Whether you are homeschooling or your child goes to public/private school, trying to get your child to LOVE learning is a feat worth fighting, but challenging and daunting nonetheless. We all struggle to make learning exciting for our kids. We don’t want learning to be a chore, and we cringe when we hear our little ones say “School is boring”…“I don’t like reading”…“Learning stinks!” Here are some simple ways to get your child to explore and experiment with thinking and gaining knowledge with activities that are FUN! (gasp! Can it be so?
Real World Math
Let’s put DOWN the worksheets and step away from the teacher’s manual. Math does not have to take place on a piece of scratch paper. It can take place in the grocery store, at the kitchen table during baking or dinner prep, and even at the baseball field or basketball court! Picture this… you have your grocery list in hand, and your little boy or girl has theirs. When you are picking out fresh produce, have your tag-along use the scale and calculate the cost by weigh of each item you select. When you are picking up milk or bread, have your child examine the expiration date and figure out how many days you would have until it expires to determine if the item’s duration will meet your families need. During check out, put your debit card away! Give out your coupons and dollar bills and have your child make exact amounts or ask for specific change (having done the math themselves).
Instead of asking your son or daughter to set the dinner table, ask them to roll up their sleeves and help you prepare the meal. Dust off that step stool and have them scoot up right next to you. Ask them to measure ¾ cups of this or 1 teaspoon of that. Have them set the timer for the oven, use an analog clock to determine what time to take the food item off of the stove, and figure out if it should simmer or boil for 15 minutes past the current time.
You are at the ball field and your favorite team is down. Ask your child to figure out by how many points is the other team in the lead. Look out at the field and discuss the different geometric shapes visible. If watching a basketball game, let’s count by two’s and perfect your child’s understanding of multiples of three by keeping score! Sports are so math-involved! You’ll have your child not just watching the game but computing it!
Sure all of these activities require more patience and take more time… but getting your child to see that math isn’t just a task done in school is what it is all about! Math is all around us!
Take Learning Outside
I hear it all the time… “Kids spend too much time in front of the screen and not enough time outdoors.” I cannot tell you how many hours I spent as a child climbing trees and tumbling down hills. I earned every grass stain on my jeans and every scrape on my knees and elbows. I couldn’t wait to leave the 4 walls of the classroom and breathe fresh air and run free. Even if our kids don’t have the same inclinations we did with nature, it is inside of them somewhere… the desire to play OUTDOORS. So, what if we could take our desire to see our children explore nature more and merge it with learning? Sure you have your basic nature walk. This can be used for simple science observations, habitats and such, and it can be used to spark a writing topic or poem. BUT we can also bring out a blanket, pack a picnic, and enjoy a “Cloud Watching Parade”. Teach your children the different types of clouds and point out the different shapes they can see. Talk about the science behind a cloud while enjoying your picnic. You can even go home and create your own clouds in a jar.
Go camping in your own backyard and have a bonfire. This can start the talk about fossil fuels and energy. Use the fire to make your own s’mores and star gaze! You can make solar s’mores when the sun comes up and compare the differences.
Visit a local stream or lake and talk about different habitats and ecosystems. Even just a simple stroll around your backyard and you can find an anthill that can be used to explain anything from infrastructure to a story’s moral through the tale of “The Ant and the Grasshopper”. Learning is all around us, especially outdoors!
Don’t Make Reading a Punishment!
Can I just got on my soap box real quick and grab the megaphone? Parents and teachers… please, PLEASE don’t send your child to their room kicking and screaming to read a book. After they ran through your living room and knocked over your vase, or came home from school with a disappointing note from their school teacher… I know it is tempting. “Go to your room! And don’t turn on the television or play with your toys!” That doesn’t sound intense enough!
“Go to your room and all you are allowed to do this week is READ!!”
“Noooooooo,” your child cries!
Immediately, they associate reading with punishment. If reading was a good thing, you surely wouldn’t send me to do it when I am in trouble, they think. This reading thing is AWFUL! I hate being forced to do it. What a relationship we are creating for our children with books.. beloved books!
They are children, and yes they will inevitably do something wrong and need a consequence for that wrongdoing. But let the consequence match the mistake. Breaking things and misbehaving should not warrant sitting in a quiet room and reading a book. We want reading to be an exciting thing… something that they do willingly when it is interesting to them, on their own terms, and there are no strings attached. It is a leisure activity that cannot be forced upon them and can most definitely not be passed out as punishment in one breath and enjoyment in the next. Take away their screen time or tech time… make them pick up extra chores or lose another privilege. But don’t punish them with the one thing we want them to grow to love.
Edible Learning
Now let’s talk about something we all enjoy.. EATING! Everyone loves to eat and there are some really awesome lessons to be learned that involve a snack.
Have you ever made rock candy before? Talk about sweet science! Or dissected an apple? How about using gummy worms for measurement or pretzel sticks to create geometric shapes? There are some pretty exciting 3-D models one could make from toothpicks and gumdrops and a WORLD of mathematical topics one could accomplish using skittles or m&ms (multiplication, arrays, addition/subtraction, graphing, data and probability). Not to mention the fractions you could teach using a delicious Hershey’s chocolate bar.
Even reading can involve snacking! Reading and following a recipe isn’t just measurement, but can also teach the importance of sequence and direction following. Give a bowl of unusual tasty treats and have your child write a poem or describe the taste experience with colorful and descriptive adjectives. Explore different cultures by eating things from different countries, and have your child research where the different food items are from and how it is similar/different than their own culture and native country. Where the kitchen meets the classroom.. that is where the magic happens! Start mixing snacks with teaching skills and watch your child come alive. They’ll be begging for more math and science and reading lessons just like these!
If you give your child a math task to complete, sure they may do it without complaint. BUT if you give them a task that involves eating something, they will do that task with big smiles!
So…
If you’re seeing a glazed over expression when you are trying to explain something mathematical to your child…
If your child would rather eat their veggies then have to sit down and read a book for 15 minutes…
If your child comes home from school (or finishes the learning activities you have planned for the day as a homeschool family) and they are mentally exhausted and emotionally spent…
Try some of these ideas and see if they take you one step closer to making your child a life long learner. They may even bring you closer together as a family unit.
Be on the lookout next week for part two of this blog post! Jessica will be bringing you some more ideas about how to make learning fun at home 🙂
