One of the hottest trends in the classroom is project-based learning. It’s a curriculum in which class instruction is geared toward giving kids the tools needed to complete one big project, preferably one they would be asked to accomplish in the real world.
For example, a geometry class might focus its instruction toward having the kids design their own buildings. A biology class will cover DNA for the sole purpose of having kids take samples of food from restaurants to see if it is, in fact, chicken.
All stakeholders like the approach because it better reflects what goes on in life after students have finished school. Is there a way for parents to approach home life in the same way with their kids? Absolutely! Give these a try.
Food shopping
Give your child a realistic budget and the same dietary parameters you try to follow and then put them in charge of food shopping for a week, starting with researching a shopping list. They will quickly find out that eating at McDonald’s every day is not a realistic plan, either for the budget or for the diet.
Show them how to examine recipes, nutrition information, and even coupon sources. With your help, they will find out just how complicated the family’s food shopping can be, while practicing their math and economics skills.
Big projects
Project-based learning, boiled down to its simplest element, can be described as “figure out how to do it, then do it”. There are plenty of projects around the house where this can apply.
Let’s say, with spring coming up, it’s time to landscape the back yard. You might hire a landscape designer and crew… or you can turn your child into a landscape designer. Give them the tools and information to learn about design and the goals of landscape architects, and then have them come up with a plan that makes sense (and, again, fits the budget). Then let them make it happen. They will be bringing some geometry and biology into their daily lives.
Civic responsibility
There aren’t as many options for students to use their reading and writing skills in home-based projects, but the worlds of politics and newspapers can help. Hopefully they have an issue they care about, even something as simple as building a new skate park in town. Show them how to research the issue and find the best place to direct their ideas. It might be a letter to the editor, the mayor, or even the president. But through this project, they will be practicing their literacy and government skills and might even be printed in the newspaper or receive an autographed picture from the president.