A DIY to help children make sense of our world!
Many skillsets of the past may have become outdated with modern digital life, but some will always be relevant. Like the skill of navigation, for instance. Despite having apps today that can instantly guide you from one location to another, having an inherent understanding of navigation is always helpful. Understanding maps is an important tool that helps kids develop spatial skills. Dr Nora Newcombe Professor of Psychology at Temple University describes spatial thinking as “seeing in the mind’s eye”. Spatial thinking lets a child understand phenomenon related to places around them. According to research published by the American Psychology Association (APA), training in spatial skills is correlated to success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Today’s DIY is all about developing your children’s spatial skills but in a really fun and easy way:
Materials required:
- Pen/Pencil
- Paper
- Color pens/sketch pens (not compulsory)
Methodology:
Ask your kid to draw an outline of your house/apartment, as in a view from the top.You can help your child by making up symbols of your own like two small parallel lines to depict a door, a square box to depict a window and so on. You can also do so by colour coding the symbols. So, for example a green coloured rectangle will depict a door, whereas a blue coloured rectangle can be a window.
credits: polioeradication
This DIY is really simple and you can add your own little variations to it. The real deal behind the activity is to introduce your child to the basics of visual-spatial understanding of their own surroundings. You can add twists to this activity by asking them to map out their dream house or draw a map navigating between their school and home, or even a map of their heart or brain! The basic idea underneath still remains the same. Not only will this boost their visual-spatial skills but also foster their little imaginations, a win-win situation in both ways!
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