Kids learn quickly when they are having fun, and they learn slowly when they are bored. Taking the time to make learning fun can bring big rewards. It can even kindle a lifelong love of learning that will make them more successful throughout all of their lives. Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways to do it, and most of them are fairly simple.
Field Trips
A change of location can be the easiest way to get kids to have fun with a lesson. The variety will be exciting on its own, and it gives them a chance to do things that they would normally never try. The novelty will also help them to remember things, so it can boost the effectiveness of the lesson.
Use Phones
Most kids carry a phone almost everywhere that they go. Those phones can be distracting, but they can also be valuable tools for older children. There are a huge number of study applications on the market, and there are even programs that can integrate the phone itself into the lesson. Doing so will turn a potential source of distractions into a fun tool, which will make the lesson a little bit more engaging.
Provide Choices
People rarely care about things that are forced on them, but adding even a small element of choice will encourage engagement. Something as simple as letting the kids choose the order of the day’s lessons will make them feel more involved with the process, which is required for turning it into a fun experience.
Be Interactive
Kids are wired to stay active and do things, so many of them struggle to simply listen to lectures for long periods of time. Good teachers make a special effort to get the kids involved in the lesson, and to keep them active in it for as long as possible.
At the most basic level, that can mean encouraging them to ask questions and even discuss things with each other. Games are also a great tool for creating engagement. Regardless of the precise method that you use, it will normally be best to make sure that the activity changes regularly. Very few children have the attention span to do a single thing for a long time without breaks, so this will help to keep them engaged and having a good time until they make it through all of the material for the day.
Teach in Small Chunks
Offering short breaks can also keep children from getting bored with the lesson. Simply go through the lesson until the kids start to act bored or distracted. Once that happens, stop as soon as you get to a natural break point in the lesson. Give them just a few minutes to stretch, talk, or otherwise break up the monotony. You can start teaching again once they have calmed down.
It can also help to break things up into a bunch of small lessons, rather than focusing on a few longer lectures. That will add more variety to their day, which will help to prevent them from getting bored.
Use Physical Activity
People who spend a lot of time with kids quickly realize that they have a lot of energy, and kids who don’t have a chance to burn that energy will struggle to focus. You can deal with that problem by incorporating some exercise into the lesson. Have the kids walk around as they answer questions, and be sure to use physical demonstrations to get points across. This method often helps to build comprehension with kids who struggle to learn things simply by listening, which makes it one of the most valuable techniques for teachers to use.
Use Their Interests
Kids are eager to learn about things that interest them. You can make the experience more fun by integrating their interests into the lesson, even if it is only in a superficial way. For example, turning basic math into a word problem that features something a kid likes will often work much better than dealing with abstract numbers. Be creative, and remember to keep things varied to keep them interesting!
