School holidays may be over, but interactive learning outside the classroom doesn’t need to be. Keeping children engaged in active play or learning outside the school environment isn’t always a simple task. Parents now contend with many distractions and increasing time spent on devices.
For parents working from home, it has been even harder to navigate the balance between entertaining and educating their children, while also focussing on daily work tasks and meetings.
The HP Printables platform, a free web service offering thousands of worksheets, cards, colouring pages, puzzles and much more, has created cost-effective and simple solution for parents and teachers of kids aged between 3-12 years old, to tap into their creative minds.
We have collected fun and educational games that will distract children from devices and encourage them to spend quality time engaged in creative play that fosters cognitive development.
Read on to learn more about HP Printables platform and the types of cognitive development and games for children of every age.
3-6 years
If at the age of three, a child recreates and plays simple stories that he has already seen somewhere, then at the age of four he turns on directional thinking – understanding spatial awareness. To support this, parents must create conditions in which the child will have a certain autonomy and an opportunity to play for some time on their own. If the conditions are created, their initiative and independence develop.
Themed games:
- Find Masha – Mazes help your child to work on their executive functioning skills, such as planning and brainstorming various strategies
- Find 6 difference – Spot the Difference activities help in developing visual perception. Your child can develop and have fun at the same time
- Complete the picture – Match the halves to complete all the pictures helps in enhancing kids’ problem-solving skills
Colouring ready-made pages helps develop fine motor skills, and helps children learn how to combine colours and use artistic tools such as crayons, pencils, felt-tip pens, and paints. Parents can print out colouring pages of their child’s favourite characters to bring back their colours from memory or make up their own.
Colouring:
- Colour the home with Masha and friends – Helps your child identify colours and numbers. Colouring is an excellent way for children to express themselves, develop their motor skills and relax.
7-10 years
After the age of seven, children begin to play abstract games with complex direction, which can be played entirely using their imagination. Therefore, instead of buying a new toy, parents can offer their child the option to make their own out of paper – providing an excellent exercise for perseverance and fine motor skills, which will keep the child busy for hours.
Crafts
HP Printables has a vast array of craft activities available for parents to print out and help keep the boredom at bay, and those creative minds at play.
- Create your own boardgame – Improve your child’s coordination skills and their focus in a fun and easy way with the Crafts activity, where children get an opportunity to build something from scratch, which is both educational and fun.
- Eco home Scavenger Hunt – The scavenger hunt helps children get curious to solve a mystery.
- Learn to write letters – Whether your child is still learning to write in a straight line or can handle slightly complex tasks such as writing letters, this activity helps kids develop their fine motor skills, holding their pencil and ability to draw straight lines without assistance.
11+ years – young adults
At this age, children change their leading activity from playing to learning. They complicate the plots of their games and become interested in games with strict rules. Mathematical games, such as Sudoku, stretch the brain and trains in analytical thinking, while crossword puzzles help strengthen memory and improves vocabulary.
Whilst printable activities are a fun way to stimulate your child’s learning trajectory, printing is not always a cost-effective exercise.
With the Smart Tank 500 Series, you can bring your creativity to life.
This small machine is a lifesaver if you’re a parent who’s always on the go and looking for innovative ways to keep your kids entertained. You can rapidly level up your resources if you have access to a low-cost printer that can print up to 18,000 black pages OR 8,000 colour pages. With the HP Smart App, you can print from any device, making it extremely convenient.
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