The Joys of Slides

Thankfully children love slides. A slide can provide hours of running up and down flights of stairs inevitably wearing your children down so they will hopefully take a good nap or, God willing, sleep in the next morning. But the slide can be a wonderful teaching tool! What can you learn from a slide you ask, well let's think like adults for a minute. You know when a little girl with long hair flies down a slide enough times, they wind up looking like a child who stuck her finger in a light socket.  What's that called? Static electricity! Does your preschooler know those two big words, probably not, but they will learn those words when you take 3 seconds to say it.  3 seconds, and you just made your child smarter!  Imagine what you could do with 3 minutes! Let's learn about more things children can learn from slides!

Simple Machines aka Ramps and wheels:  do you have a toy car at your house?  If you have a boy, I bet you have a million and ten cars! Big, little, chewed on, broken?  Ask your child to grab two cars before you leave for the park (believe me, they won't object).  Make sure they are 2 different sizes.  Explain to you child how ramps make things go faster.  Ask them which car they think will go faster down the ramp.  Take the cars to the top of the slide and let them go at the same time.  Leave your child at the bottom of the slide to be the scientist.  Have your child grab a stick.  Ask them, "what do you think will go faster down the slide, the car or the stick?"  Do the experiment and let them answer why they think the car went faster, then explain a wheel.    
Sound travel: play telephone with the slide!  They are sure to enjoy that!
Friction: did you ever notice that certain types of pants make you soar down the slide?
Counting: help your child understand one-to-one correspondence by counting each step as she steps.
Alphabet: very creative parents will take advantage of handwritten love notes (usually written by 6th graders on a mission to spell a dirty word) on playground equipment!  Hey, your child can't read yet, but they might be able to recognize a few letters.  Let them "read" what it says to you, this inspires their creativity!