Summer School is drawing to a close for most of us this week! So how has it been for you and most especially for the children you have been looking after for the past few weeks? I really wish we could do this all year long, but we can’t, which is a pity! Imagine if we could continue to explore the different aspects of learning we have covered in the last few weeks, Connecting to Nature, Good Manners, Practical Life, Language Development, Montessori Maths?

There are so many other areas of learning that we still have to explore so I thought we should end the Summer School series with Cultural Studies which for me brings everything else together for the child. Cultural Studies is great because it helps to expand the child’s vocabulary, use of Language and brings in all the other skills into use such as literacy skills, concentration, mathematics, cognitive development and most of all its so much fun for the child.

Every child really wants to understand her world and that is what Cultural Studies is all about. The sad thing is that the core basics that make up this body of learning for the child, that is History, Geography, Biology and Zoology are no longer important part of our nursery or primary school curriculum, and then the one subject that we do teach is sometimes not applied to real life. I am referring to Science. I wonder why we don’t think that these subjects are important? During this last week of Summer School surprise yourself and the children. Here are a few activities you may wish to explore with the children.

History: Open up those history books, ntell them stories of Mansa Musa, Kosoko, Madam Tinubu, Madam Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Tafawa Balewa. A child that does not know where this country has come from will not know where it should be going to when he becomes an adult.

 

Geography: Let them study the seasons in Nigeria. We say ‘Summer School’, but really is it Summer for us or the Rainy Season? We make them recite the names of states and capitals, but do the children know where they come from? Let them do a short project about their State, Town or Village! You will be surprised what they will come up with. So much to learn and explore, the history, birds, plants, food, animals, weather, resources in these different areas provide children with so much rich experience of life, and they are basically being deprived of these experiences right now.

Science: Children love animals, so why not spend some time studying the ones found in Nigeria for a change, look at the different flowers, plants, land-forms found in the country. What about a special look at Electricity, how is it generated ask the children about what NEPA means to them, for the older children get them to do a project on PHCN. Just try this out, you may find some children writing a poem or a story, some drawing a picture, some may even do research on the history of NEPA and come up with their own solutions to the problems of insufficient supply that currently plagues the country. Isn’t this what we all want in the end children who can think outside of the box and become solution providers for their community, nation the world.These are simply a few suggestions, I know that you can come up with more topics to explore. Let’s make this last week of Summer School a memorable one as we explore different aspects of Cultural studies.