Learning Outside of School
From the desk of Carol C…
Learning opportunities outside of “the schoolhouse” arise all of the time. Some may seem obvious while others are more subtle. Once you begin to see these teachable moments, you can easily take advantage of them.
Be a Chef- Involving children in helping to make something good to eat is an easy and practical way to improve both their math and problem solving skills. A few weeks ago, Greg, one of my nephews, decided to make homemade ice cream. The second the kids heard the supplies coming out of the cabinets, they couldn’t wait to be a part of the action. This activity of making ice cream together provided an opportunity to measure, compare sizes of utensils, and make judgments about whether they had enough of the different ingredients. For older children doubling a recipe or cutting it in half gives them practical experience with fractions (which are difficult for most children and many adults). Working with fractions in real life can only enhance a child’s understanding of how they work. Kids don’t need to understand any math concept all at once. They just need to be exposed to the ideas and allowed to participate over and over.
Reading with Papa
Read to Your Children every day!! Don’t hesitate to start with infants. Pull that nine month old onto your lap and read a board book to her. Read the title, open the book, read the first sentence, and pat the bunny. In this way you are modeling how to read a book. You might be surprised how much your baby notices and begins to imitate over time. Have your older children read to the younger ones. Just sharing a book and talking about it enhances cognitive activity regardless of age. Grandparents love to get into the act. Have them read to their grandchildren and have the grandchildren read to them. We need to model everything from how to hold a book to how to interact with it. We need to think aloud while we read to kids. After all we do it in our own minds every time we read…aloud or not.
Explore-Visit science, history, and children’s museums. These places are loaded with fun learning opportunities. A bonus? Almost all of them are hands on. If museums become cost prohibitive, search the internet for fun activities to do with your children…be a paleontologist and search for dinosaur bones or experiment with food coloring in different substances. Walk through historic areas of your city. Volunteer with your children for a community activity such as Clean Sweep where residents help to clean trash out of streams around the city. This is a great way to teach everybody about personal and group responsibility. While you’re exploring in- or outside of your house, your children are bound to have questions about what they are seeing/doing. This is a prime time to ask, “What do you think?” instead of immediately answering their questions. This gives you a bird’s eye view into your child’s thinking.
What will we create today?
Craft and Create-When you provide opportunities for your children to use their imaginations and creativity, you are offering opportunities for their emotional and intellectual growth. Creative play is one of the highest forms of self-expression. It is a time children can learn to deal with their emotions, gain a better understanding of the world around them, and work on their ease of physical movement. My nephew, Eli, loves a costume whether it be premade or one he puts together. When he’s brandishing a sword as Jake the Pirate or loading his slingshot as David, he’s enhancing stories he has heard or making up his own. He is acting out bravery and fear. He’s using large and small muscle groups. He’s having fun! Encourage your children to dress up and make up plays. Suggest they use music in the production or listen to it while working. “Whistle while you work.” Let them create anything they want with scissors, glue, tape, paper, pencils, old gift wrap…you name it.
Showing your children how the world around us is a huge learning lab gives them a chance to learn in authentic ways that make sense to them. It provides millions of ways they can see learning as fun and relevant. Perhaps it will lead them to become lifelong learners!