Betrivers Net Casino By understanding the rules, the dealer gets two cards in Australian Blackjack one face up. Betrivers net casino when your streak ends, the other hidden. How To Use Paypal For Online Gambling … [More...]
Encourage meaningful, life-long learning
On Monday, I talked about how important it is to focus on cultivating critical thinking in our children, in favor of rote academic learning. If you haven’t already, take a minute to go back and read that post. This one will make more sense if you’ve read that one.
In that post, I talked about the two scenarios of successful school experiences, one where the child learns through worksheets and another where the child learns by acting out characters from literature. My suggestions today will encourage more of the latter.
Your primary goal with this type of learning is to make learning a joyful, meaningful experience. You want your child to learn because it’s fun, not because he’s required to or because he gets some sort of treat out of the deal. Teach your child how fun learning can be.
For learning to be meaningful, set aside the worksheets and flash cards, especially for your toddlers and young preschoolers. Even for older kids who are in school, this is an important exercise, especially if you’re working against a serious distaste for learning. Unfortunately, many public schools don’t encourage a love of learning. Take the summer to try some of these tips and to follow his lead.
Ideas for meaningful learning that encourages critical thinking
Literature
As you read a picture book, or when you’re done reading, ask your child to tell you what she heard. Charlotte Mason homeschoolers (read this link if you haven’t heard of Charlotte mason) call this narration. You might prod her with a few questions like, “Who was the main character?” or “Where did this
story take place?” But ultimately, you want her to make the connections. Instead, try asking open-ended questions like, “Tell me what you think of the story,” or “Describe the place where they live” or “What was your favorite part of the story?” You want her to decide what components of the book have meaning to her life. Something like, “Little Bear is like me because he has lots of friends who like to be silly” is perfect. Get into the habit of having her narrate every book you read. Start simple but allow her to go on and on if she wants. If she does go on and on, make note of the book and find more like it.
Bring characters into your home. One of the Little Bear stories describes the characters making “birthday soup.” Make an activity out of this. You can make real soup and call it birthday soup or you can just make pretend “soup” and allow her decide what ingredients to put in it. Find other books that talk about soup (like Stone Soup).
Act out the stories together. In the Frog and Toad series, Toad is usually pretty grumpy. You might spend your day acting grumpy. Make grumpy faces and look
at yourselves in the mirror. Your feigned grumpiness will bring out lots of smiles and laughter.
Take turns telling the same story. We did this last weekend while roasting marshmallows in the back yard. It goes like this: Me: “Once upon a time there were two little boys who always had a smudge of dirt on their foreheads.” (I’m relating it to my boys.) “Their mom tried to rub those smudges off, but no matter how hard she tried they would always come back.” I’ll give a few more sentences and then pass the story to William. He’ll talk about the same boys and mom and take it in a completely different direction. He might make it scary or silly. Then he’ll pass it to Lucas, and Lucas will pass it to my husband, and so on.
Vocabulary
Use rich language in your daily interactions. Don’t dumb down your words. There will be times she’ll pick up the meaning from the context of the situation, and other times, she’ll ask you what it means. Just today, I told Lucas that we didn’t say goodbye to his preschool friends because they were “concentrating on a story” that was being read to them. He asked me what “concentrating” meant (hard work pronouncing it correctly). I’ll give a simple answer and a more complex answer. So I’ll say, “Concentrating means focusing or listening intently.” Then he might ask, “What does intently mean?” We might go on like that with several words.
Math
There are so many real-world math scenarios in our world. You just have to keep your eyes out for them. Here are some examples:
After baking a cake, cut it up together. First you cut it in half. Then in quarters. Then in sixths and so on. Don’t necessarily tell her about “fractions” as this won’t have meaning for her, but she can see how cutting in criss-cross ways makes several pieces. Count the number of pieces you cut.
Count the steps as you walk upstairs. Or “count” by naming letters of the alphabet for every step.
Practice estimating by guessing how many steps it will take to get from the front door to the car. Then count and see whose answer was the closest. See how many steps it takes when taking tiny steps versus giant steps.
Teach “addition and subtraction” at dinner time. (The quotes here mean that these are the actual topics, but you won’t be calling them by name.) Be silly with it. Say, “My what a good pea eater you are!” Ask her how many peas she has left. Count with her if she needs help. Then ask her what happens if she eats two more. Count how many are left. Then ask her what happens if you give her three of your peas. How many does she have now?
Teach “division” at snack time. Start out with a plate of cookies for you and her. If there are 5 cookies, ask her how many cookies you will each get. Then ask her if there will be any leftover (for daddy). Or if she doesn’t want to save the last cookie for daddy, see if she can problem-solve to figure out what to do with the last cookie so you can share it. Can she think critically enough to figure out to cut it in half?
Teach the value of money by having a lemonade stand. Make the lemonade together (start with frozen juice and count the number of cups of water to add). Decide how much you’ll charge. Count the money together. Sell something like chips along with the lemonade. Figure out how much each bag of chips costs and how much she’d have to charge to make a profit.
Science
Go outside. Take a nature walk. See what strikes her fancy. If she stops to watch a trail of ants, let her sit and stare at them. If she asks about ants, talk about them. But just have a conversation; take care not to lecture her. Again, it’s all about making it meaningful to her. Or do the same with bees. Just sit and watch the bees as they buzz from one flower to another. Continue on your walk acting like bees, buzzing and flying (and maybe even stinging each other!).
Bring her into the kitchen with you. As you’re making your “birthday soup” (see above) show her how the soup will boil when it gets hot. Show her how it bubbles up. Show her how steam comes up. Or better yet, just let her watch it simmer and see if she notices and asks you about it.
Go to the zoo or pet store on a regular basis. Learn about all the different kinds of animals. See if a local animal shelter or vet’s office will let you volunteer or at least watch how they work.
Go on a night walk on a clear night. Turn off the flashlights or leave them at home. Let your eyes adjust so you can see all the stars in the sky. Point them out and then see if she has any questions. She might just look or it might inspire a weeks-long study of planets and stars. Let her lead you, but be ready to introduce resources. Take her to the library and show her how she can ask the librarian for stories on stars. Teach her how you can Google a topic to learn more. Or find a documentary that she can watch to learn more.
History
Sit down with grandparents or great-grandparents and ask them to tell stories about what life was like when they were kids. If you don’t have any grandparents nearby, see if a local nursing home will let you visit and volunteer. Exposure to older, wiser people is healthy for the mind and spirit.
Read novels that are set in a particular time period. Or read biographies of important people. Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, etc. Find books that tell the story in an interesting, age-appropriate way. There’s a series of books by Ingri D’Aulaire that is great.
Geography
Talk about where you live. Talk about where friends and family live. When you go on vacation show her on a map (or better yet, a globe) where you’re going and where you’ve been.
Send a package to someone and use UPS so you can track its progress online. Then you can look on the map or globe to see where your package is as it travels to its destination.
And again, incorporate this into your literature time. Read novels that discuss geography in an interesting way. The Holling C. Holling books are great for this.
Other thoughts
As you work on these things together, be careful not to narrate your day. You narrating would sound like, “That’s a flower. It’s a yellow flower. It has 10 petals on it. It has a green stem with 4 leaves on it. It grows out of the ground and needs sun and water to grow.” Blah, blah, blah. If she asks the color of the flower or wants to know how flowers grow, then by all means, tell her. But don’t narrate or lecture. You want her to make the connections and for the learning to be meaningful to her.
You might even start your new learning life by asking her what she wants to learn about. I asked William (age 7.5) this recently, and he quickly answered, “Dinosaurs!” He said he wanted to know all about the time period in which they lived, how they became extinct, etc. At the farmer’s market on Saturday, we came across an Usborne book on dinosaurs. Flipping through it, he was fascinated to see how small people are in comparison to dinosaurs (the book had pictures drawn to scale). Interestingly, Lucas said he wanted to learn about spelling. At 4.5, he’s at that natural pre-reading stage! He’s constantly saying things like, “Puh, puh, puh. Popcorn starts with P!”
The great thing about meaningful learning is that when the time does come for them to learn abstract concepts like recognizing letters and numbers or learning the sounds of letters, they’ll already have been exposed to the topic. When Lucas learns subtraction in school, he’ll be able to say, “This is like what we do at dinner time with my peas!”