhood education? 

Most people would likely relate this term with academics. While the primary focus of ECCE has always been academics, this is but one component that makes up the whole. Research tells us that social and emotional development is as deeply woven into the fabric of early education as academics. For example, a 2015 study by Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley linked higher social emotional skills in kindergarten with important outcomes like education, career, and social success by the age of 25.

Comprehensive programs that enhance foundational learning and include a component of socio-emotional skill development are perfectly geared towards delivering the best results for young learners.

Defining Social And Emotional Development

A child is considered to be developing socially and emotionally when they start to understand who they are, what they are feeling, and how to interact with others. They are able to:

• Forge and sustain positive relationships
• Experience, manage, and express emotions
• Explore and engage with those in their environment

Technology And Social Emotional Skills

While there is research about the usage of technology while developing socio-emotional skills, this does not take into account the scope of edutech as we know it today. Companies that provide digital learning tools for their young learners are more concerned with holistically empowering their audience. Their research takes into account each developmental domain and is increasingly focused on providing the best overall foundation for learning, with a special curriculum for developing social emotional skills.

When children work together on computers or other types of technology, they learn to negotiate and take turns. Conflicts may arise while working together, and young children will need to solve problems. Technology is very prevalent in young children’s lives. Some advocates state that, since this is true, children should begin using technology at an early age, when they are motivated and fearless to learn.
(McCarrick & Xiaoming, 2007)

Supporting Social And Emotional Development In Early Learning Centres

A 2014 UNICEF Study put enrollment in preschools at around 70%. Of these, about 36 million children (3 to 6 years of age) were enrolled in Anganwadis (Ministry of Women & Child Development 2015). Anganwadis, part of the ICDS scheme, form only a part of the early learning settings children are exposed to; the rest involve public and private learning centres with enrollment skewing towards private schooling centres. This makes professional caregivers who care for and teach young children the most important partners in supporting their social and emotional development and building their readiness for school.

High-quality education is critical to maintaining positive socio-emotional development. Not only does a quality education promote active learning and engagement in children, it also mitigates the effects of other risk factors and builds resilience in children. This is partly due to the positive relationships young children form with their caregivers in a high-quality learning centre. Read our thoughts on quality in early education. When children perceive at least one supportive adult in their life, they are less likely to experience the effects of an adverse experience, and be more socio-emotionally developed individuals.

Well-trained early care and education professionals are critical to the creation of such quality learning centres, and to supporting the social and emotional development of their charges. Their expertise enables them to weave social and emotional skill-building into daily activities, routines, and even their own behaviour. They know to implement targeted curriculum with games, stories, and activities.

Supporting Social Emotional Learning At A Higher Level

Leaders and policymakers play a higher role in fostering and promoting positive environments across learning centres. These typically involve strategies, policies, or structures related to the teaching-learning climate and support services, like establishing a team to administer structural changes in working environments and developing clear guidelines for adult behaviour in learning centres.

8 Activities To Build Social And Emotional Skills

*note: these suggestions can be repurposed for at-home learning, by parents and other educators.

1. Build A ‘Feeling Box’: Help children put their feelings into words by labelling emotions in this little ‘feeling box’. Make your own feeling box, and model for children how to communicate their emotions to others.
2. Move To Music: Pick easy songs with lyrics and beats that encourage movement, like Square Panda’s letter-dance song. Make the motions with children as the song plays. Point out how good their dancing is getting, and credit their listening skills for it.
3. Play Board Games: Board games (specially those requiring teams) increase emotional intelligence by teaching children to take turns, think ahead, be a good sport about losing, and learn that actions have consequences. Here’s a fun little board game created for your little ones especially by Square Panda India, to get you started. 
4. Make A Share Box: A study from Duke and Penn State followed over 750 people for 20 years and found those who were able to share and help other children in kindergarten were more likely to graduate from high school. Teach children that sharing is caring (and fun); decorate a box and fill it with things children choose to share with their friends/family, like playdough, crayons, music boxes, soft toys, and more.
5. Use Hand Puppets: You can get these online (see the one Ms. Sonia Relia uses during our Square Panda Thursdays sessions), or ask children to make their own, using random picture cutouts glued to a popsicle stick. These help in acting out stories and exhibiting various emotions.
6. Read Stories: Use stories to talk to children about different social situations. Reading and playacting stories aloud (using hand puppets as props) provides a great opportunity to discuss the connection between behaviour and emotions. For example, “The panda is running fast! He seems scared.”
7. Sing Songs: Take children through the gamut of emotions while singing songs like ‘If You’re Happy And You Know It‘, or ‘Looking In The Mirror’. The wordsmith in you can even come up with lyrics to the tune of popular songs, which talk about sharing, being kind, and other social messages.
8. Use Daily Activities To Develop Social Skills: Activities like snack time, digital time, and recess can be used to develop social skills like taking turns, sitting together, and engaging in conversation. This helps children build positive peer relationships and foster healthy social and emotional development early on.

Key Points To Remember While Developing Social Emotional Skills

• Children Learn By Watching: All children automatically mimic the behaviour of those closest to them, which in many cases are adults. Let them see you model appropriate behaviour and exhibit patience, kindness, and helpfulness throughout the day. Explain what is appropriate behaviour and what is not, and make sure you recognise their positive behaviour and praise it.
• Diversity Plays A Major Part: India’s multicultural heritage translates into a diverse classroom full of children with unique sets of experiences, abilities, and learning needs. Such diversity also brings rich cultural and linguistic differences. Being aware of and adapting to each child’s specific needs can be the difference between a socially aware and competent future citizen or one unable to cope in challenging situations. In classrooms, for example, teachers can encourage expression in the language children are comfortable with, and assign ‘helper buddies’ to children who are struggling socially.
• Connecting With Parents Is Important Too: Establishing a link with parents and caregivers of children is extremely important for success in a school setting. Increased parental engagement, and an awareness of the importance of social emotional development helps children, particularly those struggling with behavioural problems. Schools can figure ways to reach out to the parents regularly, and encourage them to visit or volunteer in the classroom.
• Maintaining A Daily Routine Is Critical To Social Emotional Development: In any setting, adults need to stick to a regular routine each day so children can predict what comes next. This helps them feel safe and in control. In case of any adjustments to the schedule, make sure they know changes are coming, so they are well-prepared for it.
• Encourage Early Friendships: Young children often play next to each other rather than with each other. This has only increased with online learning. What educators now notice, is that children are beginning to show empathy to peer problems even online, giving rise to early friendships. Encouraging more interaction between groups of children, assigning buddies, and drawing out quieter children are some more ways to increase positive peer relationships from an early age.

Early childhood is a critical period to develop social emotional skills. The quality of experiences in this stage can have a lifelong impact on children. Adults are mainly responsible for developing strong socio-emotional skills in early childhood. The early learning programs that prioritise children’s social and emotional health are rewarded by highly engaged little learners who express and use emotion in productive ways.

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The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to address India’s education imperatives, and sets a strong foundation for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for future generations to thrive. The holistic development envisioned by NEP 2020 must be supported by a strong need to update conventional means of learning and adopting innovative forms, for better results. The objective of transforming existing learning culture depends on changing a mindset stemming from decades of following a traditional approach to education. However, teaching methodologies that worked in the past might not be completely applicable in the future. We need early learning providers—educators, parents, and even leaders—to change their mindset, so that children are enabled to answer the question of “how to think”, rather than “what to think”.

To help navigate these uncharted waters, implement new teaching-learning methodologies into each classroom, and see greater holistic development, we will need to update traditional methods and merge the old with the new.

Square Panda India Recommends:

• Explain The Neuroscience Behind Early Learning: A young learner is not just experiencing their first brush with schooling and education; they are also developing around 85% of their brain in the early childhood period, until the age of eight. This learning is cemented by experiences from their homes and their surroundings. ECCE educators and parents need to comprehend the neuroscience behind the early learning process and the effort it takes to develop each young learner’s brain holistically, for them to develop an appropriate sense of gravitas towards this responsibility.
• Bring Learning Into The Home: The role of parents in early childhood education is vital to improving student outcomes and the overall learning experience. Parental awareness and engagement in early schooling impacts every step of the ECCE process, and complements the measures taken by ECCE stakeholders, including educators and policymakers. Parental involvement in the minutiae of their child’s life, which includes their early education, serves to improve their learning outcomes to a greater degree. To enhance this provision and to increase the success of early childhood programs, webinars and workshops can be conducted with expert speakers enhancing awareness of new age methods of teaching, developmental milestones, appropriate learning outcomes, and more.
• Conduct Training And Empowerment Programs: The knowledge about the impact of early education must be followed by information on new-age teaching methodologies that best impact early years’ instruction. Explaining various styles of teaching is vastly different from experiencing it firsthand. A practical application of 21^st century methodologies, including experiential and play-based methods, can have a drastic effect on the minds of educators and parents alike, allowing them to relate to these techniques and put it into practice in the classroom and at home. Additionally, this training sees a stronger impact if people at all levels of the ECCE sector—leaders and policymakers, educators, and parents—are involved in these training sessions. While teachers and parents play a crucial role in ECCE, coaching leaders help turn early learning into a more fruitful experience. The system is stronger when every stakeholder is aligned with each step of the program, and is advised on the knowledge and the workings of each phase of training.
• Reflect The Changes In The Curriculum Itself: Simple activities like play, activities, and even everyday experiences form a learning base for children, adding to their knowledge in the early years. To truly see mindset changes develop across levels in the ECCE landscape, each of these new age methodologies, the change in teaching patterns, has to be reflected in the curriculum, and the NEP 2020 highlights this very fact. This adds an air of gravitas to the methods previously labelled as ‘hobbies’ or ‘pastimes’. For added knowledge, learning outcomes expected from each activity can also be highlighted across the curriculum, which can then be conveyed to homes, again linking the early learning ecosystem together.
• Adopt Partnerships With Private Entities: An August 2020 study by UNESCO states that out of the 320 million Indian children affected by school closures during the pandemic, only 37.6 million across 16 states are continuing their education. As the pandemic has taught us, adapting to changing needs is crucial to creating a learning revolution capable of transforming our ECCE sector. Increased digital penetration, and subsequently teacher training and parental awareness programs, can be effectively wrought by robust public private partnerships. This PPP model can link each part of the ECCE landscape together, ushering an era of equality and inclusivity alongside changing mindsets.

NEP 2020 will remain a visionary document if we cannot nail its implementation. The success of this hinges majorly on our success in eliminating pre-existing misconceptions and bringing about a definitive change in the minds of each ECCE stakeholder, from the outset.

Square Panda India’s educator empowerment programs work towards the goal of eliminating mindset barriers & changing perceptions of parents & school administrations towards interactive early learning techniques & methodologies. Our team of ECCE experts train Anganwadi workers and early years’ educators in the neuroscience behind early learning, new age teaching methods, effective classroom management techniques, basic digital literacy and knowledge of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and English language skills. 

Learn more about our programs here.

Young children in developmentally critical periods of their lives, between the ages of 2-10, see a much higher impact when their parents get involved in their learning. The research into parental involvement in schooling is not new; a study called “Parental Involvement in the Classroom” by Machen, Wilson, & Notar, published in 2005, revealed that enhancing the involvement of parents in the classroom goes a long way towards improving the quality of the schools in general, besides contributing to higher standards and providing opportunities for students. The study also stressed the importance of creating parent-teacher collaboration strategies to eliminate all hindrances to parental involvement in early childhood education. During the years a child’s brain is still forming connections and synapses, building a network of supportive behaviour can define the chance of said child’s future success.

How Early Learning Centres Can Encourage Parental Involvement 

Parental awareness and engagement in early childhood development and learning can strengthen the experiences from the Anganwadi centres, pre-primary schools, and primary schools. This responsiveness plays a critical role in ensuring optimal and holistic development of young learners. ECCE centres need to do their part to ensure early involvement from parents. This can occur as:

• Introduction to the anganwadi centre/pre-primary/primary school: To leverage parental support and to gain tangible outcomes, early learning centres can showcase their internal infrastructure and personnel, to pinpoint the people and places responsible for turning their little ones into responsible citizens. This increases the level of engagement, and the solidarity from parents. 
• Develop an understanding of the curriculum: The comprehension that the early years’ education can build the foundations of lifelong learning in children needs to be cemented in the parents’ minds. A parent who understands the need for early learning, and knows what their child is working on in school, has a better sense of their child’s competency and areas of improvement.
• Acquainting parents with teaching methodologies: “If parents themselves don’t understand the (early learning) program and program components, it is very difficult for them to provide their support” was just one of the sentiments expressed in our second educative #EarlyLearningMatters session, as we spoke about the importance of parental resources. 

*Watch the episode here, and join us on 13th and 14th February for another educational session on the ‘Role of Public Private Partnerships in Innovation and Implementation of NEP 2020’.

Harnessing this particular hidden resource involves explaining the teaching methodology undertaken and the philosophy behind the methods followed. This step is aimed at increasing parental knowledge about new age methods of teaching, developmental milestones, appropriate learning outcomes, and more.

For example: Square Panda India’s teaching-learning programs involve an introduction to play-based and activity-based learning, the adoption of which we believe impacts early learning outcomes to a great extent. 

• Building a connection between school and home: Extending the classroom experience to the home, by expanding the curriculum to involve home-based play-and-learn activities, can establish a connection between classroom learning and real-life experience. Additionally, this connection supports further learning, acquisition of key skills, and promotion of school-readiness, resulting in a lower drop-out rate.
• Encourage active parental participation: Schools can request parents to be more involved in their children’s progress, through volunteering programs, regular parent-teacher meetings, hosting special events for parents, inviting them to share their expertise and talents, and more. Schools can also make useful resources available to the parents, to increase their intervention and help them feel more engaged in their child’s education.

Square Panda India has always taken steps to ensure parental awareness as we teach, knowing that parental involvement is a key ingredient in raising the quality of ECCE provision. Building a program like Aarambh is not effective without strong support from parents and families. We recognise the role parents play in ECCE and work towards enlightening educators with the same level of understanding. Our educator empowerment programs include explaining the importance of parents in the ECCE ecosystem and in collaborative learning.

Children learn better if their parents are actively involved in their education. Parents serve as a critical partner to educators in the ECCE landscape. When early learning facilitators are able to work together with the parents, we will be able to build a successful network of learning, allowing our students to develop holistically.

Learn more about how Square Panda India’s educator empowerment programs change the way we approach the parental involvement aspect of early learning, at ecce.squarepanda.in

Children are not born knowing how to read; in fact, it is a learned skill. Yet, it is one of the foundations on which other academic learning is based. The benefits of reading at each stage in a child’s life are well documented. So, how do you help your children along the path to reading readiness? We have some innovative and easy activity suggestions to enhance foundational English literacy and reading readiness in your children:

FOR CHILDREN JUST BEGINNING TO LEARN THEIR LETTERS

‘The Bird Nest’ – Identify The Short Vowel Sound:

*Short vowel sounds are vowels (in words) that have a short sound, usually different from the way the actual vowel is pronounced. For example, words like ‘ten’, ‘cat’, ‘yet’, all have vowels with short sounds, that don’t sound like the vowel itself.

In multiple small corners of your home, create ‘bird nests’, using lots of blankets, pillows, and even colourful scarves. Assign a letter to each ‘nest’ (for children who have already learnt their letters, you can even write the letter on a paper and place it near the designated ‘nest’). Call out a letter sound. Your child has to correctly identify the letter, and step into the corresponding ‘nest’.

NOTE: You can even simply designate small corners of your home as ‘nests’, without the physical materials, if needed.

FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE LEARNING THEIR LETTERS, AND THOSE WHO CAN READ SMALL WORDS TOO

Pumpkin Bowl – Play And Learn Word Families:

Use orange coloured paper or paint on two large bowls, so they resemble pumpkins. No orange colour OR paper? No problem! Simply use sticky notes to represent the colour you want.

For Beginner Readers: Cut out pictorial representations of common CVC words like ‘MAT’, ‘CAT’, ‘MAN’, ‘PAN’, and ask your child to sort the common sounding words into the same bowl. So, the images of ‘CAT’ and ‘MAT’ go into one bowl, and ‘MAN’ and ‘PAN’ go into the other. Once they have mastered this, you can further boost their phonological awareness by asking them to sort images based on the initial sounds of words, like ‘TAP’ and ‘SAP’.

For Slightly Advanced Readers: Write a different word family (like -AT, -OG) on the side of each bowl. Write various words belonging to these word families (like HAT-FAT, or DOG-FOG) on paper (in keeping with the pumpkin theme, these can also be orange coloured). Have your kids read out the words, figure out which word family the words belong to, and put the paper in the correct bowl.

FOR CHILDREN WHO CAN READ SMALL WORDS

Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) Word Box:

Turn any old box, like a delivery box, into a word box. Add in tactile (something you can touch and hold) letter shapes, like the Smart Letters from our Square Panda early learning system (or you can create your own letters too, using craft material). Add a few commonly used letters like ‘A’, ‘M’, ‘N’, and ‘P’ into the box. Keeping these letters in mind, say a CVC word out loud (like ‘NAP’), and ask your child to spell it using the letters from inside the word box. At a higher level, they can even be asked to create their own CVC words, or rhyming words, using any letters from the word box.

Loved these early reading activities? Tell us how much in the comments below.
Spread the learning; share this article with other friends and parents who would love to try out these activities.

Multiple articles and research show just how important acquisition of reading skills is, particularly for very young learners. Development of these skills turns emerging readers into independent and fluent readers for life, adding to their global competency, future job prospects, and overall quality of life. Every parent/teacher chooses to introduce the reading habit to the child/student in their life. What happens, though, if an otherwise enthusiastic child suddenly shows a definite reluctance to read? How do you entice young children to make an effort to pick up a book?

Take help from the below tried-and-tested steps, to help you inculcate a reading habit in your little learners:

#1: Create The Perfect Reading Spot.

Finding the perfect book for emerging readers will take experimentation and time, but as adults, you can ensure they are prepared for this experience by setting aside a dedicated reading space to call their own, inside homes and classrooms. Add comfortable pillows, blankets, and bright lighting. Fit in a desk full of books at a height they can easily reach, and voilà, you have a junior reader’s paradise!

#2: Teach By Example.

Your kids look to the closest adults to teach them things, which, more often than not, is you. So pick up a book, and show your kids how much fun reading can be. When they see you reading, it will automatically encourage them to try it themselves.

#3: Take Reading To The Next Level.

Forcing your kids to read can make them view the reading habit, which is already hard enough to acquire, as a major chore. Use various tricks and activities to show them that the reading habit is more than just reading, it is exploring new worlds, meeting new characters, and learning new things.
Introduce a new story using life-like images and sound effects (you can get these on the internet; just check the terms of usage).
Encourage more interaction by reading through live-action ‘stage shows’ with your kids acting out their favourite part of a book.
Change up their reading routine slightly; make them read the story aloud to you. Their pronunciation gets a huge boost, along with their confidence level.
Host storytelling competitions amongst the children; the winner gets an extra half hour of playtime with Square Panda, or gets a snack of their choice.

#4: Get A Daily Dose Of Reading In With Square Panda.

Even the most resistant learners will never say no to Square Panda play-learn time! With educational games and an early reading app that is perfect for kids as young as 2 till the age of 8, combined with adaptive technology that personalises according to an individual child’s learning level, you could not ask for more! Additionally, our educational screen time is backed by a curriculum that is completely research-based.

#5: Ease Up On The Pressure.

Children shouldn’t like reading just because the adults in their life do, nor do they have to read the same books you favour. In fact, the more choice they feel they have in choosing how, when, and which books to read, the more likely they are to turn into fluent and confident readers for life.  Let them discover their own likes and dislikes. Children will be more inclined to become lifelong readers if they are not forced into it. Give them as many different reading options as you can, like, different genres of books, special reading apps, kid-friendly podcasts, and more.

#Bonus Point: Discuss What You’ve Read.

Take a minute to chat about what you just read, whether it was the label on a toy box, or a magazine cover, or even a picture book. Have an open conversation with much structure, so it doesn’t resemble a lesson in any way. Open-ended questions like ‘Why do you think Pan sat on the mat?’ can encourage children to reason with you, asking them to recall a certain page can help their memory. This task has the added benefit of helping develop vocabulary skills, further leading down the path to reading success.

Remember that each child learns to read differently. Let them set their own pace. Provide all the support you can so your child/student feels less self-conscious about coming to you for help.

Want more educational tips and articles just like this? Watch this space for more…
Until then, grab a SquareBox (our very own multisensory educational kit for kindergarten), which not only has the Square Panda phonics early literacy playset, it also boasts loads of additional fun learning materials to make schooling at home a breeze during the lockdown.



Written by Sanjana Shukla (Content Writer, Square Panda India)

*for ages 3-6

Learning to read is undoubtedly a very important life skill, one that determines all future success. But how do you get your child ready to read? Read on for some activity suggestions, to help children develop reading readiness skills, to help them turn into independent and confident readers:

SKILLSET #1: DEVELOPING VISUAL IDENTIFICATION & VISUAL DISCRIMINATION SKILLS

Why These Skills Are Important

To be able to read, a child has to be able to identify and differentiate between letters first. Also, syllables, word groups, word families, etc. have their base in identification. These following activities help children develop and sharpen their identification and differentiation skills, getting them ready for reading.

#Activity: Sort The Card

You Will Need: Any solid coloured paper (2-3 different colours) that can be turned into a card, a pair of scissors
How To Play: Cut up the paper to create square-shaped ‘cards’ of two different colours. Ask your child to identify the colours. Keep adding more cards of the same two colours, and task your child with sorting them into same colour piles.
Level Up: You can move from 2 colours to 3, then 4, and so on. You can even teach shapes from this activity, by cutting the cards into circles, triangles, etc.

#Activity: The Card Pattern

You Will Need: The cards created for the earlier activity
How To Play: Show your children the colour cards in a pattern like “Red, Red, Blue”. Repeat this pattern. Now, ask your child to make the same pattern, by themselves. You can even try this activity with multiple different patterns, and with more colours, depending on your child’s learning level.
Level Up: Switch it up by utilising solid objects like balls or books, then teaching them to match pictures, and finally, match letters.

SKILLSET #2: DEVELOPING VISUAL MEMORY

Why These Skills Are Important

A critical factor that determines a child’s strength in reading, spelling, and writing, visual memory also helps boost awareness, mindfulness, and alertness in daily life.

#Activity: Can You Spot The Change?

You Will Need: Any ordinary household item your child sees everyday.
How To Play: Shift a routine item (maybe a pillow from the sofa or bed) away from its usual spot, making sure your child does not see you do this. Then, ask your child to move around the room, and identify what has changed.
Level Up: Gradually, as they get well-versed with picking up visual cues, increase the number of items being moved to 2, then 3, and so on.

#Activity: Which Picture Comes First

You Will Need: Picture cards, or flashcards

How To Play: Show your children 4 pictures in a row, then ask them to recollect the order they were shown in. This activity can also be turned into a number learning exercise, with questions like ‘What was card number 1, do you remember?’ and so on.
Level Up: You can start with pictures, and then move to letters (which don’t necessarily have to be introduced in order of A, B, C, D, and so on).

SKILLSET #3: DEVELOPING AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION & AUDITORY MEMORY

Why These Skills Are Important

‘Auditory Memory’ helps children recall what they hear, while ‘Auditory Discrimination’ helps them identify sounds and words correctly, both of which are a prerequisite to learning to read.

#Activity: Trace The Line

You Will Need: White paper, coloured paper, glue
How To Play: Stick the coloured paper onto the white, at the bottom, in a straight line. Ask your child to trace this with their finger. Switch the coloured paper from the bottom to the top of the white sheet, and ask your child to trace it again. You can then move the coloured strips all over the white paper, including to the left and the right.
Level Up: They can slowly move to tracing zigzag lines, or lines of more than one colour each. Slowly, you can ask them to trace over letters too.

#Activity: Storytime

You Will Need: Storybooks for your early learner
How To Play: Depending on which hand your child prefers to use, sit on their right or left. Slowly, open and close the book multiple times, then while reading aloud to them, trace the sentences from left to right. Ask them to turn the page. Repeat with every book you read to them.
NEVER sit opposite them, as they cannot see how the pages are turned, etc. in this position.
Level Up: Over time, you can not only ask them questions about the story (like, ‘Where did Pan sit?’) to help them recollect, but also ask them to put the story in order, or recreate their own story, using the characters in the book.

Early readers can practice reading with the SquareTales Reading App, along with practicing multiple pre-reading activities to help develop foundational reading skills.

Loved these ideas? Get more fun tips and expert advice in our (absolutely FREE) special ‘parent and child’ SquareTales Sunday webinar series. Register here: https://squarepanda.app.link/e/webinar2106

Join our exclusive, content-only, Square Panda club, to view this series live: https://squarepanda.app.link/etribe

Credits: Written by Sanjana Shukla (Content Writer)

Start homeschooling your kindergartner with the SquareBox, and with no learning loss. Keep reading to learn more.

Which means, these early years are incredibly important for your children. So, if a child is not learning in this period, there is a potential for great learning loss, the repercussions of which will be felt for years and years to come. That’s also the reason why the school closures due to the pandemic are keeping your children safe at home, but might just end up negatively affecting their education and overall development.

For a company whose entire raison d’etre is early literacy, this was unacceptable. And that’s why, we’ve come up with a whole new learning tool-the SquareBox!

WHAT IS THE SQUAREBOX?
A homeschooling kit for kindergartners, the SquareBox is an actual box (square-shaped, of course) that we’ll be sending your way, each month. Combining digital and physical learning, the SquareBox helps your child receive the best educational experience possible.

WHY SHOULD I SUBSCRIBE TO THIS?
Uniquely developed to enhance a kindergartner’s essential skills, the SquareBox boasts the following features:

• Square Panda’s Educational Tools: Our very own multisensory early literacy tools are included in this kit, to be introduced in a phased manner so learners are not overwhelmed.
  We’ll be giving you:
  • The Square Panda multisensory phonics learning system (see how our games work, here)
  • The SquareTales Reading App (learn more about it, here)
  • More educational tools, as they release in India.

• Guides:
  You have the SquareBox. Now what?
  To help and guide you through the entire set-up process, to tell you where to start, and how, we created a ‘Quick Start Guide’, and a ‘Parent Guide’ (also available on our website to download). These two guides will help you learn more about how the SquareBox works, to help you become a great teacher to your little one(s).

• Planners:
  For all those parents wishing they had a detailed blueprint to teach their children for every day of the week, throughout their school year, we have something for you too! We created planners for the year, each month, and every week, so you never have to worry about what to teach them.
  These planners are structured as per a carefully designed curriculum, introducing thematic units to keep your children engaged and learning. As the complexity increases, so do the challenges, as does the skill level.
  The yearly planner comes to you in Month 1, and the monthly and weekly planners are sent every month.

• Additional Learning Material:
  With every month’s box comes learning material to support your kindergartener’s education, including flashcards, conversation booklets (to aid them as they start to speak), 5 sets of SquareTales physical printed books (to be used from Month 2), and even sticker sheets (to be used as rewards for your little learners).

• Develop Essential Foundational Skills:
  The SquareBox has been developed to get children ready to enter school, teaching them skills like:

WHAT DO THE WEEKS LOOK LIKE?
Typically, a week will be 5 days of digital + physical fun learning, followed by 2 days of fun play. Instructionally appropriate, these activities are a mix of educational and social; we’re teaching them about using their fingers to make shapes, and we’re teaching them to value housework, too, with fun cleaning exercises.

WHAT IT GIVES MY KIDS?
The SquareBox ensures your children are still learning even while they are away from school, without realising they are learning.
Our bite-sized lessons (only 45 minutes per day) are perfect for their little attention spans.
Don’t have 45 straight minutes to spare? Don’t worry, our program is flexible too!
You can schedule their learning AROUND your own schedule, for the best experience for both you and your kindergartner.

IDEAL AGE GROUP
The SquareBox was developed for children in kindergarten only. For queries about other age groups, please contact us at 022-49394444 or email support@squarepanda.in.

WHAT IS THE PROCESS AFTER I GET THE SQUAREBOX?

WHERE CAN I GET IT?
For details about the subscription plan and how to get a SquareBox for your kindergartner, visit our website.

The pesky virus that is waging war on the planet might be responsible for shutting down schools, but don’t give it the power to derail your child’s education too! Subscribe to the SquareBox today! Learn more at www.thesquarebox.in.

Credits: Written by Sanjana Shukla (Content Writer)

*While this article is aimed for parents of children in junior kg, the main points apply to parents with older children too.

Scene: You are on your sofa. Your child is scribbling away on the wall, while their study books lie abandoned under the sofa. The television they insisted be turned on, blares loudly in the background. You make one more attempt to get your young child to sit and study with you. Suddenly you realise, it’s time for a Skype call with your boss, and your hair isn’t even brushed yet!

Sound familiar?

This scene repeats in hundreds of homes across India, and even the world, as you read this article. Parents and families everywhere are scrambling to balance all the tasks that have suddenly landed in their laps.

Square Panda is here to help. Use the below suggestions to balance your schooling at home, with working from home.

– Share The Work: You don’t have to do each and every task by yourself. Ask your partner and family to share in the responsibility of managing your house and your child’s lessons. For convenience and a lighter workload, you can even plan your work in shifts.
An example: If you are doing the cooking, let your partner and child clean the table and dishes. That way, your child develops their motor skills, and also understands dignity of labour.

– Plan In Advance: You do need to know what to teach your child a few days or weeks prior, to avoid confusion on the day in question. Laying out everything clearly ensures that there is repetition of certain essential tasks, but allows you to space them out far enough that your child is not bored.
An example: Select a theme for the week, like plants or vehicles, and set all your activities during that period to this theme. If you want to teach them numbers, do it using plants/vehicles. Use plant/vehicle examples to teach them about different colours.

– Introduce Self-Learning Activities: Allow your children to learn independently allow you to attend that Skype work call in peace, satisfied that your child is engaged in a fun learning task.
An example: Task them with creating their own storybook (see how). This little craft activity gets their hands moving, their creative skills are completely engaged in making up a new story, and they are then more enthusiastic to read this book they have authored.

– Plan AROUND Your Own Schedule: Create (or find) a program that allows you flexibility to work with your schedule.
Examples: You can plant engaging scientific facts into your bedtime stories, your cooking time can be their play time-just hand them some dough and let them unleash their creativity. Everything you do can be a source of learning (for more ideas, watch this webinar on Montessori learning by our incredible guest speaker, Ms. Jayamala Jadhav).

Want more on schooling your kids at home? Watch this space for more…Until then, check out our amazing early literacy products here and here.

Credits: Written by Sanjana Shukla