Scientific learning shouldn’t be restricted to the classroom. Children are naturally curious about every little phenomenon they encounter outside the class, and parents can harness that curiosity to encourage holistic learning that stays with the child long after school is out. Use these tips to revamp how your kids treat learning at home.
#1: Focus On Visuals
As a child, seeing tends to be a lot more interesting than just listening to a class. Get visual with your teaching, whether that’s with rainbow decals on a journal or just a fun video on the iPad. Visual aids help children understand what they’re learning about, and it gives them an important frame of reference for future learning.
#2: Get Them Immersed
Don’t hesitate to get them immersed in scientific learning. Immersive experiences make for deeper learning and can often be a lot more effective than just being told what to memorize in a classroom. Encourage your kids to get out there to explore their scientific curiosity, even if that means getting messy chasing after a bug in the mud.
#3: Instill Discipline at Home
Children can find it difficult to maintain a sense of structure and discipline when learning at home. After all, there isn’t anything stopping them from just getting up and picking up a controller to play some games. Without going overboard, you will want to instill some discipline at home. You don’t have to chalk out a timetable, but you could set some light ground rules about what’s allowed and what isn’t when you are working together.
#4: Work Together
Scientific learning at home is a collaborative process. Instead of imitating a teacher in class, work with children as a partner in the academic process. This means that you shouldn’t rush to correct them immediately with encyclopedic knowledge if they get something wrong. Instead, try to nudge them into exploring their curiosity with leading questions like “What do you think?”
#5: Think Outside The Box
You might not have access to a fancy whiteboard at home, but you do have a bunch of incredible opportunities to teach children in a way that they would normally never experience in a classroom. Feel free to think outside the box with scientific learning at home. You can use cameras to observe flora and fauna, or use a phone to record natural phenomena. Some parents even use toys like a Kullerbu Construction site set to explore physics!
#6: Take Notes
The scientific method is entirely dependent on one’s ability to record what they’ve seen and what they think might happen in the future. Incentivize children to record any observations they might have about their experiments. You could do this by gifting them appealing notebooks with visually interesting designs, and with constant prompts like “Would you like to take a photo of that?” This will also double as a record of everything that you have learned together.
#7: Mistakes Happen
A big reason why scientific learning can often break down in the classroom is that children aren’t given the space to make mistakes and grow through them. The scientific process is one that’s built on trial and error, and that’s one of the best ways for children to explore their curiosity. Allow your children to make mistakes in the learning process and let them think for themselves, even when they’ve come to an incorrect conclusion. Doing this will foster the critical reasoning that is so integral to the scientific learning process.
#8: Structure Learning
Structure is everything in scientific learning. There’s no need to come up with a rigorous syllabus as a teacher would, but creating a tentative plan for yourself about what you’d like to teach your child will give your journey a sense of structure. This will also prepare your child for higher education further down the line.
Learning Begins at Home
Your home is a warm and welcoming environment that can be harnessed to bring out the best in your child. Whether you’re exploring how rain works or studying a butterfly, work as an equal with your child and you might just learn a thing or two in the process yourself.
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