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November 21, 2006
Dinner Time
I was talking to a friend recently-a friend with five children. We were talking about ways to get kids involved in learning. Well, actually it was more like how do you make learning real. That's a challenge.
When we go to school we learn lessons from a book or from the teacher. I've learned all kinds of lessons from all kinds of textbooks and actually done very well on tests. I studied and remembered the answers, wrote them down and got a good grade. The real learning comes, however, from my ability to take what I've learned on the test and put it to a real test out in the real world.
My friend and I didn't get that deep into philosophical stuff about learning. We were talking more about how do you get kids to learn what you're teaching.
She had decided to have her kids write about their favorite meal. The children are home schooled so this was an assignment as well as something fun to do. Each one wrote about what they liked best. She thought she'd finished with the lesson until she realized she could make this even more interesting.
She gave her two oldest money for groceries and told them they would need to buy and fix whatever their favorite meal was for the whole family! Now there's a challenge. They needed to go to the store, figure out the budget, buy the food-not too much or too little for a family of seven, plan the timing of each item, make the meal and serve it.
The results, as you can guess, were great. The meals were good and the kids learned all kinds of valuable practical lessons. So did Mom.
I carried the idea a bit farther. I did something similar with my kids only they had a night a week. They were to choose and fix the meal one night a week. I remember having stew every Monday night for months. Christopher loved stew and that's all he'd fix. He is now 23 and I have no concerns about him being able to fend for himself. When he gets hungry all he has to do is fix a pot of stew!
To me learning is the practical application of what is taught. Real learning is being able to take what goes on in a classroom and put it into everyday use. The fun is being able to take the practical application and turn it into something really creative and ingenious.
You never know. One of these family cooks could turn into the next Wolfgang Puck.
Posted by Dr Joni at 07:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack