Having some fun, while learning a life skill, translated…
Being an avid user of hi-tech gadgets, I couldn’t stop using the high-tech electronic devices daily, although it’d offered the conveniences, but it’d also, built up this wall. I’d from time to time, miss those seemingly outdated, but closer to human nature, the old things, and, I’d tried, incorporating them back into my life, to teach my children about how things used to be.
Take for instance, finding our ways, every time I’d turned on the navigator in my car, my son would always move forward and curiously watched that black dot getting closer to our destination. The GPS systems are really efficient, but, it couldn’t help my son experience how I’d needed to find my way on my own, and so, I’d taken the time from before the summer of his first grade year being over, and set up a using maps to find a way activity for us to do together.
Actually, the alternative motive for this was from the RPG I’d played when I was younger, every time I’d entered into a maze, it’s dark all around, and I can only rely on the character’s movements, to light up the surrounding environments. The players, in order to make sure they get out of the labyrinths, they’d trained themselves to draw maps; and, after practices, we’d become, good at it, and, we’re able to, increase our spatial awareness. There’s the motivation to learn to do this, it’s the most effective way to learn, but, for my first-grader, drawing the maps may prove to be, difficult for him, I’d feared it may put a damper on his love of learning, and so, I’d started training him from the basics, knowing how to read the maps.
I’d used Google Maps and printed out a simple map, and, made elaborations on it, to add to the fun of the games. The starting point was our house, the destination was the mall, and, the motivator for him to do this activity is he gets to play three games on his game machines. The afternoon heat, combined with how he’d just finished his lunch, made him lethargic, he’d raised up the white flag, and wanted to call it quits. And so, I can only, improvise, separated the map into smaller chunks, and, added the rest stops as needed, every time we’d passed an intersection, I’d had my son draw a huge “X”, giving him that sense of vanquishing the enemies, and, added in the math applications, have him calculate the distance he’d already traveled.
In his practicing to find the way, I’d always kept that two-steps distance from my son. He knew only a limited number of characters, and, he’d become, hesitant whether to turn left or right at the crossroads, and I’d only given him hints, and not helped him out. And finally, we finished three-quarters of the way, I’d shockingly realized, that I’d left my cell phone on the park bench we’d taken a rest on twenty-minutes ago, and so, we can only hasten up and went back there to search for it, thankfully, we’d found it. Not wanting to take the way we came, I’d had my son take another way, and, we’d passed by the courthouses, and I’d led him to read the posted verdicts on the bulletins outside.
All of these sudden changes, and interludes, added to the fun of our parent-child interactions, something that Google Map can’t offer to us.
So, because this father wanted to teach his young son how to read maps, he came up with this activity for them to do together, and, by not using his cell to find the way back, he’d taught his son to use what he already has, his mind, his senses, and they’d shared an afternoon of sightseeing together.