Making the most of the Winter Break

With the holidays now upon us, Mark Polatajko, head of year 3, shares some pearls of wisdom about how to make sure that the learning continues over the break, but in a fun, relaxed and enjoyable manner.   Moulding inquisitive minds   Enjoying a winter break does not mean that learning stops. If anything, a winter break brings new and exciting experiences and challenges for children as they continue to explore the world around them. At Wellington College International Shanghai, one of our teaching tools is in enquiry-based learning where children are taught the skills to become independent learners who are not afraid to question and explore. A winter break can bring exciting learning opportunities, but children need parental encouragement to make the most of them. So it’s best if you can put away your phones and engage with them.   Enquiry-based learning opens children’s minds to learning through exploration. It provides them with the confidence to ask questions, to listen and reason. Within school, this skill is achieved through dialogue between children and their teacher, but on a winter break parents can help continue their learning. You may happen to visit a new city or restaurant or airport or mountain or shopping centre. Whenever you are somewhere new, try to explore the world through your child’s eyes. Ask them open-ended questions about where they are. Encourage them to think more deeply about their surroundings and what they are experiencing. Why? Where? When? Who? When? You can start the conversation. Why do we have airports? Why do cars have tyres? What is a passport? Where does snow come from? How to skis work? Just one question can lead your child to ask many further questions, and this will get them to continue their journey of enquiry-based learning   What makes it more exciting is that there will be times when even parents don’t know the answer, and your child will love the fact that you don’t know, because together, you can find out the answer before moving on to the next inquisitive question.   Keep them reading   Another top winter break idea is to make sure your child keeps reading, but not on their own, with you. Read to them and let them read to you. Ask them questions about the book to make sure they understand the setting, the characters, the storyline and other key elements of the book. Ask them what will happen next, then find out together if their prediction turns out to be true. Ask them the meaning of specific words. If they don’t know, use a dictionary together to learn the new words, and then use a thesaurus to learn synonyms. This way, your child will learn not just one new word, but many. Write down these new words in a home-made dictionary. Keep revisiting the home-made dictionary to reinforce their word knowledge. Vocabulary is essential for creative English writing and increasing children’s vocabulary is significantly helped through effective reading. One thing that is certain; children love the attention parents give them when reading books, and their subsequent love of reading is reflected in their creative writing.