The Reasons Children Need to Keep Learning Outside of School

There’s always ways for your kids to learn and grow. Check out The Real Reasons Children Need to Keep Learning Outside of School

 

The Real Reasons Children Need to Keep Learning Outside of School

As parents, it is essential that we give our children the tools they need not just to thrive in school but in life. We need to encourage their creativity, especially if it’s not something that’s being cultivated in the classroom, but we also need to remember that life is an opportunity to learn. Many parents may have recently taken their kids back to school and are silently celebrating because their kids didn’t do much throughout the holidays, but this is why we need to ensure that our children keep learning outside of school. Here are some great reasons that highlight the significance of ongoing learning that will set your children up for life.

Plenty of Practical Life Skills

If you have a professional sewing machine gathering dust or old tools going to waste, you may benefit from teaching your children practical life skills that they don’t necessarily get in class. If there’s one criticism about education it’s that while children can learn Pythagoras Theorem or calculus, these things don’t translate to everyday life. It’s far more beneficial to give our children the opportunities to learn practical skills. Basic home maintenance, gardening, cooking, and budgeting are all valuable for daily living but also to increase their self-sufficiency.

Problem-Solving

While there can be a degree of problem-solving within a school environment if you want your children to develop their abilities to thrive in a professional environment, give your children problems that they need to solve and apply how they went about solving these problems to real-world settings will ensure that they don’t struggle as much as other children. 

We have to remember that life is always going to throw up problems and we can’t avoid them, but we can change how we approach the solution. Critical thinking skills are vital in every part of our existence and the sooner we can teach our children how to solve problems the better it will be for them.

The Opportunity to Explore

Your child’s life may very well be dictated by a timetable. They go to school, come home, and do extracurricular activities, and the cycle continues day in and day out. If there’s anything we need to instill in our children it’s the ability to explore in life. Learning about different perspectives, interests or anything outside of school can arm your children with a number of skills that they can develop later in life. This is why we have to cultivate that skill that is, very simply, questioning everything. 

Many teachers find those inquisitive children more frustrating than anything else. However, if it’s something that is discouraged in school we can benefit from teaching our children the importance of critical thinking and looking at things from a different angle because this will work wonders for them in the real world. While those teachers may not like the fact that your child has a questioning nature it’s essential to remember that the teacher has got this wrong, not your child! If we aren’t inquisitive we’re not challenging the status quo.

Emotional Development

Our children can benefit from a life outside of school. We can encourage extracurricular activities or encourage them to do something new every single day during holiday time can provide them with different opportunities to develop a number of different skills that are critical in the real world. Communication, empathy, and teamwork are all things that will contribute to their emotional development. 

When we encourage curiosity, exploration, and learning things beyond school it will broaden their horizons and will not just improve their emotional intelligence but it will make them well-rounded human beings. We could all feel that we lived a sheltered existence in certain aspects of our education and this is why we very simply have to give our children more options in which to thrive and this doesn’t just mean in a traditional way but recognizing that anything in any situation is an opportunity to learn. 

They Can Improve Their Health and Well-Being

Mental health and well-being are two different categories. The fact is that doing things outside of school helps them to develop healthier habits in the long run. Teaching our kids something like meditation may not be a useful tool from the perspective of some parents but going beyond a typical school curriculum will fill in the gaps and they will benefit in every aspect of their life.

There is only so much school can teach us. A school education is essential but we have to ensure that our children keep learning outside of school. Giving them a wider palette to draw from will ensure that they are not just stimulated but if you give them opportunities to develop themselves during holiday times, it also means you can benefit as your kids are being occupied! It is a win-win!