When you were a kid, did you find learning fun? There were probably a couple of subjects you enjoyed, and also some subjects you hated having to sit through – that’s the most common way to approach education. But can we, now that we’re parents ourselves, encourage our own children to find learning fun no matter what they’re doing? It’s all about what we put into learning when the kids are outside of school and doing their own thing. When the whole world is at their fingertips, there’s a lot of learning to be done, and most of the time they won’t even realize it! Incorporate this attitude into your daily life and you’ll soon find that your kids find school a fun place to be, no matter what the timetable for the day is.
Get Messy!
Getting messy is a great way to make learning seem like fun! Head outside, let the kids play while getting covered in dirt and grass stains, and let them pick up bugs and go on scavenger hunts. It’s all a part of being a child, even if you have a lot of laundry to do when they come back inside! When you show the kids that learning can be hands-on and practical, they’ll stop associating it with sitting at desks, using textbooks, and having to pay attention. Find a Game to PlayGames are great learning tools, and they’re also a good way to make screen time more worthwhile. Download a few apps to your child’s tablet and give them 20 minutes a day to have a go at them, dig out some board games to play once a week, or create your own games with pens and paper. The more you play games, the more learning is going to feel like a game, where you can pick up points through finding out new information and using it. Long gone are the days when we simply had to write down what the teacher put on the board!
Read Aloud in Funny Voices
Reading aloud makes reading fun, as it not only gives the kids an excuse to gather round and listen to you, but you can also do a lot of funny and silly voices for all the characters. Do this a few times, then get the kids to pitch in with their own voices, and see if they can tackle a passage or two. Doing so will build their confidence with reading, especially if they have to do the same in the classroom. You can also pick up book companions to help them understand the themes of the story – and what child doesn’t love having something to color in?! Grab your own The Bad Seed craft and book companion, go through the contents together, and have fun with characters and a setting that’s outside of the real world.
Cook and Bake Together
Cooking and baking are both life skills, and the more we raise our kids to do them, the better they’re going to be at feeding themselves as adults. That’s something we should definitely be proud of as parents! And seeing as kids tend to love licking the bowl when you’re done with the cake mix, or testing the ingredients before you put them into the pie casing, it won’t be hard to encourage them to get involved. Remind them that they’re learning as they do these things and it might just change their mind about the way learning is supposed to feel.
Take it Outside
How often do you and the kids get outside with the sole reason of wanting to learn something new? Probably not very often, right? Well why not give it a try this year? Pack a lunch for everyone to take with them, head somewhere you don’t usually go or have never been to, and have some fun learning what goes on and how the world works in that location. If this means going for a hike in the woods, or walking along a stream to watch fish in the water, so be it! You can spend a good few hours of the afternoon in these places, and you’re all going to come back with a little more insight into nature and what it means.
Take Toys Apart
Do you have some practical kids in your family? Then why not encourage them to take their toys apart to see how they work? Of course, you don’t want to do this with anything too expensive (or electrical), as this can be both wasteful and dangerous, but you can buy some simpler things for them to take apart and investigate. After all, kids are curious by their very nature, and the more they see what goes on inside, the more they’re going to understand about the modern world and all of its technology. It’s rare to pick up that same kind of insight in a traditional schooling environment.
Get the Kids to Lead
If you’ve run out of ideas for the day, why not just let your kids take the lead and show you what it is they really want to learn about? The more you do this, the more you’ll see inside their heads and find out how their brains work. This is also a very good way to come up with Christmas present ideas, as some kids can be hard to buy for with how often they change their minds! Get them talking and put them in charge – doing so might just be the most fun thing of all!So, can learning be fun? Absolutely – even for the kids! School doesn’t have to be a stuffy and boring place, and the less the kids associate it with these moods, the more likely they are to pick up and retain information. Show them how fun it can be using these methods at home, and even if they have wildly different learning styles and rates, they’re going to start thinking quite differently about the classroom.
