Lawn & Garden

4 Ways To Turn Kids’ Love of Machinery Into a Chance To Learn

Little kids love big machinery. There’s something about the noisy motors and busy gears that attract kids to construction vehicles of all types. The best part about this near-universal interest is that there are many ways to use it to educate children without them even realizing it. Before scrambling to schedule an outing to a heavy machinery storage facility, consider these four ways you can turn the love of machinery into a chance to learn.

Watch How They’re Used

Children can sit transfixed for the longest time just watching bulldozers move earth and dump trucks empty their beds. Whenever you see one of these machines in motion, take a moment to stop and watch with your child. Explain the sequence of events as they unfold like raise, open, dump, and see if your child can predict what will happen next or what the materials might be used for at the site. If it’s not exactly construction weather, you can access videos online with all sorts of vehicles completing various tasks.

Encourage Reading

Because lots of little kids love trucks, the children’s section at the bookstore or local public library is brimming with award-winning titles like “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site” by Sherri Duskey Rinker. Fostering a love of reading begins with finding stories that relate to the child’s interests. Take the opportunity to read together and keep any truck-loving child completely enthralled in a story.

Expand Vocabulary

Diving deeper into any topic of interest is a great way to expand a child’s vocabulary. There’s a specific vehicle for just about every job, so have fun learning the difference between a digger and a bulldozer and even discuss how names tell you about the vehicle’s function. You may be surprised at how quickly your child picks up information that even many adults don’t know.

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Listen to Their Stories

Young children love to tell stories, but they love it even more when they get to tell it to an attentive adult. Tuning in for another installment of a child’s endless tales about exciting vehicles is a great way to practice conversation skills, turn-taking, and even help a shy child learn to be more outwardly expressive. It’s also a helpful way to get to know how your child thinks and views the world at a young age.

Children are fascinated by construction vehicles of all shapes and sizes. With a little bit of encouragement and creativity, that love can become an opportunity for learning and sharing.