As many parents will attest, learning takes place in a multitude of ways.
That’s part of the objective behind the Family Learning Tour, a free, multi-faceted event that sends parents into the West Shore community with their children to discover new activities and resources.
Under the theme of Let’s Play Together, this Saturday’s (Jan. 23) fourth edition of the Tour offers a range of family friendly creative outlets, ranging from working together on art of various kinds, taking apart electronics and building with Lego, to playing, listening and dancing to music.
Past events have given Your Literacy Connection Westshore, which oversees the event, a good sense of the type of information and activities people are looking for.
“What’s come up often is getting families out together in the community, trying something new that they can actually take home with them, whether a resource or something they haven’t tried before,” says Shantael Sleight, the organization’s literacy outreach co-ordinator.
“It’s those little tidbits that plant the seeds for something more to grow.”
While programs for younger children and their parents are regular features of the Tour, it’s equally important to provide activities for teens and tweens, she says.
For example the Digilab session, being hosted from 10 a.m. until noon at the Juan de Fuca branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library in Colwood, includes insights into moviemaking and building.
“Teens are actually the ones making the program plan,” Sleight says. “Whether it’s art or communications or building or music … they do the planning and deliver the workshop as well.”
The project’s community partners, who also include the West Shore Parks and Recreation, the Greater Victoria YM-YWCA, Pacific Centre Family Services, Victoria Conservatory of Music and Peninsula Co-Op, understand the concept of making learning fun and not something you have to drill into young people, she adds.
“There are subtle ways you can get across learning and knowledge which is not intimidating.”
Thus, the emphasis this year on play.
That can include something as simple as baking a recipe with your parents and learning about measuring cups, which, contrary to the beliefs of some youth, counts as math.
“It’s embedded in what you’re doing; it’s not like homework,” says Sleight. Also an artist, she will host an all-ages creative session involving tinkering and exploring art materials from 11 a.m. until noon at the West Shore Child, Youth and Family Centre gym at 345 Wale Rd. “We need the structure and formal systems, but we also need to put some value on what we’re learning on a daily basis.”
The number of Family Learning Tour sites has been pared down to nine this year to allow families to get to more of them.
The Tour runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Find locations and session details at sookewestshoreliteracy.ca by clicking on the Family Learning Tour link.
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