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Keep
The Home Fires Learning
Just
because the kids are back in school doesn't mean that your
responsibilities for teaching them are over. Some schools
are, unfortunately, academically weak while others
struggle to capture the students' interest in subjects.
Parents can help out by taking kids on "field
trips" to encourage their children to apply what
they've learned in school to their daily lives. Here's a
list of 10 places parents should take their kids during
the school year.
1)
The grocery store. Many parents refuse to take
their kids to the store for fear of being bombarded with
cries of "Mom, buy these chips, cereal, etc".
But the grocery store is an excellent place to practice
math skills. Addition skills are used to calculate the
price of two products. They can practice subtraction by
calculating the cost of an item after using a coupon.
Multiplication skills come in handy when doubling or
tripling a recipe to feed a crowd. Division comes in handy
to calculate the price of a single item that's on special,
say, 4 for $10. Kids can practice figuring percentages
with a product that contains 50% more free.
2)
Cultural fests and restaurants. Ask your child's
teacher what cultures they will be studying that year in
Social Studies and then try to find an appropriate
cultural fest or at least an ethnic restaurant. Festivals
often have participants in native costumes and feature
ethnic music and food. A child will pay closer attention
to Native American lessons once he has seen a pow- wow,
for example.
3)
Nature hikes. These can be taken in the woods, near
a b each,
by the river or even in a city park. No matter how urban
your city is, there are lots of opportunities to see
plants and animals in their natural surroundings. Which
would you find more interesting - reading about a
ring-billed gull in a textbook or actually watching one
fly by? Kids can collect feathers and shells, something
you just don't get from a book.
4)
Local historical markers and monuments. You don't
have to live in Concord or Gettysburg to have history in
your town and often there's local history that relates to
national or world history. In my area, there's a park that
was the site of the first football game between two
professional teams; Hero Street, where a higher than
average percentage of families lost a loved one during
World War II; and a monument showing the location of the
old Illinois/Wisconsin border. Incidentally, that old line
is about 3 hours south of the current one; half my college
campus would have been in each state. Check with your
local tourism department or historical society and see
what's out there.
 5)
The library. You may have taken your kids there for
years for story hour and to get books, but have you taught
them how to use the library for research? There may be a
wealth of information on the Internet, but sometimes
nothing takes the place of going through books, especially
for researching things like your family tree. Knowing how
to do research at the library will come in handy during
college, if not sooner.
6)
A political rally and/or the voting booth. The best
way to explain the process of democracy is to let your
child see it in action. Take him to a rally to hear the
speeches and the politician's promises and use that to
start a discussion on whether the promises can be kept and
what keeping them would entail. Taking him to the voting
booth with you shows that it's important to be active in
the process and that every vote does count. After all,
remember the last presidential election and the situation
in Florida!
7)
A historical reenactment. Watching a battle being
reenacted brings it to life and seems to make it more
real, as opposed to being dry statistics in a textbook.
Some areas have Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)
events; these help bring the Middle Ages to life again.
8.
A Shakespeare/theater/music in the park performance.
These are usually free and offer a chance to sample
different kinds of culture. Besides, if the kids get too
rowdy you can always turn them loose on the playground
equipment - try that at the opera!
9.
A religious service other than your own. Most
churches welcome visitors and offer brochures about their
beliefs. This is a great way to show how people of
different faiths are really quite similar. Attending a
Muslim service or reading about that faith will help
dispel any confusion your child (or you) might have
related to the terrorists attacks.
Look
around and you'll probably find many, many more examples
of everyday activities that can be turned into learning
adventures. The whole world is a school and class is
always in session!
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