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

[ZetaPuppis]

On the curriculum sheet for my child’s school, there’s a section for ‘what parents can do’ and it makes suggestion like ‘visit the V&A’, ‘See a Shakespeare play’, ‘Watch wildlife documentaries’ ‘subscribe to National Geographic’ etc.
Some of it we already do, but some of it will involve making an effort.
I’m just interested to know if other parents put effort into doing extra stuff? Like seeing a play or an exhibition of what their child is studying?

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!...

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.

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.