The importance of making learning fun and relatable through daily interactions

The importance of making learning fun and relatable through daily interactions such as cooking and grocery shopping together

I was watching one of my favourite reporters – Richard Quest of CNN and casually mentioned to my children that if he were my teacher when I was in high school or university, I would probably be scoring A+ for all of my subjects.

Why?

Because he makes the subject or segment that he is reporting so much fun, alive, relatable and easy to understand!

It was the same as one of my finance lecturers; he used examples from the "real" world and applied them to the subject he was lecturing. It made the subject come alive.

I am very passionate about bringing fun into our daily lives, especially when sharing knowledge with your children. I personally believe that learning not only should starts from home, it should be relatable and being introduced in a FUN way!

You see, during my schooling time some 40 plus years ago, our study regime was different. We tended to learn through the spoon-feeding method; we did not actually question why we had to learn those things, we just did. So once the exams were over, we sort of forgot most of the things that we had learnt.

I am not saying all those "spoon-feeding" methods are bad; some were actually very good and essential to our learning, for example, memorising times-tables. We had to memorise the 12 times tables at a very young age. Now looking back, it was an important exercise to do, especially when it came to application and problem solving. We could just multiply or divide equations with ease without calculators.

However, what I would like to emphasise is when it comes to sharing your knowledge with your children, make it relatable and fun. This way, your children will not only understand what you are saying, but enjoy being part of the conversation or activity as well.

So if you want your child/children to enjoy maths for example, incorporate the terms in your day to day vocabulary.

And why it is useful?

Because maths is alive. Maths is something that you need every day, and the trick to learning anything new is being familiar with the terminology of the subject.

Once they hear those terms over and over again, it starts to become second nature to them. So when they are introduced to the subject, it will be easier for them to understand and they will start to appreciate what they are learning and subsequently able to apply it in a more sophisticated way.

However, one thing I would like to emphasise is making the conversation light-hearted; make it fun and unstructured, because home is not a school. Home is meant to be a place where they feel belonged, loved and appreciated, and on top of that, I always believe that learning always starts from home.

So how can you encourage learning in a home environment without being structured?

Use everyday activities such as cooking together in the kitchen, doing grocery shopping together etc as a way to enhance your message, so that your children will be immersed in fun interactions with you without realising that they are learning.

Focus on:

• Fun – because children learn through PLAY.
• Introduce terms that are relatable – suitable for their level of understanding.
• Incorporate fun-learning into everyday activities that you do together with your children, such as grocery shopping or cooking.

Remember also that every child is unique in his or her own way, and they learn differently.

Importantly – FUN is key. When your children are having fun, they want to do it again and again, and through those repetitions, they learn.

Check out GoKids segment. I will continue to create fun activities for the children.

Have a wonderful day with your family and I would love any feedback or hear any ideas that you have.

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