Everyday Learning at Home

ByChristie Burnett Updated on

If you watch and listen carefully you will find lots of spontaneous opportunities for everyday learning all around your home. Like rainbows in the vegetable patch.

Or delicious fresh corn that you grew yourself.

Not to mention the plethora of creatures who reside there with you.

And these everyday learning opportunities lead to lots of interesting discussions, like;

How the moth must have “forgotten to go to bed” because small people know that moths are more active at night.

Not to mention the one about animals who do not have tails. Which leads to all sorts of brainstorms about animal tails – long ones, short ones, curly ones.

Plus an ongoing debate about which babies are born from eggs versus their mummies tummies.

These are very important discussions in our home right now.

And if you wish to encourage the everyday learning potential of these instances  in your home, you could try;

  • Listening to what your child or children talk about when they are playing. It will give you lots of clues as to what they know and what they are thinking about which could lead to some very interesting conversations.
  • Asking lots of open ended questions which encourage further thinking and problem solving. Read more about how here.
  • Encouraging brainstorming of as many possible items, ideas or solutions as your child can come up with.
  • Visiting the library together to find more information.
  • Googling for more information.
  • Strewing interesting learning resources around your home. Read more about strewing here and introducing props for playful learning here.
  • Creating invitations to play.
  • Keeping watch for interesting creatures. Did I mention our recent plague of grasshoppers?

What everyday learning has been happening in your home recently?


Christie Burnett is a teacher, author and mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to find engaging, high quality learning ideas.

8 Comments

  1. We bought a pot of flowers and it has been currently decorating our kitchen table. My daughter was sitting there and suddenly said very enthusiastically “momma! look! I found POLLEN!” I came and saw what she meant… each flower had tiny bits of orange pollen in the center of it! I told my husband later that day, and he said that he only showed her once about pollen a while ago and it stuck with her. She went on to tell us that bee’s use pollen, and they make honey with it. 🙂

  2. Such a beautiful first photograph!

    There’s nothing nicer than playing in nature and children instinctively head to an open door to play in the fresh air rather than stay indoors.

    My oldest daughter came home from a school trip the other day and spent an hour with her sister making brushes with flax leaves (like lilly leaves) and a shell! She’d learned to do this on her trip, but I loved that she brought what she’d been taught home and so beautifully shared it with her younger sister.

    Here’s the blog post about it: http://www.catchingthemagic.com/2011/03/nature-tools-create-art/

  3. It’s a rainy day here and we were 20 minutes late for preschool this morning because we had to stop and examine every worm on the sidewalk along the way! So many questions, so much to learn about worms! Well worth being late for, I think!

  4. This post is a great reminder of how there are learning moments in everything we do. It’s so important to be mindful of that when we play with our kids. Thanks for sharing the links too — I really enjoyed the strewing article. I haven’t heard of that term before! In honor of St. Patty’s day we’ve enjoyed green milk and green pancakes, and have been noticing green in everything around us. Everyday is different!!

  5. Christie, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
    You are so correct that there is much to learn by noticing or observing things that are happening around us but the unfortunate part is we still keep looking for new avenues or things to happen. Thanks for the tips to be more vigilant about things happening around us.

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