Role-Playing and My Preschooler

For several weeks now I have been wracking my brain to find more creative ways of encouraging my kid to do homework. I feared that she is starting to feel some school fatigue this early into the school year and that thought just doesn't sit well with me. She is struggling I can see and I am running out of tricks real soon.

Although I am very well aware of the fact that my kid is really STILL a kid, I do not want to give up on her yet. After all, she did ask for this and I can tell that school still excites her most of the time. Apart of course from homework duties which (from my interpretation) she abhors because it takes away a chunk of her already limited play time hours (I have to say this wasn't because we do not allow her to play but mainly because she spends majority of her afternoon napping). So what I did was change the schedule of homework duties. Instead of the afternoons, we now do them in the mornings right before breakfast. So now she has the remaining of her afternoons dedicated to play time alone. And the schedule has definitely improved her perception towards home work and has also made me more involved since I can now make myself physically available for when she needed my help (we used to go over the homework thru the phone since I don't get home till around 8pm). So I'm happy with how that change turned out to be for the benefit of everyone. 

The change worked. But what was even better was the kid herself found a way to make homework duties more interesting. Last Friday (in great anticipation for the coming weekend I reckon), she started role-playing as a teacher with her stuffed toys as her student. When I got home, Ate Inday proudly reported that she was able to practice writing her name and other writing exercises on the board. She even taught her students the numbers 1-6. 

This weekend, she did 2 more sessions with her students. And by Sunday morning, they were done with lessons on number 0-10. She mimics her teacher well and by that I can tell how much she likes her teacher. Every time her students would come up front and do boardwork, she would say: OKAY CLASS, LET'S GIVE (ex. Georgie) 5 CLAPS! We'd all join in the cheer. She would squeal and giggle in delight in between claps. Fun, fun, fun play indeed! 

okay class, who wants to try writing the #10 on the board?

We're partly hoping that thru the help of this role-play she would also eventually become more active in participating in class recitations and individual board activities (that's one of the weaknesses that her class adviser pointed out in her first quarter ARC). 

Play indeed does wonders to everyone. And it has no boundaries. It has afforded us with a fun solution to our school issues and despite the reality that this could just be a temporary solution, I am already very grateful for that. This has also somehow validated for me the great significance of PLAY towards raising healthy, passionate, imaginative and creative kids.