10 Ways to Teach Your Kids Learning from Experience
Have you ever wished you could teach your kids to love learning? Have you noticed when we learn from experience we question more and have a natural curiosity about life and experiences? Wouldn’t you like for your kids to grow up with a strong life long love of learning?
Does it seem like your child is more interested in playing the latest X-box or Playstation games than in reading a great book?
Does the Fortnite hold your child’s interest and fascination for hours but math only about 5 minutes (or less)?
Electronics and video games can be fun and a way for children to relax, but as parents, we must be careful the electronics don’t take our children’s focus away from learning from experience in life and growing their love of learning.
Ideally, learning is a life long process (enough though formal education only involves our school years). As our kids grow up, we want to teach our children to love learning and be life long learners. Life offers many new discoveries every day. We want to teach our children to find new ways to learn from their experiences.
Motivating children to love learning can be more difficult. It should not include bribes or promises of video game time or other electronics. Bribing your child will not teach them to love learning, it will teach them to take an action for what’s in it for me.
Here are some creative ways to help your kids learn from experience and get involved in active learning and see how what they have learned in school applies to them today.
10 Ways Learning Through Experience Will Help Your Kids Love Learning
- Read books by great authors together. Read the books out loud. As you read the story, talk through the ideas in the book.
- When studying, don’t rush through the material. Discuss the lessons in the book and how they relate to news and life. For example, my son was recently studying light. We discussed how lightbulbs worked.
- Encourage your child to explore natural phenomena and understand it better. When possible, study natural phenomena related to topics you are studying. If you are studying insects, try observing insects in nature. Ask is the textbook accurate in their descriptions and how the insects behave?
- Act out the story. Getting some children to read is difficult, but acting out the story will bring it to life. If you can, dress up like characters in the story. Have everyone dress like a character and retell the story.
- Tour historical landmarks within your state or take a family vacation visiting historical landmarks. Study life from an earlier time. Try to understand the differences in life in the 1800’s, early 1900’s and today. When you compare life in 1915 to life 2015, you will be amazed by the changes in technology.
- Build a scene from the story with Legos or build math or science example showing a science principle or math problem with Legos.
- Always observe science. Have your child study science, especially the events that only happen once every few years. Take time to find the constellations (there are apps that can help you), don’t miss the next lunar eclipse.
- After reading a story, ask questions about how the characters would react to life situations today. How was the character’s life or experiences different from your own life?
- Visit local museums and learn about inventions, science, and more. Many museums allow children to experiment hands on.
- Use your imagination. As your child reads, studies history and science and even language arts, be creative. Help your child relate all the knowledge they are learning in school to life and how they can use the knowledge today and in the future.
Your turn…
How do you help your child love learning? What’s the best way to motivate your child?
