Personalized learning can be fun!

Every parent that I know, wants that their child should do well in studies.

When I was a child, the only distraction available was Doordarshan channel on TV with very limited programs and the VC player on which we could play the cassettes containing cartoons like Tom & Jerry and Pink Panther under close supervision of parents. Playing with friends on the building grounds was allowed only if the homework was completed. Questioning your parents was not even considered an option and so when they said ‘Study’, you just did.

Forward 25 years and now you find the distractions are increasing by the day – Gaming on Play Stations and smartphones and tablets, huge stream of channels with cartoons and kids’ programs and then there are reality shows especially for kids. Questioning your parents’ decision is a done thing and parents these days are dealing with it. Then there is the worry of your child’ safety because the newspapers & internet are always swimming with news about children being abducted, assaulted and abused.

I figure that we should convert our superheroes & cartoon characters and even the games to reinforce the subjects taught at school instead of taking the child into the world of make-believe where gadgets or some unbelievable character comes to your rescue every time you are in a tight spot or you get points for shooting targets down.

Hence an idea of a personalized book. Set the context for the book – something that you are training your child to eventually take responsibility of. For e.g. going to the market to buy vegetables and fruits.

1. Identification of the vegetables / fruits can in turn check the spellings in different languages not just limited to English.
2. Toss a bit of information about these like soil, water, sunlight and you got the science of growing these. You can even get your child interested in farming translating to responsibility.
3. Include the places that it grows so that the Social Studies bit is taken care of.
4. Weights and pricing calculations will put fractions and other aspects of mathematics in perspective.
5. Awareness and personal safety do & don’t can be explained far better in this context of a real marketplace setting

Still, why should all this interest your child?

Because, your child is the lead actor in this book and the book revolves around him / her. And, tell me this which child does not love to be the know-it-all superhero?