Infuse storytelling. Narrative is a powerful vehicle for
learning in any subject. Stories provide context and
make information relevant, which helps with long-term
memorization unlike straight facts from textbooks, which
tend to linger only in our short-term memory just long
enough to regurgitate information on a test.
If you want to introduce your child to environmental
issues, they’d benefit more from reading Lorax by Dr. Seuss
than learning about the latest emission figures. Living books
and great literature are cultural artifacts that connect us to
the real world around us and inspire a love of reading.
Then there are the stories our own children have to tell.
Encourage storytelling imaginative or real, whether at the
dinner table or around a campfire. Encourage them to write
their own books or recount them in a recording to produce
their own audio book. In telling their own stories, they’ll
also draw upon what they’ve learned and reimagine who
they want to become.
Consider play as essential. Playing is as natural to kids
as breathing so it’s not our kids’ mindsets that need
changing but our own. Play is not something extra that’s
done completely disparate from education. Play is actually
an integral means of learning, exploring, inventing and
connecting. Play makes learning relevant. Play expands
the mind. Play gives children a chance to think big. Play
also teaches kids to take initiative, solve problems, persist
and persevere. The idea that learning only happens when
kids aren’t having fun, is antiquated and perhaps deeply
ingrained from our own educational experiences. But we
don’t need to perpetuate this misconception.
38