How many times have your children asked, why? It is their favourite question. We know it best when they are asking why things are the way they are, and sometimes we find it difficult to answer… The third principle in the UNESCO report on How Children Learn [2002] states that, “People learn best when they participate in activities that are perceived to be useful in real life and are culturally relevant”. In short children learn best when they are participating in Meaningful Activities; this is the third principle.
At Purple Dragon we aim to help parents answer these “why” questions because, despite what our children may think, we parents and teachers don’t know everything. Indeed, if we do our parenting job right, our children will eventually exceed us in knowledge! That is, in essence, how our society progresses and that is quite a thing we are all participating in!
Children will also want to know why they must do things and learn thing. “Why must I wash my hands?” is our child’s favourite these days because he wants the convenience of wet-wipes. A child, well adults too, will be more engaged in learning exercises when the activities we create for them hold some meaningful relationship with the wider world beyond the exercise, in particular as it pertains to the how and the why of it. How they must do something and why they must do it that way and why do it at all.
Children need to understand why something is important to know and do and that everyone else, including their parents, are also doing it. Avoid the infamous “do as I say not as I do” trap! Another great example is road safety. We can’t teach them good road safety and then cross the road when the pedestrian lights show “red” or “Don’t Walk”, nor worse, run across a train level crossing!
The lesson they learn will be it is ok to cross when you want not that they must wait for it to be safe. For the lesson to be authentic it must be backed up by our own actions.
An authentic activity or learning scenario is one where it can easily be related to real world events and situations. For example, when we teach our child about what trains are for and how they work, using toys and videos, we then go out to let him see real trains in operation and take trips on them. This may seem simplistic but if you discuss the journey with your child, how the train works, what happens at stops, things you see along the way and so on, the whole learning experience is enhanced and the lessons embedded more easily because the child makes the relation of the at home lesson to his real-world experience.
Getting out and about and seeing the world in action is absolutely essential for child development. It should feel effortless, like it is not a specific lesson at all, because in many ways it isn’t, it’s just normal activities and yet the children are learning from it because everyday life is learning in the early years. Car journeys can be boring for children and playing Eye Spy only gets you so far. Perfect opportunity to talk about whatever your child loves to talk about and point out things along the way and explain.
Indicated Action:
Videos and books of science experiments and real engineering feats (like building sites) are great real world related things, maybe you can then go look at a bridge, or better yet a building site. Cooking and baking is another great real-world exercise. Seek excursions where you can show your child real world examples of what they are learning and consider travel via mechanisms you have been talking about, cars, trains, taxis, etc. Also letting children help with simple tasks around the house is a good way of helping them feel part of the family and learning real world things by doing, even if it takes a bit longer… Above all be mindful of everyday opportunities to interact with your children and pointing out new and interesting things and giving them explanation of how things work. They really love it!
