I am a big proponent of working with your child’s teacher to maximize learning. Education is a partnership. One of my big pet peeves are parents who believe that education is soley the responsibility of the teacher, and only the teacher. A parent is a child’s biggest role model and as parents we need to play a large active role in their education. I am very fortunate that Kaitlyn has an excellent Kindergarten teacher. The communication between home and school is excellent. We get a detailed calendar every month, all expectations are clearly outlined and we always know what she is studying in school. At home we strive to reinforce the concepts and skills she is learning at school and sometimes we like to extend her learning in ways that can’t happen in the classroom. Last fall she was studying dinosaurs at school so over the Christmas break we packed up the van one day and took the kids to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
This February & March Kaitlyn’s class has been learning about Maple Syrup. They had a field trip to a local sugar bush which was awesome but yesterday we also decided to take the kids to the Bronte Creek Maple Syrup Festival. One of Kaitlyn’s friends from her class, and her mom, came with us. This is our second year attending the festival and it is a great way to spend a March Break Day. We had a beautiful spring day for our trip, which made things even better as everything is outside. When we arrived at Bronte Creek we started with the guided tour of Maple Lane. Our guide was in period costume (Victorian) and took us to the different stations where we learned about the making of maple syrup throughout history. On their class trip the girls learned how maple syrup is made today and it was great for them to see how it use to be made. After our tour we visited a number of the historical buildings where they watched how fresh maple sugar is made (and tasted it), saw a number of farm animals, tried maple taffy and visited the farmhouse. We then took a wagon ride to the pancake house where we enjoyed pancakes with maple syrup. Before heading home we stopped at the Children’s Farm & Playbarn to burn off some steam for the ride home. This is a great day trip for anyone living within driving distance from Oakville, Ontario. The key is looking for exciting things for your kids in your community and in neighbouring communities. There is so much out there to give them concrete experiences and make their learning real and meaningful.
Mommy's Lessons 