Learning while Playing and Creating

Now that we're inside more, we have increased the time we concentrate on the early academic skills that the kids will need in kindergarten. They've been learning what their names look like: matching letters, tracing and writing their names.  They've been working on puzzles and playing games that help them identify colors, numbers and letters.  Fine motor skills are improving as they use tweezers, scissors, do various art projects and play in the sensory table.  We have a ton of fun playing with magnates, learning about positive and negative charges, exploring the room to see what would "stick" to the magnates, and even racing magnetic cars by "pushing" the cars with a magnate.  As always, we try to teach these skill in a fun way that the kids often don't even realize they are learning.