Soon the children will start the new school year and parents, responsibly, will always want to help them make the new year an experience that will satisfy them with learning. Schools, there are all kinds, and we will not always be able to choose the one that best matches our philosophy. That's why I want to give you some guidelines for start the course with good ideas.
You can do many things to stimulate and encourage your children at home, regardless of school. That way they have a refuge, a space, where they can learn with creativity, with passion, in a personalized way, and where they will get the energy to fully develop whatever happens to the educational system.
So that the school year, the age that your children have, is a learning success parents can do many things to encourage creative and experiential learning, accompanying your children in the ever fascinating discovery of the world that childhood implies.
Schedule visits to Nature
For children they are essential for the possibility of free movement, exploration, discovery. Therefore Nature visits are essential for them. Every question they ask will open a world. It is not necessary, of course, that you do them daily; The routine is imposed. But if I encourage you to make an organizational effort and take your children to natural spaces whenever possible and do not limit yourself to cities, which are usually hostile to children.
A forest, a river, a natural park, a wildlife recovery reserve, even a botanical garden or a large park in the city are full of stimuli for your mind and your body.
Visit museums of all kinds
In any city there are high quality museums that will stimulate your children with true treasures of knowledge. Take the children to museums of all kinds. Yes, Art too. It is not necessary to visit the entire Prado Museum at once, but adapting time to its capacity, any museum is magic to them.
Read them out loud
Read them out loud as a family custom, not necessarily children's stories, but any type of text that deals with a subject for which they have expressed curiosity or that you are passionate about (passion is spread). Do not insist on them reading alone and, when they do, never stop reading them.
Tell them inspiring stories
To the kids they love to hear stories and more if their parents tell them. Invent stories with them as protagonists or with animals. Tell them stories of people who shone for their dedication and will: whether they are legends or biographies. If you do not know, study yourselves, seek. They will also like it very much if you tell them anecdotes about your childhood or family, especially people who are no longer among us.
A fundamental part of human learning is done orally, and stories are the vehicle that children prefer to get excited, expand their vocabulary and knowledge or better understand the world around them.
Watch TV with them
Ejecting television from home life is a respectable decision but if you have decided to have TV at home, the ideal is that you always watch it with them. Depending on the child's age and interests, you can choose series, movies, drawings and documentaries.
There are documentaries about Nature and History, Engineering and Astronomy impressive with which a person could have a complete training. Search, buy, download them, whatever you want. And get to see them with them answering their questions and searching the internet for what you don't know. Of course, choose the exposure time and the contents to the age and tastes of the child, but many from the age of four will already enjoy them.
Use the movies and series of television as educational instruments. Many of them can be learned a lot, or they are used as a springboard to pull the thread and deepen any topic: politics, religion, philosophy, history, psychology, physics, astronomy ... from Doctor Who (one of our favorites to which even We dedicate this year a full month as the only basic resource) to El Rey Leon, Kuzko or even, sometimes, terrible SpongeBob can serve as the basis for learning.
Table games
The table games They are another resource that should never be missing. There are not only those traditional ones that you know. There are thousands. Stimulate the imagination, creativity, negotiation skills, strategy, planning, use of resources, understanding of space and time ... Look for the most appropriate for each child by tastes, age, ability, topics of interest, areas what to stimulate ... there are those who can start using them from the age of three as Vila Topo, Connect Four, Guess who or Ghost Blitz.
Kitchen
If you have a kitchen, which you all have, you already have a laboratory at home. Take advantage of it. In the kitchen, from a very young age, children become familiar with many areas of knowledge: physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, mathematics ... all that is present in the culinary. In addition, the kitchen is an ideal place to share with them time, laughter, experiences and learning about household chores and value them in their importance.
I hope you are proposals and ideas help you start the course with confidence and joy, knowing that much of what your children will learn this year will depend on you.
