Home Schooling Dusting Books

 

Introduction

In 2020 and beyond learning takes place in two phases.

ü Before the cellphone

ü After the cellphone

Parents provide education before the cellphone because they are like peacocks in kids’ eyes. They follow them around. They want to help them rake leaves, clean the car or bake cakes. Kids can tell when parents are getting ready to go somewhere without them. They beg to be taken along.

This is the ideal time to impart survival knowledge because all is lost when they get their first cellphone. Parents are no longer peacocks. They become bugs, bugging them for this and that when all they want is to take the social media speed train like their friends.

Playing With Books

Once again, kids too young to have cellphones like hanging out with parents. They are curious so they ask questions. They learn quicker if learning is playful, not tied behind a desk like at school.

Don’t tell them you’re going to teach them about books. Entice them with this strategy.

1. Get notebook and pen ready.

2. Remove books from the shelves and put them on the floor. Kids will definitely ask why.

3. Take a rag or and old t-shirt and dust books. Get clean rags for them.

4. Write down the title and author and number of pages in the notebook. Kids will ask why.

5. This is the title. This is the author’s name. What’s an author mummy?

6. Make sure your little library has non-fiction. Take cookbooks for example. They will have the Contents/Chapters page. Fetch the spice rack from the kitchen and show them the little bottles with thyme, black pepper, cinnamon etc. Chapters are like spice bottles. They contain information.  

7. Dust a book. Write the information in the notebook but the kids call out titles, authors and number of pages.

8. Some words are new so you help them with pronunciation. Number of pages is important because you want them to know very early in life that there are small and big books.

Conclusion

This seems like a waste of time. Everything is digital now, even books. Not necessarily. It inculcates a love for reading and writing. The part about chapters and contents teaches kids about how information is packaged.

This will come in handy when teachers ask them to write essays about their favourite food, sports or grandma’s car.

Besides, writing will always be in vogue. Writing college admissions, proposals to get a business loan, judicial decisions, safety manuals etc.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.