With summer winding down, students are facing that dreaded time of the year again: going back to school. When did going to school become so boring? When did we lose the joy of learning? The standardization of the education system has made learning undesirable for many students, but it does not have to be so.
Here are some ways you can rekindle your child’s curiosity and love for learning.
Supplement Their Interests
What is your child’s new interest today? What do they keep talking on and on about? Let your child guide their learning by supplementing their current interests. Allow them to ask questions about the world, but don’t give them an immediate answer.
Instead, nudge them to read a book about it, watch a video about it, or test it out with an experiment. Inquiry and research are important aspects of lifelong learning, so getting your child into a habit of answering questions and finding answers will be essential for them as they grow up.
Take Them Outside
Nature is a classroom with plenty of lessons embedded within it. You can check out fun ways to incorporate play-based learning in nature. There are countless ideas about how to incorporate nature into your lessons and take activities outside!
A great activity you can take outside is the Boon-Dah Flowing Kit. Learn how to generate electricity in a light bulb using water, wind, or sunlight! You can take your Boon-Dah box to your backyard, a pond, or on a hike and learn how natural resources can create everyday technologies, such as electricity.
Relating to Real Life Experiences
Learning is fun when it relates to real life. Find opportunities to make everyday objects and activities into lessons. If three of us want to eat crackers for a snack, and each person wants five crackers, how many should we take out? Test the answer out by taking out the crackers and dividing them in real life.
Explain biological concepts such as parasitism or mutualism by relating it to how your child interacts with their siblings or friends. Using examples can help make complex concepts become much simpler for your kids to understand and make them realize that learning isn’t as scary as they thought!
Get Excited
Lastly, get excited about what you are teaching your kids. Your child looks up to you, and if they see that you are happy about something, they will be more likely to be enthusiastic about it as well.
Create little traditions or add in their favorite things, such as food, into activities to break up the bore of monotonous learning. Set up activities in an enticing manner and ask your child, “Ooh, did you see what’s outside?” A little bit of planning can go a long way in creating strong foundations in your child’s interest in education.
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