Posted on 12/01/2017
When we think of "education," we often think of school and school work, and most Americans outsource the lion's share of their children's education. Whether or not you're among the relatively few who choose to homeschool your children, your family's attitude about learning is incredibly important! We've talked before about what you can do to encourage occupational skills and STEM-related skills, so this time we'll focus on the wonderful world of words (like how I did that?).
Letter & Word Games
These can be purchased games (think Scattergories, Boggle, Scrabble) or just living-out-loud games. From finding letters in succession on road signs to randomly instigated rhyme times, your family can create a culture of word-love by simply playing with words! Don't stop with isolated single-word ditties, though: There's room for off-hand creation of puns, riddles, and even a little Pig Latin or Cockney Slang. Maybe get a little more involved by learning Morse Code, American Sign Language, or even a little Chinese or Latin, just for fun? It could become your family's way of speaking in code, even in public!
The Thing About Stories
Did you know that you can enrich your family's treasure trove of shared experiences by integrating shared stories into your family rhythm? Whether you listen to audio books in the car, sit on the couch after dinner to read together, or pass around a book, each reading the same chapter each week and then gathering for a "book talk," good literature has a way of enriching our lives by evoking emotions and changing us for the better. When we share that kind of thing, we're bonding in a way that everyday life sometimes fails to allow.
In Praise of the Written Word
In our world of texting and tweeting, the handwritten note has become a lost art. Why not revive it once in a while?! A letter doesn't have to be long or flowery to become something treasured.
Consider these short note prompts to get you started:
• Use "texting" word cloud notes like these for back-and-forth communication.
• Assign each family member a specific color and a certain number of sticky notes to use in a month.
• Ask each person to think of a single word that describes something they admire about another member of the family and come up with a visually creative version of it.
However you choose to encourage the love of language in your family, your lives will become richer for it. Whether it's related to words and literature or not, learning something new sparks those happy chemicals too, helping your family associate positive emotions with the time you spend together. Feel free to ask others in your family if there's something they've always wanted to learn about or learn how to do, and make it a point to make it happen together this year.
Read the Series
• Screen-Free Family Fun: Productivity Edition
• Screen-Free Family Fun: Service Edition
• Screen-Free Family Fun: Silly Edition
• Screen-Free Family Fun: Educational Edition
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