While kids might clamor for toys and the ads for educational aids are enticing, one of hte best things you can give your children is your time. Finding quality family home activities can create learning environments that will make a difference for your children.
The MegaSkills Education Center of the Home and School Institute has great suggestions for productive family time. It publishes a series of fun family ideas for learning activities that parents and kids can do together to strengthen skills for life and learning. Why not try one of these adolescent activities the next time the kids say, "I'm bored. What can I do?"
Activities for Early Elementary Developmental Learning
Q: How can I help my children gain confidence for school?
A: Learn something new. Encourage children to pick a new skill to learn such as swimming or sewing.
Ask children: How long it will take to learn and what you need to learn it? What will you do if you make mistakes? Will you keep on trying to learn? When children are trying to learn a new skill, it's important not to criticize too much. Find ways to help children to keep trying.
Activities for Upper Elementary Child Social Development
Q: How can my children understand more about how their behavior affects others.
A: Rate our behavior. Ask family members to rate each other. This can be done anywhere -- in conversation, around the dining table or in the car.
Questions to answer are: How well do I listen? How well do I help around the house? Do I do homework on time? Do we work together as a team? Write another person in your family a short note. Tell about something that bothers you. Most important, suggest how to improve.
Activities for Teaching Character to Middle/Junior High Students
Q: How can I get my children to open up and keep talking?
A: Listen to each other. Choose a family rule that causes arguments about schoolwork. It could be about homework and when it gets done. Ask your child to give at least two reasons for the rule. Then ask for two reasons against the rule. Play "What would you do if you were a parent? ... If you were a teacher?" Adults and children need to explain their points of view to each other. What differences are there? Can there be a compromise?
"Even if you give children everything money can buy," says Dr. Dorothy Rich, founder of MegaSkills Education Center of the Home and School Institute, "you still can't buy an ideal learning environment. The ingredients required to enrich a child's life aren't found in expensive toys and educational hardware. The recipe is made up instead of the inventiveness and the responsiveness of human beings. Much of it is free, but it takes some time and planning."
You can find more activities and learn more about MegaSkills by visiting http://www.megaskills.org/ or call (202) 466-3633.
Linda Wacyk is the mother of four a from Grand Ledge, Michigan.