Back to school: Learn Large!

So what ONE thing did you choose to teach with this year? All in one box curriculum? Online learning? Tutored lessons? Many people pick that one thing that they are going to go back to every morning, like eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We don’t have to eat the same thing every meal of every day. We can go where our taste buds take us. What about our mental taste buds?

The world is an exciting and experiential place. Take from it what your learners are interested in and build the skills and depth of knowledge around that. See where that takes you. For my kids we went to the cat shelter to play with cats. A friend of mine led a clean-up at a local river. My husband showed students solar flares through a special viewing scope.

We used these experiences to augment the basics we had to be sure we covered in the state standards. We read about what we were doing. Then, we wrote about everything we did. Our learning took from both worlds, a little boxed curriculum and a healthy dose of let's get out there and be in the world.

I’m not saying don’t have structure if you need it. Definitely make a schedule if you need to. If a student needs consistency in math or writing, do that. Don’t be afraid to change it up. Sometimes growth comes from doing things in a new way. Sing a greeting to a friend! Make a board game for learning verbs. Use spools of thread for counting, or word problems. You can even count the plastic bottles you clean from a freshwater stream!

It’s your family’s learning journey, cater it to your taste!