In the next few issues of our newsletter, I am going to give you some practical suggestions on how you can help your child become a more independent learner. I am going to focus on the 7C’s: curiosity, confidence, collaboration, communication, creativity, commitment, and craftsmanship.
These are the qualities suggested in ‘Educating Ruby: What Our Children Really Need to Learn’. The first quality is curiosity. Curiosity is at the heart of all learning. Being curious involves noticing things and asking questions.
Young children have curiosity in great abundance, constantly pestering those around them with questions. Here are some things you and your child might like to try if your curiosity needs a boost.
1. Stop answering your children’s questions. Apart from things which might pose risk (‘Is it safe to cross the road now, mum?’) try not to provide answers but instead respond to your child’s questions with phrases like: ‘What do you think?’ or ‘That’s a great question; how could we find out more?’
2. Try new things together. Simple things like going to the library to get new books/DVDs or cooking a new recipe together will create natural situations in which questions can bubble up. You can be more adventurous: visiting new places – or safer: learning a new game at home, for example.
3. Replace ‘Not now’ with ‘Why don’t we’. It’s so easy for us as adults to squash our children’s enthusiasm. We have things to do and it can conflict with our family’s expressions of curiosity. Give yourself permission to take some time to be curious. Follow your child’s lead and explore something that interests them. You might find you enjoy it more than you expect.
I would love to hear your stories. Share them with me on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/KipMcGrathHunter/
Five Curious Facts
1. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
2. Apples float in water but pears don’t.
3. Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.
4. 76.5% of people who read fact number 1 tried to lick their elbow.
5. The name of all the continents in the world end with the same letter that they start with, if you ignore the words ‘North’ and ‘South’: Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, Antarctica, North America and South America.
Teacher’s Tip
Monthly Joke
Doing Their Homework!
When Dad came home he was astonished to see his daughter, Victoria, sitting on a horse, writing something.
‘What on earth are you doing there?’ he asked.
‘Well, the teacher told us to write a story on our favourite animal’, answered Victoria. ‘That’s why I’m here and that’s why Sara’s sitting in the goldfish bowl.’
Sudoku
Fill in the blank squares with the numbers 1 through to 9. Every row, column and 3×3 region of a 9×9 grid must contain each number only once
Student of the Month
“Henry has come on in leaps and bounds since starting at KipMcGrath. He has received so much support from his tutor and we are all so proud of him. We are so happy we brought him here.”
-Craig (Henry’s Uncle)
Award for Outstanding Improvement in Maths
Child-made School Lunch
Using slices of melons, take small alphabet cookie cutters and let the kids punch out their own names.
Thread the letters onto a wooden skewer then eat. You can do the same with vegetables, cheese or bread
