The Official Poster for Family Learning Festival during Half-term Holidays at City College Peterborough

 

Family Learning Festival in Peterborough

We're really excited for the courses coming up during October's Half-term holidays.  Since it's so close to Halloween, everything will have a festive theme.

Look forward to the following courses - for more detail, contact the Family Learning Department at City College Peterborough on 01733 761 361:

Space is limited, so book early to avoid disappointment.  For health and safety reasons, we are only allowed one child (up to age 16) per adult

Pirate Cookery
- Family cookery with a Halloween twist.  This five-day course will include themed recipes that you can enjoy with your child.
- Monday through Friday, 25-29 October

Hollow Pumpkin - Carve it!  Cook it! 
- In this taster session, you'll not only carve your pumpkin, but make some delicious pumpkin pie as well!
- Monday, 25 October

Mummy-mals
- Get into the Halloween spirit by creating some 'mummified' animals out of fabric and other bits and bobs in this five-day course.
- Monday through Friday, 25-29 October

Ghost Photography & Photo Editing
- Create your own ghostly photos in a two-day course, using digital photography and Photoshop Elements
- Thursday and Friday, 28-29 October

Spooky Story Sacks
- Create your own story sack around one of the adventures of Meg & Mog with your child in this five-day course.
- Especially designed for children aged 2-5.
- Monday through Friday, 25-29 October

Creative Halloween Costumes
- Learn how to make your little one's Halloween Costume during this five-day course.
- Monday through Friday, 25-29 October

Search for the Mummy's Tomb - A Halloween Comic
- Create your own comic strip or booklet during this five-day course, and have it entered into a friendly competition... the winner will see his or her comic strip story published in the College Voice Magazine!
- Monday through Friday, 25-29 October

Zoolabs
- Experience the creepy crawlies for yourselves!  Zoolabs have returned with all their bugs, slugs, and other types of animals to City College Peterborough for one day only.
- Thursday, 28 October

Face Painting & Body Art
- Want to learn the art of Face Painting and Body Art?  Let the experts guide you through the different techniques to create the most stunning face and body designs for you and your child.
- Wednesday, 27 October

New Course Ideas for Family Literacy & Numeracy

Since we've had a difficult time 'selling' Family Literacy and Numeracy to the schools and community centres in Peterborough, we started asking what the needs were of the parents/children in their particular areas, and we received some really great ideas for courses which naturally embed literacy and numeracy.  We would love to hear anyone else's ideas about how they have overcome this barrier to learning

Literacy
1.  We currently do not have any ESOL tutors who can spare time to come and teach Family Learning courses.  So, for those centres and schools who need support for those who do not speak English as their first language, we have created a hybrid of a typical Literacy course with a different approach to Story Sacks to accommodate lower level literacy.  We will be piloting this course this year in a couple Children's Centres and Schools after October Half-term.

2. We're also piloting a couple of Grandparent courses.  Sometimes grandparents become the primary caregivers.  The two courses that we are piloting here are Bridge the Gap & Growing with Grandparents.  Bridge the Gap gives Grandparents the opportunity to share their family's heritage and stories as they bring in different family photos, trophies, etc. and put together a memory book that they will then display during an event during half term for the rest of the community.  Growing with Grandparents is all about teaching the Grandparents how to support their grandchild's foundational developmental stages.

3.  Family History & Scrapbooking - This course offers the parents the opportunity to work with their children on their Family research.  They'll also be making a scrapbook of present members of the family to record what's going on now.  This trip may also include a field trip to a graveyard and/or the local library's archive.

Numeracy

4. DIY with Dad - briefly discussed in a previous post

5. Survival in the UK - a 6 week course designed to discuss family budgets, shopping, and learning how to add fresh English foods to the family's menu with an opportunity for the children to try different things, etc.


 

Need Ideas for More Father Involvement

Anyone have some ideas for Family Learning courses that would appeal to more men?  Some of the ideas I had were:

* DIY with Dad - but am still searching for ideas that would be cost effective & safe for children
* Landscaping for Lads and Dads

I like these two ideas because numeracy is so heavily embedded - naturally.  I would appreciate any more ideas/suggestions for more masculine-appealing courses/lesson ideas/plans.