Do you do extra stuff to complement your child’s education?

I find what my children are learning and school can be a good springboard into expanding my children's interests - if they are enjouing what they are doing at school, then I encourage that, enable them to go more in depth and then broaden out from that, expand their school curriculum into areas the school doesn't cover at all, or encourage them to develop interests and skills I think school is not instilling in them. I want my children to understand there is an exciting and challenging world out there which they need to be able to navigate.

If the school suggested things to do that would help the kids, then yes I would do some of it. Anything difficult in terms of money/time/distance etc then probably I'd leave that unless the benefit was massive. I'd be grateful for the suggestions. They are just suggestions, not demands. Unfortunately at our school, we have no enriching suggestions like that, we just have millions of fucking boxes to tick.

Given the number of kids that go into the school library at lunchtime to look at National Geographic, one subscription is enough! . And of course what you do with your kids doesn't have to be curriculum related - the school syllabus is too narrow as it is. Why the hell would you confine yourself to the specific subjects and topics within those subjects that they are learning at school? What's the point in that? There's tonnes of stuff entirely unrelated to the curriculum which you can do with your kids. There's a deficit in practical skills training in schools - gardening, diy, electronics, cooking, budgeting skills, animation, designing your own website, voluntary work, touch typing, housework, map reading, planning a day out for the family, it's all worth giving your kids experience of!...

No we wouldn't do any of those things as we are in the north West & so a trip to the RSC or the V & A wouod be unfeasible.

As a family we do go to the theatre (a lot) but it's not curriculum related.

I was thinking the same as Ta1kin
Some of these answers seem to come from people who have little idea how different London is from the lives lived by the rest of the Country.

Do agree with Bubble though Helping your child to have interests and general knowledge is important to me

And, I think, as much as the knowledge from a particular visit, what I hope I have given my dc, is a willingness to try new things, and have new experiences. I don't think everything needs to be linked to a narrow curriculum. I think a love of new experiences is something to foster.

We've been to the British Museum & various other museums to see exhibitions linked to what they've been learning in school e.g. Egyptians. We went to the Natural History Museum when ds2 was learning about dinosaurs. Ds1 was all & missed a trip to Think Tank so we took him another time. We've probably done lots of other things I can't think of atm.

Many regional museums and venues are good, though - there are all sorts of interesting places to visit all over the country.
All of the ones in my county are facing significant budget cuts
the independent ones are losing their grants
the Council run ones are losing their staff

school libraries sometimes have subscriptions to things like National Geographic
1500 kids in a school, one subscription

Oh, and school libraries sometimes have subscriptions to things like National Geographic, if you're lucky.

Cash is indeed the biggest barrier. Shakespeare plays, ballets, opera, etc, however, can be seen live from the local cinema, as many cinemas regularly screen national theatre live - no need to actually go to Stratford or London or wherever if you can't afford it but can afford the cost of a cinema ticket and want to experience a live performance of the play you are studying in school. Also, TV documentaries and the internet are accessible to the majority of people. London museums may be free, but the cost of getting to London from far away, particularly if too far for a day trip, is likely to be prohibitive for many. Many regional museums and venues are good, though - there are all sorts of interesting places to visit all over the country. It partly depends what interests you and therefore what you are willing to spend any spare cash you have on.

Lists like that show why there is such an educational disparity between London and the regions

Small towns with no museum, no theatre, and parents not willing / able to pay for National Trust / English Heritage / RHS (especially if no good sites near them.

Londoners forget how much extra money the Government pumps into arts and culture in London compared with the rest of the country
(you get 20 times as much per head)
and then Londoners get reliable public transport (with free buses for kids)
that do not exist outside London

and for parents who do not have a lot of ready cash, complying with such a list is frankly impossible

Going to a museum or the theatre together is touching base with your children though! Touching base can be a family outing as much as sitting watching tv together.

I find it quite interesting that my DD can find little to talk to her flatmate about. They live in London - zone 1. Flatmate keeps going home. Hasn’t been to the theatre, an exhibition, or anything that London has to offer. She is simply not interested in anything but her job and running. She has, as a result, little to talk about. She’s sat on beaches for every holiday but has never been to a city for a holiday. Not one. I am pleased my DD has a wider array of interests and knowledge. Her flatmate has a first class degree but in many ways she is not educated. Helping your child to have interests and general knowledge is important to me.

Hello, If you want to reinforce what your kid is doing I suggest to check in www.khanacademy.com, I use a lot with my son now 14, Education these days are so topic and kids are growing a digital world and this site is a massive example how kids can learn without memorizing every single word. A part of that national geography always is a good idea, I like photography so I take him to few expositions and always try to introduce to try new things. We went to Bilbao this year and visited the Guggenheim, he loved it! a much more interactive museum mixing new technologies etc but he hates museums in London because are so static. So really depends. With Khan what we do is 1 or 2 times a week we review what he is doing in the school and I try to help him to practice specific subjects. My son is not a nerd, by the way, loves soccer and does rowing twice a week, so he is a really sporty boy and sometimes is difficult because his friends don't find these things cool. But he enjoys to go with me to an exposition time to time and have lunch or dinner together.Good Luck

We do tons of things with the kids, if the school happens to suggest ideas for trips linked to topics then we would do it as it gives us a way narrowing the wealth of activities out there (we live in London). Same for documentaries, books etc.
We love it, the kids love it!

What I don't love is homework that is a trip somewhere (however short) followed by a piece of related work, all to be done within a limited time frame!

Yes we absolutely do this. Time and money permitting I don't see why you wouldn't.

yep - we do. once we get her lost of topics etc ( she is primary 6) then we look at outings / plays/ exhibitions etc to support that. she is covering the Titanic next term and we have our visit to the Titanic Visitor centre booked for during our festive holidays.

We did when dd was younger. Had membership of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, National Trust, Wisley etc. We went to lots of museums, galleries, farms as that's what we enjoyed doing as a family and there seemed lots of time together to fill with days out.
Sadly now dd is 14 it's much harder to persuade her to come on days out as she has so much homework and other activities which fill her time. We do send her on every possible school trip though and have kept up the NT membership which we use a lot in the holidays. She no longer really watches TV, so doesn't see David Attenborough stuff very often which is a shame. However she does a lot of following stuff online and comes to talk about it with us, so we're still communicating!

If I noticed that a production of something my dc were studying for GCSE or A level were on locally, then yes, I'd encourage them to go, but I wouldn't specifically go to museums or whatever with them. It is difficult enough to find a space in the week / weekend to touch base with them, let alone go to a museum, which wouldn't really be their first choice of 'things to do on a rare Saturday when I haven't got another commitment'.
Don't get me wrong, we did lots of that when they were younger, but as teens, they already have lots of other things going on outside school, to fit in around homework, sleep, and a bit of socialising.

Yes, of course, but not because the school recommends it. If my children are learning something at school and I see that there is something going on outside of school that could expand on that learning in an interesting way, bring it to life, make it seem more relevant to the world outside of school, increase their interest generally in the subject, or spark enough enthusiasm for them to pursue things further for themselves, then I will do it with them. It's not like it's work - it's entertainment, so far as I'm concerned.

Yes all the time, and always have. But we dont need the school to recommend it, we are the sort of family whose idea of a good day out is a museum/exhibition/ aquarium/visit to a roman ruin (ie we're nerds).

The dcs get homework’s (esp for humanities) that encourage this - it’s never required, but often an easy route to house points to go to the science museum and look at volcanos or whatever (30-40 mins to the museums from where we live) Yes, I do encourage it, although we’ve not yet managed to tie in a theatre trip. Our half term trip to Rome after ds had been especially inspired by Roman history (with a little help from Rick Riodan!) was maybe something that won’t happen too often though!

We're keen on wildlife so do activities related to that. Been to a variety of museums incl those in London but mainly in school holidays so not directly tied to curriculum. I guess we're just about showing what is out there. DS recently said he has had enough culture for the year.

I know plenty of people who could do all these things but don’t bother. We did as much as we could to widen their knowledge of the curriculum. It also stimulates other interests on the way.

I regard the education of my child as my responsibility and one of the tools I use to achieve this is his schooling. In reality he probably spends more time with me than he does in lessons at school so I regard myself as his primary source of education, for now.

Yes, we do all of the things you mention and more, but I am in the enviable position that I have the resources to allow us to do so. Obviously many people are not in this position and or have other priorities.

Why wouldn't you though, cost aside, obviously, I appreciate that as lilybookins says that theatre trips aren't always possible, but many other things such as galleries and museums are free.

We don't specifically target our activities on the curriculum, but we do a lot of stuff - mainly because DDs love it and we have always done museums, natural sciences, art and things. My mum used to teach English so we are a bookish family anyway - discussing Shakespeare and going to see performances comes naturally.