Educator Asks:
Can some creative parents offer ideas on how they teach academic skills, while engaging children in household routines?

Parent Answers:
I view every activity as a "teachable moment". My kids learn:

  • math skills while sorting things that are alike and different as we fold laundry and set the table.
  • literacy skills by using crayons or colored pencils to draw and write the family grocery list
  • about reading as they draw new illustrations for favorite books and create new illustrated stories
  • a sense of responsibility and math skills when we draw a family chore chart
  • math skills and a sense of distance when they draw maps of our travel plans or street routes to their favorite places around town
  • science concepts when they draw observations of plants and animals outside our window, including birds nests, foliage changes, and tracks found in snow.