Family Learning at its best

This post was published on the 26th November 2008
Written by Karolyn Allen
Published in the student blog

As the title implies, family learning, gave my whole family the opportunity and experience of learning together.

There were various courses on offer, these included, Numeracy course, Literacy course Science course, Story sacks, and an Arts and craft course, just to name a few.

The Numeracy, Literacy and Science courses were geared towards learning with your child and using various methods to adapt to the childrens’ style of learning alongside the more conventional classroom methods.

I particularly enjoyed the Literacy course and together with my children, we gained many new skills, these included

• Learning new ways of making games using materials readily available in the house, e g Snap – made by cutting out repeated patterns on wrapping paper and laminating them to make more durable – these games in addition to being fun to play, also built both our memory and the children’s deductive skills. 
• We also made simple puppets of storybook characters using materials like paper bags, pipe cleaners and feathers, which helped to bring the story book text alive. 
• We undertook some projects – making mini books a) like personalising well known books (we used the book ‘Where’s Spot’) and using our children as the main character instead, b) We also made themed mini -books of our choice, again with the children as the main character e.g. My family or My summer holiday.

Story Sacks was another interesting course. Various resources are made to support a chosen, well-known children’s picture storybook, these may include soft toys/puppets, props and scenery, all based on the book, a fact based book similar to the book’s theme and also games and activities.

These resources are stored together in a sack, hence the name, and can be used for role play and to liven the storybook and develop a life long interest in books.

We made ‘Story sacks’ for books like ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ and ‘Kipper’s Toy Box’. Everyone of us involved in the course had the opportunity to contribute from choosing the book, what props, games or scenery to make, materials to use and how to best way to bring the book to life.

We had the opportunity to put skills we already had into practise and learn numerous new ones, these included – Knitting, puppet making, use of sewing machines, watercolour painting, clay moulding/pottery and team building.

The above is just a summary of the benefits Family learning has to offer and I found that every one of the courses that we took part in as a family provided invaluable experience and opportunities, these include;

• The invaluable opportunity to learn with my children, which creates a lifelong bond
• The chance to learn new skills, we otherwise would not have had the opportunity to as a family
• A platform to offer my opinions and have them taken on board and valued which in turn built confidence to try areas I hadn’t ventured into before
• I was able to exchange ideas with other parents
• Provided an opportunity for team work and building
• Provided an insight into the educational system at this stage in my children’s education

Although a lot of the courses were geared towards my younger children, the structure and contents of the courses were applicable to all ages in the family. Based on all of the above, I would recommend all the courses available under the ‘Family Learning’ umbrella for every Family.

Mrs O Adedeji