Keeping Traditional Schooling Fun

Method for learning & education (Wikipedia)

by Jenny N Lee

Following a very structured and planned curriculum may get a little tedious, especially if your child is well into the school year and has openly professed to being bored with their work.

Deviating from the schedule every now and then for some fun projects could help reinvigorate both you and your child and help to get them excited about learning again.

Activities also don't have to be solely for the purpose of goofing off; you could base them around the subject matter currently being taught and have the whole family engaged in the process.

Multiple subjects can be tied together to make learning interesting and fun.

Arts and crafts, for example, can be paired with arithmetic in the form of pattern blocks, creating flash cards, and counting different craft materials such as dried pasta, paint jars, crayons, and beads as you work on an art project together.

The language arts can be applied to creative writing, especially if your child seems particularly interested in certain stories they've heard in their schoolbooks.

Delving deeper, you could also provide additional historical background on the culture of the time period they're focusing on to help with their writing.

Another activity could be for you to draw out some scenes of everyday life and have your child create a story linking the pictures. You could also depict scenes from historical events related to your child's lessons.

Getting the entire family involved in learning activities could also be a great way to bond and spend time together that normally would have been restricted to just you and your child as teacher and student.

Playing board games with altered rules for additional adding and subtracting can help younger children with their math skills while still allowing for the fun of a family night for older kids and adults.

Creating family plays, talent shows, and reenactments of stories can be a fun way to bring everyone together. Aside from helping your child to explore what interests them, it will also help them learn about teamwork and cooperation.

Many educational approaches already advocate group learning, so planning activities with siblings or similar aged peers in mind could also be an option.

Nature walks, treasure hunts, and community gardens can help children learn and strengthen relationships with their brothers and sisters and friends, and these bonding experiences can be done on weekends and during vacation.

If a certain activity seems like it might turn into an all day excursion, then planning them around your child's schedule might be better, as it can supplement their current studies without sacrificing any school time.

Supplementing a structured curriculum with fun side projects and activities can help your child see a different side to education, one that really brings to life everything they're learning about.

Getting hands on about every subject, from math and science to the language arts and history, may also help to pique your child's interest in topics they might have previously been indifferent to.

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