« Beware, Doctor on Campus | Main | Travel's Little Pleasures »
October 01, 2007
Reading, Writing and Whatever on Saturday?
Saturday School moves everyone from the front room to the classroom. Moms come to drop the kids off and stay the morning. At least last Saturday morning at a school in Sacramento that's what 11 Moms did.
St. Hope School in Sacramento, a charter attracting children from around the area, started it's Saturday school this year. In addition to breakfast, academic classes in the morning, lunch, and enrichment in the afternoon, there are three hours available for the parents. All parents must put in 40 hours of time helping out at the school during the year. Most put in a lot more. These parents decided to show up for a learning workshop to see what they could do at home.
More than one was concerned about the workshop being a lecture, but were delighted to find a little talk and a story reading was about all they'd hear from the presenter. The rest was hands on.
What fun to watch one parent make a booklet to take home to her child, another made a schedule of various activities they could do together. We focused this session on listening, speaking, and writing skills, and each of the parents walked away with more than one activity she could do with her child in the next week.
It doesn't take coming to a Saturday School workshop in order for you to do learning activities at home with your child. I'm glad they came because I enjoy doing workshops with parents. We all have a good time and they always teach me something, but you can start tomorrow.
Here's one you might try at any age after he or she has started writing. Have your child write the directions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You might want to tell her that you will do exactly what she writes so be sure to include all the steps and directions. Have her read what she's written. Follow what is read exactly. If she tells you to put the peanut butter on the bread and doesn't tell you to use a knife, use your fingers. If she says to put the jelly on the peanut butter, put the jar of jelly on the peanut butter. Follow direction.
You'll both laugh a lot, but you might not want to eat the first sandwich. After a few tries, directions get very clear and precise. Try it this week and see what happens. Let me know how it goes. The ladies on Saturday enjoyed this one too.
Posted by Dr Joni at October 1, 2007 09:03 PM