Opportunities for learning

The best way to learn is to experience. Reading is great as it allows us to understand. There are great ways for us to learn every day. We develop an understanding when we connect with real life and exploring that. I thought, I could share some ways we can help our children in learning every day.

• Use public transport. Children may recognise numbers on bus, train and tram routes. Look at timetables and even maps. My 3 year old has always loved trains. He enjoys looking out the window and he recognises letters on the station names. My 6 year old now reads them out. They can even guess which station is coming up next.
• Allow your older children to estimate how much the petrol will cost when filling up the car. Litres = dollars. This may even give them an idea how expensive it has become! You can also help them to measure tyre pressure.
• Look at road maps and see if your children can work out the best way to get to a said destination.
  
• Estimate how long to reach 5, 10 or 100km. Even count with younger children how many seconds to reach one kilometre (or mile) while in the car.
• Children from a very young age will be able to recognise signs and even brand names! My girl knew from a young age which store we were going to by their sign. I am sure there are many toddlers who know the yellow arches and the store that mum and dad frequent most too. Encouraging then to read signs will help them to understand and builds a base for learning.

"We all read ourselves and the World around us in order to glimpse what and where we are. We read to understand or begin to understand. We cannot do but to read. Reading, almost as much as breathing, is our essential function" Alberto Manguel - The History of Reading

It is so important to support and motivate children to want to learn with praise and positive encouragement.