Time to Broaden Minds
Other
I don't have any school age kids so am spared the nightmare of home schooling. But if I did and was finding it hard to cope if following a set curriculum I would be watching lots of tv with them and having debates afterwards. For history there are films like The King, Outlaw King, Mary Queen of Scots and also episodes of Horrible Histories. For nature there are programmes like Blue Planet and even gardening programmes which can teach them life lessons for the future of the planet and growing their own food. There are cookery programmes galore and I am sure there are some Carol Vorderman maths shows around. Playing scrabble (using a dictionary which is usually not allowed) teaches meaning, use and spelling of words and something I did every day with mine was to teach them a new difficult word, it's meaning and how it is used.
I adore teaching children between 5 and 11, before they get attitude as they soak up information like sponges. Pre covid I would have loved to have a Sunday morning school around my kitchen table helping kids catch up or learn more, but in this day and age stranger danger has made it impossible, despite the fact I have 4 CRBs. Trust has become a real issue and kids may be marginally safer but massively disadvantaged by the lack of it.
You could also get them a dartboard. Keeping score helps kids learn their mental arithmetic - a handy skill for life.
Pretty soon they will be able to double or treble any number from 1 to 20 instantly (they’ll just know) and add them together too, all without a calculator or needing to write it down.
Playing Monopoly helps kids learn about managing money, cash flow, and what is and isn’t a good investment.
Mmmmm as long as they don't end up in casualty Johnny! My two were lethal together if left alone for 5 minutes. Mind you that was in 70s when kids were allowed to be kids.
Boggle is another good game for making words and as a kid I used to love making smaller words out of one big word.
Unfortunately, education has been dumbed down since 1988 when GCSEs were introduced.
Imo, the best knowledge and learning that youngsters can get is within the home.
I agree if kids have responsible parents but many have couldn't care less layabouts with only a child's intelligence themselves. Totally incapable of teaching morality let alone anything that even requires minimum literacy or numeracy.
My intolerant attitude is a result of working on the periphery of social services and children in care.
I always enjoyed baking with my mum when I was younger measuring items, timing of cooking things. My mum does it a lot with the grandkids and my sister with my nephew.
These skills were lost to a whole generation when women no longer took pride in being a housewife. But then again, it became impossible to live on one wage as it would barely cover rent/mortgage. It should still be important at school, we did cookery and domestic science. Learning about the food groups and the health benefits was so important, no obesity crisis back then.
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