As many of you would know, Learning that's Fun is a website. It's a Facebook page, it's an Instagram account and it's a book. But what does all of that really mean? What's it all about? Why are we here? So I'll let you in on the story and the secret.
It's a message.
A message that I wanted to share.
When I was tutoring I started to research, read more about how kids learn, how to help struggling children, understand learning difficulties and disabilities and more about the education system too (scary place, let's not go there).
But what I found was that there are so many kids out there with learning difficulties and learning disabilities, many that will go undiagnosed for their entire lives, many that will never get the individual help they need and deserve. Help that is just about impossible for our teachers to give, because they couldn't possibly find the time in the day to devote to every single child in their enormous classes, and help that they just aren't trained to give in regular, run of the mill school.
Not only are there children with learning problems, but there are kids out there with behavioural problems, and issues at home that are holding them back from getting the most out of their education. And the classroom just can't cater to their needs, and unfortunately many of these kids will struggle through their entire lives with simple things like reading or maths.
I can't solve those problems. It will take a complete shift in society and government to change our education system and curriculum. Hence the massive growth in Home Schooling in Australia (but again, another complete story there!). But what I learnt as a tutor was that learning doesn't have to be boring. In the classroom, reading and arithmetic is like a chore for some kids. They hate it because they struggle with it, so they play up, they get distracted, they make excuses. But it doesn't have to a chore. Let's make it fun!
There are whole schools of thought out there that are based on "learning through play", "experiential learning", "sensory learning" and lots of others. Research and common sense would back them up. Kids learn when they are having fun. And it doesn't mean just little kids, toddlers, kinder and preps. Learning by having fun works for EVERYONE! If you enjoy a book, you read it - if it's boring, you put it down and walk away. If you go to an exhibition of something you are passionate about, you stay for hours....if you go with your husband to a car show and you hate cars, you probably want to leave after 5 minutes. Kids are exactly the same. If they are interested, if they are having fun, laughing, enjoying, spending quality time with their family, they will learn new things without even realising it's educational.
It's such a simple message, but one that so easily gets forgotten in the day to day routine, especially if "fun learning" wasn't a part of your own day to day childhood. There are so many simple everyday things we can do at home, in the car, out in town, on holidays etc to add some extra learning time to our lives. You don't have to be university qualified to be the Single Most Important Teacher in your child's life. As parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties, family friends, neighbours we are absolutely the most influential teachers kids will ever know. That's the message I wanted to share. So I wrote a book. The rest, as they say, is history.
If you would like to see the book
click here.
Please feel free to leave some comments below to share your feedback, or your own ideas or suggestions for fun family learning activities.
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