Healthy Routines - Making a Home for Learning #healthyhabits #cgc

   

This back-to-school season, Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive have partnered with HealthyChildren.org and Dr. Alanna Levine to provide moms with helpful tips to set their kids up for success as they head back to school, and Clever Girls Collective is joining in on the fun! To find out more about this great program, subscribe to the Healthy Routines Facebook page here! http://on.fb.me/NhW05C. #HealthyHabits #CGC

Learn more and support goals by visiting our Healthy Routines Facebook Page.

#HealthyHabits #CGC

As a homeschooling family, we have education around us 24/7; however, even when my older kids went to public school, education never left our home.  One of the best gifts you can give your children is a love for learning.  How do we do this?  Actually, education is all around us making it easy.  Here are a few tips:

1.       Make reading a daily adventure.  Kids shouldn’t only read when it’s assigned.  Try making the 30 minutes before bed reading time every night.  Let them pick their favorite book or magazine to read.  Finding book series the kids love is a great way to keep them reading.  Investing in the newest book in a series when it comes out is well worth the expense if they disappear into their rooms and can’t put the book down.  

2.     Let your kids learn from nature. Take a walk around your neighborhood or a local park. Each time make a point of discovering what lives there. You can bring a jar and look at the insects you find, or bring a camera and take pictures of all the beautiful flowers or birds. Come home and try to see if you can identify them. Do a leaf scavenger hunt. Collect leaves from the trees around your area and then find out what species of tree they belong to. Once your child begins to see the individuality and beauty in nature, he/she will never stop exploring and wondering.

    
3.      Take your everyday chores and make them opportunities for knowledge.  Have the kids help prepare meals, show them how to change the oil or a tire, walk them through what it means to balance a budget, discover why the chemicals around your house keep things clean, buy exotic fruits or vegetables from the grocery store and see what they taste like then learn about where they come from, the list goes on and on. 

4.       Find out about your heritage from your relatives and ancestors.  Children love to learn where they came from.  Am I part American Indian, or Spanish, or Irish?  When kids learn their roots, they become more invested in learning about that part of the world and the history behind it.  It becomes personal.   

5.     Plan your family vacations to include learning experiences.  No matter whether you have a staycation or vacation, no matter where you go, make sure you investigate the learning opportunities.  Can you visit a Mint, go to an aquarium, see a famous battleground, go panning for gold?  The possibilities are endless.  By including learning as part of your vacation, learning becomes part of life and not just academic.  Seek out those opportunities to take in new experiences with your children.  The broader their perspective of the world, the broader their options will be for the future. 

6.     Model a thirst for knowledge.  First and foremost, our children learn by watching.  If they see you investing in your education, they will embrace it as a part of their lives.  Make a point to seek out new knowledge for yourself.  Take a college class, go to a seminar, learn a new skill.  Show your children that learning is a enduring process and not something that ends at graduation.

School is a great place for academics, but seeking knowledge is a lifelong process that begins at home.  Families who learn together have the pleasure of the constant exploration of life and the world around them.

For more ideas - head on over to the Healthy Routines Facebook Page...

 

*** Disclaimer:  As a member of Clever Girls Collective, I was selected to participate in the Healthy Habits program sponsored by Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive. The content and opinions expressed here are all my own. #healthyhabits #cgc