Parents want to provide learning opportunities at home to further the Common Core activities their children partake in at school. However, when children hear they are going to do schoolwork outside of the classroom, they tend to groan and roll their eyes. To encourage education in your home, try these ideas to make learning fun:
Think outside the paper
Traditional learning involves a lot of paper. From worksheets full of math problems to essays and reading books, your children are likely bored with learning off the page. Why not liven up their at-home education? Instead of having your kids read a biography about Alexander Hamilton, let them do research on the famous Founding Father and then act out what they've learned. When you provide your kids with a chance to be creative while learning, you are helping them dig deeper into topics and better remember what they've learned. Hands-on activities are usually much more memorable than just flipping through the pages of a book.
Provide options
When at school, your children likely don't have much of a say in their education. This means they end up reading books they'd rather not spend time on. At home you can encourage your children to follow their interests and make their own choices when it comes to learning. They can opt to spend time looking up information they actually want to know (like why do basketballs spin around the rim sometimes?) and dig into topics they are curious about. Plus, most people greatly enjoy making their own choices – especially kids – and your children will be more involved in at-home learning when they've had a say in what they study.
Gamify learning
"Gamify" is one of the major buzzwords in education at the moment. This verb means to make something into a game. You can turn even the simplest at-home task like cooking or raking leaves into a gamified learning activity. For example, if you plan to clean up the yard this weekend, have your kids keep a log of all the plants and animals they see. As they pick up sticks or rake, they'll spot squirrels, acorns, flowers and birds that they can then identify with a field guide or the Internet. With this method, you'll make doing chores fun and add a learning element to these necessary tasks. You can also make flashcards or matching cards to turn math, science, social studies and even vocabulary into fun games. Your children will appreciate getting away from their usual books of equations or scientific reading to play while they learn.
No comments yet.