How to Make Spring Cleaning a Learning Opportunity for Your Student
It’s that time of year again; the time to get rid of unnecessary or unwanted items and deep clean all those nooks and crannies of your home that usually go unaddressed. You’ve taken on spring cleaning year after year, but what you may not realize is the learning opportunities it presents for your student. Teaching your children that chores don’t have to be a dreaded obligation, but can be (gasp) fun, will ingrain a responsibility that could very well seep into how they approach schoolwork too.
As chance would have it, there are plenty of ways to make spring cleaning an opportunity for your student to learn something new. Best in Class Education, which helps K-12 students prepare for academic success through customized educational programs, rounded up the following activities to gain a new skill or brush up on academic lessons while making your homes spick and span.
Host a garage sale Take this as an opportunity to get rid of things you no longer need or want, and make some money while you’re at it. Help your student go through their room and closet, choosing items they no longer use to donate, sell, or throw away – think clothes with stains or toys they’ve outgrown.
Set up a garage sale for the items you’d like to sell and help your student manage the money. This will give them hands-on practice with counting correct change and creating a better understanding of what it means to manage finances.
You can also have your student write the message for promotional fliers, emails, or Facebook posts, which will expose them to basic marketing and give them a chance to work on writing, spelling, and typing.
Organize the spice drawer This is one of those tasks that makes your life so much easier throughout the year, but always tends to fall on the back burner. Place all your spice containers on a counter or the kitchen table and implore your student to help you alphabetize them to create some order.
Encourage your student to smell (and even taste) the different spices and talk about which spices you typically use for their favorite recipes. Your student will be able to both practice their English skills and learn about something fun.
Hunt for loose change Make gathering all the loose change scattered around your home fun by seeing who can find the most. Once you’ve checked between all the cushions and in all your pockets and bags, sit down with your student and count out how many of each coin you found. Then, have your student add those amounts together to see how much change you found total. Who knows, there may even be enough for a scoop of ice cream!
Sift through collections Children are natural collectors, acquiring special items that show their uniqueness and interests. If your student collects rocks, for example, clean and polish their collection, discussing the different types of rocks and where they can be found. With such a variety of things your student may collect, there are countless new and fun facts for them to learn.
Become expiration-date detectives It’s so easy to forget about that old ketchup bottle in the fridge, or the cooking sauce in the pantry. Help your student decipher which items in your kitchen are perishable, and have them check the expiration date on the containers to see if they’re still usable or if they need to be tossed. This is a great opportunity for your student to understand dates and even make a little timeline!
To help your student exceed his or her academics goals, Best in Class Education Center, offers a variety of customized, supplemental enrichment courses and tutoring options to ensure your students are equipped with the tools they need this school year. For more information about Best in Class services for your student, or about current franchising opportunities, visit www.bestinclasseducation.com or call toll free at 1.888.683.8108.
Mason Center 5142 Cedar Village Dr Mason, OH 45040 (513) 445-9876 mason@bestinclasseducation.com
