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Our Foundation is a big proponent of outdoor learning<\/a> for children. Even crisp autumn days<\/a> present you and your young one\/s with the opportunity for educational adventures. But it’s not always practical to go outside, nor should learning stop there (or in the classroom). What goes on at home has a tremendous impact on your child’s development. Let’s take a look at some fun yet inspiring ways to keep those cognitive juices flowing in your own abode.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. Start an Indoor Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n Gardening is a great learning activity for kids. It teaches them about sustainability, the food to table concept, and gives them a sense of purpose and responsibility. It doesn’t need to stop with the autumn\u00a0harvest. Clear out a nook in your home that has plenty of sun exposure. If you have solarium, that’s\u00a0even better. Choose crops that will thrive in this environment. Great examples are avocados, tomatoes, carrots, chili peppers, and radishes. Learn more about these easy-to-grow indoors<\/a> fruits and vegetables. There are kid-friendly\u00a0helpful herbs<\/a> that can be grown at-home as well.<\/p>\n 2. Marine Biology, Indoors<\/strong><\/p>\n Recent reports about the death of the Great Barrier Reef<\/a> have had science classrooms spinning in the autumn of 2016. Exaggerated or not, this oceanic wonder of the world is in big trouble and the reverberating impact on global ecology is big. Science experiments at-home are a great way to get kids engaged in learning. Why not pick something that is a hot topic that they can relate to, and perhaps share with their own class? Enter a simple but fun indoor marine biology experiment.<\/p>\n Start by purchasing a portable do-it-yourself water quality testing device (available for less than $20) online or from your local hardware store. Grab a relatively deep container out of the cupboard and pour in filtered (to ensure purity) water. Ask your child to imagine that this reservoir is\u00a0a lake where marine life lives and that other forms of\u00a0wildlife drink from it. Inform them that local townspeople also get their water from the same resource and use it to water crops and for home consumption. Test the water’s purity as a benchmark and have your child record the results in a new notebook. Each week, introduce a new pollutant. An empty granola bar wrapper here, a soda can there and so forth (as long as it doesn’t stink up the house). Each week, have your child test the water and record the results in their notebook. With each passing period, they will come to understand how quality deteriorates with common everyday practices that impact\u00a0our water resources. They will connect the dots on what this contaminated environment does to anyone or anything that depends on it for survival. Who knows, you may end up raising the next Jacques Cousteau.<\/p>\n 3. Scrapbooking with a Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\n Scrapbooking has become a major pastime activity for teens and adults alike. Major retailers have sections dedicated solely to the practice. In truth, scrapbooking as we know it was born from the simple childhood urge to collect and curate things that we find dear to us. A scrapbook is the sticker-book of the new millennia. Let’s return the practice back to the kids. But this time, add an element of learning to it.<\/p>\n Have your child pick a worthy topic that they have expressed interest in. This could be one of the items mentioned above (i.e. gardening or marine biology) or anything else having to do with science, geography, the environment, and more. As long as it relates to the interconnected world around them. Buy a new scrapbook (with a lot of space!) and some non-toxic glue and tape, decorate it and show your child how to find “content” for the book. This includes clippings from the city or community newspaper, magazines, old books, or informative brochures picked up on your own outdoor learning experiences. Show them how to safely search for information on their preferred topic online, and proceed to print (on recycled paper) items for the scrapbook when applicable. Even items in their own backyard (feathers, leaves, etc.) can serve as informative fodder for their new indoor project.<\/p>\n 4. Letter Writing Campaign<\/strong><\/p>\n A consistent theme here, is identifying a child’s passion for something that relates to the interconnected world that they live in. Once you know what this is (they will let you know), begin a letter writing campaign. It doesn’t need to be about one thing. The environment, public education, and poverty are all concepts that kids grasp. But it must come from them, so don’t let your own politics get involved.<\/p>\n Teach your child how to craft a successful letter campaign, helping them with form and grammar, but maintaining their voice 100%. These letters can be about their concern over pollution, the destruction of a local playground for condominium developments or how there needs to be more programs to combat food insecurity. The letters can go out to the media, to local municipal, provincial, or federal leaders in addition to school boards and\/or businesses that impact their world. Letters can go to other altruistic organizations and foundations that serve the same efforts that they hope to contribute to. Our Foundation would be very excited to receive a\u00a0letter from your child, so feel free to start with us! Let them know that they must be patient. Not all correspondence will be reciprocated, but eventually a response will come.\u00a0All that it takes is one reply and your child will see how one small voice can\u00a0be heard by very big ears.<\/p>\n 5. Spend Some Time with Michael and Megan<\/strong><\/p>\n The Plant a Seed & See What Grows Foundation recently launched the Coin des enfants<\/a>, an online and interactive learning environment where your children are engaged with a variety of\u00a0activities and games, all rooted in the love of growing our own food and taking care of Mother Earth. The downloadable workbooks and games in this section are fun, easy, safe, free to use and created for both preschoolers and primary grade kids.<\/p>\n Do you have any at-home\u00a0activity\u00a0ideas for kids that you would like to share? We\u2019d love to hear about them!\u00a0Follow our Foundation on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, et\/ou\u00a0Google+<\/a>, trouvez cet article dans nos publications r\u00e9centes et laissez un commentaire.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our Foundation is a big proponent of outdoor learning for children. Even crisp autumn days present you and your young one\/s with the opportunity for educational adventures. But it’s not always practical to go outside, nor should learning stop there (or in the classroom). What goes on at home has a tremendous impact on your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[186,187],"class_list":["post-3903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","tag-at-home-education-for-kids","tag-childhood-education"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Fun At-Home Educational Activity Ideas for Your Children<\/h2>\n