Curious Parents Education Resources

Education

MAKING LEARNING FUN

Kids are born curious. Their young brains are sponges that greedily soak up all the practical knowledge needed to learn to walk and talk. Yet when it comes to the process of formal education, sometimes the sponges lose their thirst for knowledge.

Experts say that children have different learning styles, but regardless of style, they must remain engaged and interested to learn effectively. In other words, the challenge is making learning fun.

A middle school reading teacher started her Monday morning class by asking who had seen a movie over the weekend. Knowing the students were less than enthused about the book assigned, comparing it to a popular Hollywood blockbuster seemed a great way to engage them in a discussion. It worked.

Just as teachers have their tricks, there are lots of fun ways for parents to help their kids succeed at school. Internet searches reveal sites with free educational games, downloadable worksheets, activities, books and countless other resources.

The joy of reading

1. Educators advise that reading proficiency is key to academic success, and families who read together create good readers. It’s never too early to start making reading fun.

2. Reading daily to babies and young children can be special time together.

3. Read a few pages a day of chapter books like “Charlotte’s Web” to elementary-school-aged children.

4. Encourage big brothers and sisters to read to younger siblings.

5. Subscribe to a children’s magazine.

6. Visit the library regularly and sign up for story hour and summer reading clubs.

7. Turn off the TV and have “family reading hour.”

8. Kids just not into reading? Maybe they haven’t found the right book. Whether it be joke books, comics, sports, sci-fi or horses, appealing to their interests helps.

Making learning fun at home

Here are some activities for parents and kids just for the fun of learning:

1. Search the Web for “making learning fun” to find loads of free interactive educational games and downloadable options.

2. Have the kids plan a “virtual vacation” by researching a destination online that relates to a book they’re reading or a topic of study in school.

3. Pay kids’ allowance in different denominations of bills and coins; for instance, use all quarters one week.

4. Have kids pay the restaurant bill, including figuring the change and the tip.

5. Work on the newspaper crossword or word scramble together as a family on Saturday or Sunday morning.

6. At the dinner table, discuss the fun fact or word of the day using a page-a-day calendar, a Web site, or The World Almanac For Kids Puzzler Decks as a source.

7. Watch a movie that relates to the period of history being studied at school.

8. During family television time, check Discovery Channel and PBS options first. Shows like those on Animal Planet are fascinating for all ages.

Fun learning is in the cards

One former teacher has applied her tricks of the trade to create a fun new resource for home or the classroom: The World Almanac for Kids Puzzler Decks packs of mind-bending brain teasers cards.

The author, Lynn Brunelle, is an Emmy Award-winning writer and illustrator whose accomplishments range from contributing to The Discovery Channel, to the board game Cranium to PBS’s “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”

Brunelle has taken the education-rich content of the top-selling kids’ almanac and morphed it into a series of entertaining decks of cards packed with all-new brain-engaging games, puzzles, riddles, fascinating facts and more. There are 75 to choose from tailored by age and subjects like reading, math, science and geography. The decks sell for under $10 and are found wherever books are sold. For more information, visit www.chroniclebooks.com/worldalmanac

“Vegetables that taste like candy,” is how Lynn Brunelle describes the new World Almanac for Kids Puzzler Decks. “They’re fun and good for you, too,” she says. So serve up some tasty tidbits of knowledge that your kids are sure to remember.

Courtesy of Family Features.