Recently, the idea of a "learning family" has become important. This idea recognizes that not only do parents teach children, but children also teach parents, and oftentimes parents and children learn together.
Here are some characteristics of "learning families:"
· Any family can be a learning family. Such a family can be any configuration: two parents with children, one parent or guardian with children, a couple with no children. Some or all of the members of a learning family are hungry for new knowledge; they actively seek new (or old, traditional) knowledge and share it enthusiastically with the others.
· In a learning family, parents don't neglect the basics. During the crucial first few years of life, good parents and other caregivers build children's brain power by smiling, talking, reading and interacting with them. And good parents build and maintain an ongoing learning environment. They fill the home with good books and magazines; they practice the learning habits they preach.
· In a learning family, parents view themselves as their children's learning partners, not their programmers. In fact, children are encouraged to share their knowledge, and a learning parent is eager to receive it. For example, if a kid likes to hunt bugs, a learning parent can go along with a book on entomology.
· A learning family seizes the moment. When parents and children shop together, parents can use the opportunity to teach their children about weights and measurements, nutrition and money, and children can build self-esteem by helping with the family shopping.
· In a learning family, anyone can become an expert-Mom on medicine, a teenager on computers. And the family experts become learning resources for the rest of the family.
· A learning family uses the whole community as a classroom and laboratory. The lessons can come from volunteering at a homeless shelter, helping start a teen center, exploring museums and parks, learning local history. A learning family is involved with the schools, in a supportive, prodding, positive way. The Internet offers a rich extension of physical community, best explored together.
· Most of all, a learning family has fun when it's learning. And that's the most important long-term lesson a child can learn about learning.
Debbie Wilburn is County Agent/Family and Consumer Science Agent with the Hall (770)535-8290 and the Forsyth (770)887-2418 County Extension Service.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/11/187279