... From the UNESCO report on How Children Learn
How many times have your children asked, why? It is their favourite question. We know it best when they are asking why things are the way they are, and sometimes we find it difficult to answer… The third principle in the UNESCO report on How Children Learn [2002] states that, “People learn best when they participate in activities that are perceived to be useful in real life and are culturally relevant”. At Little Wriggler we aim to help parents answer these “why” questions because, despite what our children may think, we parents don’t know everything. Indeed, if we do our parenting job right, our children will eventually exceed us in knowledge! That is, in essence, how our society progresses and that is quite a thing we are all participating in!
However, children will also want to know why they must do things and learn thing. “Why must I wash my hands?” is our child’s favourite these days because he wants the convenience of wet-wipes. Oh they can be devious little wriggler! A child, well adults too, will be more engaged in learning exercises when the activities we create for them hold some meaningful relationship with the wider world beyond the exercise, in particular as pertains to the how and the why of it. How they must do something and why they must do it that way and why do it at all.
Children need to understand why something is important to know and do and that everyone else, including their parents, are also doing it. Avoid the infamous “do as I say not as I do” trap! Another great example is road safety. We can’t teach them good road safety and then cross the road when the pedestrian lights show “red” or “Don’t Walk”. The lesson they learn will be it is ok to cross when you want! For the lesson to be authentic it must be backed up by our own actions.
An authentic activity or learning scenario is one where it can easily be related to real world events and situations. For example, when we teach our child about what trains are for and how they work, using toys and videos, we then go out to let him see real trains in operation and take trips on them. This may seem simplistic but if you discuss the journey with your child, how the train works, what happens at stops, things you see along the way and so on, the whole learning experience is enhanced and the lessons embedded more easily because the child makes the relation of the at home lesson to his real-world experience or it. Getting out and about and seeing the world in action is absolutely essential for child development. It should feel effortless, like it is not a specific lesson at all, because in many ways it isn’t, it’s just normal activities and yet the children are learning from it because everyday life is learning in the early years.
With respect to cultural authenticity, we will leave that to parents to figure out what’s best. Parents are in the best position to decide this after all. Although as a multicultural family I can say that exposure to other cultures, in an authentic way (e.g. through friend) is very valuable.
Action:
Think carefully about learning exercises you might create and videos or app games you might wish to employ such that they themselves are embedded in real world experience. That is not to say that fantasy games are bad per se, just that they are more for fun (which is just fine) rather than education. Videos of science experiments and real engineering feats (like building sites) are great real world related things, maybe you can then go look at a bridge, or better yet a building site. Cooking and baking is another great real-world exercise. Seek excursions where you can show your child real world examples of what they are learning and consider travel via mechanisms you have been talking about.
At Little Wriggler we seek to relate learning to the real world by use of video footage that shows and explains things and concepts as they are in the world in relation to words and ideas that the child is learning. Children love vehicles so we have a series of videos showcasing many of their favourites in action. Children also sometime display an obsession with things like vehicles but this is nothing to be discouraged or worried about, see our piece on Extremely Intense Interest, for more on this.
We also seek to back up core learning such as counting to 10 with videos that present numbers in a real-world context.
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