Kids learn best when they are having fun.  This should come as no surprise to anyone.

When I go into schools with my new program: “Creative Core Curriculum”^TM and we learn through story and song, writing and rapping, music and movement – the kids have no clue that I am just following their curriculum, with a little creative spin.  Why?  Because, unfortunately, students are don’t equate fun and learning.

Time to shift that outdated paradigm. In today’s world, children are experiential learners.  They learn by doing, creating, moving — diving into topics and exploring them, firsthand.  That’s why the worksheet mentality of the 1950’s just doesn’t make sense anymore (if it ever did). And, yet when our school system and government needed to “teach” our children the life or death lesson of staying healthy through flu season, they sent home a one-page flyer with the information.  Handing them a piece of paper and assuming they wouldn’t ball it up, or create a paper airplane or fortuneteller is wishful thinking, at best.

Why not have a little skit at school with one kid sneezing in another’s face and the child that got sneezed on gets just as sick as “Sneezy”? Or what about creating a game on a website where children could go to play a flu game.  If they do the wrong things, their character would get sick.  If they stay healthy, they advance to harder levels – challenging their understanding of the rules to staying well.

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