Learning Outside The Classroom

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

                                                                                                 -Benjamin Franklin            

While students today experience school in a vastly different way than previous generations, with universal screening, high stakes testing, and the common core, some things haven't changed. Our everyday environment provides rich, real learning opportunities for children if we slow down long enough to appreciate it.  Reading, writing,  math, science, social studies, and the arts are a part of our everyday tasks.

Anyone who has children, or works with them, knows they love two things: food and money. Trips to the grocery story provide children with an opportunity to figure out the best deal. Just because an item is on sale, doesn't mean it's most cost effective. Children can use percentages, multiplication, and division while saving you money! Once home from the store, cooking is another great way to get some help in the kitchen, and use math skills. Have them to measure dry and liquid ingredients. You can ask questions like, "How many tablespoons are in a quarter cup?" or "How much flour is needed to double the recipe?".  What a great way to use fractions, addition, subtraction, and division without a textbook. So once your children are well fed, it's time to earn some cash. Yard sales and lemonade stands are great ways for children to identify money, make change, and recognize the relationship between cost and profit. For older children, encourage them to help create a family budget, or manage their allowance.

Some children respond with enthusiasm at the prospect of reading a book, others shrug with disappointment. There are lots of ways to get children excited about reading, if you change things up. Use the Internet to your advantage, by exploring topics of interests, and finding articles that contain visual representations of information, and written descriptions. Even though it's 2015, children still love getting surprises in the mail. Finding magazine subscriptions of high interest topics is a fantastic way to encourage recreational reading.  Today, some of the most popular books become movies. Read the book as a family, reward children's efforts with the movie, and compare/contrast the story. While theater does not involve conventional literacy skills, it is a way for stories and characters to come alive. You can still provide opportunities to retell and answer "wh" questions.

Perhaps the academic area children have become most resistant, is writing.  In a world of instant gratification, and immediacy, writing requires patience, planning, and revising. There are a ton of unconventional ways to get children writing!  Talking to your children is the first step to providing context for written work, so they have a rich background of information with which to draw. Daily notes, in which children are encouraged to respond, are an easy, non-threatening way to practice writing. Journaling about trips, feelings, and adventures allows children to write, with total creative freedom.  If these fun, low-key ways don't encourage writing, provide authentic experiences like thank you notes, letters to family members, party invitations, and grocery lists.

Science, social studies, and the arts are all around us! Go outside, and you will find plants, animals, rocks, and unusual geography which provides a great venue for questioning and discovering. If parents can't answer children's questions, use this opportunity to create experiments, visit other scientists, or read more about the topic.  Transitioning from science to history, our neighborhoods, cities, and states provide a rich account of the past. This information can be passed on orally, through stories from parents, grandparents, and other community members. Perhaps certain historical events will ignite interest in a particular topic, and families can read literature and discuss these areas in greater depth.  And, of course, the city of Chicago is filled with museums that often have discounts for students and families.  Finally, there is no more valuable way to learn about the arts, then participating in dance, music, singing, painting, and acting. Allow children to explore their creativity at home, and in structured classes. Take advantage of access to the city, and attend plays, musicals, symphonies, comedy shows, or concerts.

My final thought: Live life, and try to learn something new! The world is a classroom. Soak it up:)