Archive | May, 2010

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How can you cultivate learning in the great outdoors? This is the final segment of our Cultivating Learning in Everyday Activities series. Check out Learning in the Kitchen, and Learning in the Laundry & Other Rooms for further inspiration.

Outdoors

1. Take a walk together and discuss seasons, the growth cycle of plants, recognize the different types of plants, leaves, flowers – all of which are beautiful means of exploring nature and science.

My cousin, Amy, adds: I count exercise as one of my daily to dos, and the kids learn a lot when we go on walks. We have fun talking about the seasons, if it’s winter or spring we look at buds on plants and talk about them, in fall we talk about how chlorophyll makes leaves green, and why they change color. We try to spot birds, etc. And of course we get books from the library on all these topics. They also like to collect nature items, which can be used to beautify the home, or can be used to make creative crafts!

Karis and I love to sit at the end of our driveway and count the cars that drive past. We count them by color, by vehicle type, and whatever other fun ways we can think of. I remember taking road trips growing up and playing games with my siblings of going through the alphabet by finding letters in license plates. We would also try to find every states license plate. These provided fun learning while on the road, but could also be done while sitting at the end of our driveway as Karis gets older.

2. Garage Sale - Autumn suggested: Give kids a table of things to sell (food items or small toys). Teach money recognition, counting, etc. Who can resist a cute little child selling some goodies?

3. Gardening
Michele shares: We enjoy gardening as a family to supply us with fresh produce, and this allows us to teach some interesting science concepts (such as decomposition, plant growth, and the water cycle/weather). As we start seeds, prepare the soil, and nurture our vermicomposting system, Gen does all these gardening tasks right alongside us. Here is a post about “educational” gardening with her when she was two-years-old.

4. Grocery store
Kat shares: My 5 year old always goes with me to the grocery store and we do lots of stuff there. We discuss the different kinds of produce, where they come from, how much they weigh and cost and I let her press the numbers for the little produce price stickers (which, I guess, is more fun than educational now that she’s older). I also show her how to pick out good produce.

Michele shares: We also work on this (identifying numbers and letters) while at the grocery store, and have begun adding in the concept of money (recognizing coins). As I make out my grocery list, she often gets her own scrap of paper and pen to practice making “her own list” (writing out letters we’ve been learning or drawing pictures).

Further Reading

Many of the ideas shared in this series where inspired from these two volumes:

Mommy, Teach Me!: Preparing Your Preschooler for A Lifetime of Learning by Barbara Curtis – an excellent volume of ideas, games, and learning activities from a Montessori mommy of 11 children. Highly recommend it!

Montessori Play & Learn: A Parent’s Guide to Purposeful Play for Two to Six by Leslie Britton – This volume is a wonderful collection of ideas for incorporating learning into your normal routine and help supplement preschool learning for your child. For planning your home, introducing your child to the supermarket or the neighborhood, and helping him discover other people and cultures, this book provides valuable tips and insights that help parents and children grow and learn together.

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My mission…to cultivate a learning environment in our home. My goal…to purposefully incorporate educational concepts in our various household tasks with my little ones. Thus we continue sharing learning ideas that can be purposefully practiced while completing various household activities. Don’t miss out on sharing ideas for learning in the kitchen.

In the Laundry Room

1. Sorting laundry – teach sorting laundry by colors and then by textures, enabling a child to strengthen color identification, matching, and strengthening the sensory skills. Follow this by teaching the basics of washing laundry specifying the different temperatures needed to wash various articles of clothing, towels, etc. Clothing can be sorted by type of clothing as well (socks, underwear, shirts, pants, etc).

2. Organize clothing by owner - teaches recognition of possession by sorting the clothes by owner before folding. Karis and I discuss who each item belongs to as we sort our laundry into the piles of clothing for each person before carrying them carefully to the dressers.

3. Store a child’s clothes within their reach – from a young age, a child can learn to sort and put away their clothing as well as getting themselves dressed. Label the drawers with pictures of the different kinds of clothes kept in them, with the word was well.

4. Count the clothes - an older child could try to guess the number of items in each pile and then count them to see whether she/he was correct.

5. Matching socks – We like to set aside the socks till we have folded all the rest of the clothes and then make a game out of finding the match.

In the Bedroom

1. Make the bed – Before Karis turned three years old, we aimed to teach her organization and cleanliness by having her learn to make her own bed when she wakes up. We make a game out of it and shake the corners out together before laying the blanket out smooth on the bed.

2. Organize possessions at his/her level - We also organize all her toys at her level in a 9 cube shelving unit and rain gutter bookshelves so she can accessibly put each item away before getting out another. She still needs a gentle reminder, but I have been pleasantly surprised at how fully capable she is to accomplish these little chores.

In the Hallway

Place a hook at the kids level so she/he can hang up their own jacket after an outing. Designate a special place for his/her shoes as well. This makes the task of preparing to depart or return home much simpler, especially if you have other little ones in tow.

In the Living Room

1. Clean together – It is easy to include your children in various housecleaning tasks by providing them with their own dusting or wash cloth and some safe cleaning spray, if desired. They can learn to carefully lift up various options to dust underneath them while learning the feel of different textures – china, glass, wood, and so on. Discuss whether they are warm or cold, where they came from, how they are made, etc.

2. Answer the phone - A young child can learn to answer the phone. I believe my mom taught us this skill as early as 6 years old. We had a special phrase to say, “Hello, you’ve reached the ____(last name). This is ____(child’s name). How can I help you?” It was written next to the phone so we could remember. Now in a day of cellphones, this will not be so easy, but I want to give them the opportunity of learning basic social skills, improving communicating skills in this way from an early age.

Kat adds some additional ideas:

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From a young age, children love to learn. They love to explore, imitate and absorb everything that takes place in the world around them. I have been fascinated to study and observe my daughter, Karis. She takes great delight in helping me throughout our daily activities. My passion has always been to cultivate a love for learning in my little ones from the earliest moments. I want them to cherish the joys of exploring, imaging, creating, and delighting in God’s creation and design of how things work and function.

Lately, I have been pondering how can I really cultivate a purposeful learning environment in our home? Yes, I can include her in these activities, but how can I turn these everyday tasks and activities into learning potential. While exploring this world of a child’s brain, I have found some wonderful ideas through friends and resources that I wanted to share with you today. All these activities are appropriate for 2 1/2 – 5 year olds. I have been amazed how young they can begin to learn to help and serve. What important life skills can be learned with plenty of praise and practice. I have learned that you should never underestimate the knowledge and ability of a two year old.

Thus we begin a series of posts sharing ideas for cultivating learning in everyday activities throughout your house.

In the Kitchen

There is much opportunity to teach mathematics and scientific skills in the kitchen while teaching your little ones how to cook and bake. Arrange your kitchen in such a way that the plates, bowls, silverware are at a reachable height for the little one. This will enable them to help uploading the dishwasher and setting the table.

1. Loading the dishwasher - teach sorting of silverware and dishes into categories, matching shapes. Teach how to handle sharp objects.

2. Washing dishes - having a small stool handy will enable your child to help wash dishes. Encourage learning how to carefully handle breakable items which strengthens their concentration. Kids love using soap and wash clothes to clean dishes. Place a towel next to the sink for the child to lay their washed dishes on or guide them in loading immediately.

3. Setting the table - Karis finds great delight in setting the table and learning how to carefully handle carrying plates from the cupboard to the table. Table setting is a opportunity to teach the concepts of left and right and will also appeal to her sensitivity to order. Make a sample placemat with drawings of plate, cup, silverware for a child to use as a model.

4. Cooking & baking together - Karis can pull a chair over to the stove top or counter top and learn how to mix and stir items carefully. Measuring items is a great scientific experiment. With supervision, we stir ingredients on the stove top and observe the different results of hot versus cold, what happens to ingredients when they are heated.

Use glass measuring cups where the calibrations are viewable so a child can learn to measure ingredients themselves. At a older age, we can teach subtraction, by putting too much in and asking them to remove enough to correct it.

Talk about the step by step process of following a recipe. Having a child’s apron and hot pad helps encourage them that they can be involved and a valuable asset to our food preparations.

Michele shares some further ideas:
We have encouraged our daughter Gen (now age three) to help with our regular household tasks since she was very young. Before she was two-years-old, she began helping in the kitchen. It became a great way of teaching her concepts such as “in,” “out,” “in front of,” “behind,” “on top,” and “under.” She also practiced stacking (and making items fit), by learning to recognize size differences. (She owns a set of toy stacking cups, but “helping mama” with the measuring cups was much more fun!) As she has gotten older, we have started identifying numbers and letters. She enjoys looking on the cookbook pages to find letters and numbers that she recognizes.

What ideas can you share for including your children and purposeful learning in the kitchen?

Stay tuned as we discuss learning ideas in the laundry room, bedroom, living room and the great outdoors!