Photo by Allan Mas from Pexels
For more informational content and a wide range of Christian-themed gifts for your everyday needs, visit A Lost Sheep Catholic Store.
Your child’s classroom experience should not be the only way they gain knowledge about the world. Perhaps your child craves knowledge that the school system isn’t providing, or maybe they’re struggling with certain subjects. There are many ways outside the classroom for them to expand their knowledge, and there is a lot of research to indicate that learning outside the traditional classroom experience is an integral part of your child’s development.
Let’s take a look at a few ways for you to expand your child’s learning experience outside the classroom and help them overcome challenges in their learning mindset.
Read with Them
Reading to your child is one of the best ways you can support their brain growth and knowledge gain. If you start this practice early, it can lead to cognitive growth, future academic success, and improved imagination and creativity. When your child is older, you can help them choose books about the subjects they’re interested in — or choose books about that subject they’re struggling with. For instance, if your student is struggling in social studies, you can gently nudge them toward books that pique their interest while simultaneously
For instance, instead of relying too heavily on Sunday Mass or Sunday school to teach your child about God, sit with them and read the Bible. A one-on-one experience with you can help them open up to asking questions and being led through the Word with you at their side.
Introduce Them to Educational Video Games
If your child is focused on YouTube videos about people playing games and interested in video games for their own enjoyment, it might surprise them to find out that they can learn things in video games, too. The kinds of games that are most useful depend on age range, of course, but in general, games like Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego, The Oregon Trail, and Zoombinis are all effective at teaching things like geography, science, and math. Even Switch games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker offer ways for kids to learn spatial reasoning skills and puzzle solving, which will help them improve their logical reasoning.
If you’re playing games via the internet, it’s important to make sure your bandwidth is enough to handle the load. If the games seem slow or they aren’t loading properly (essentially, if your internet speed isn’t up to the task), you may need to upgrade your internet package. The good news is that with the emergence of 5G technologies, which are faster than the current LTE offerings and optimal for online gaming, many areas now have access to the 5G Ultra Wideband frequency. What’s more, these connections provide the speeds to keep up with gaming.
Take Them Into Nature
The world is God’s classroom. Taking your children into the world — which could mean just in your own backyard — and demonstrating the things they’re learning on a grander scale can help give them the context they need to really absorb the information. It’s one thing to read about science experiments in a textbook; it’s another to perform these experiments for yourself. Lists of easy science experiments can be found with a simple search. Remember to follow safety protocols and ensure your child is supervised whenever they’re doing any of these experiments.
All of This and More
These are only a few ways to get your child out of the classroom and more interested in learning on their own terms. Listen to what they tell you they need; often, the tools to help them are right at your fingertips — or in your own backyard.
Written by: Laura Pearson, edutude.net
