At our Summer Camp we use all our senses to learn Greek!
Studies have shown that people rely heavily on their senses to process information. It does not take a lot of thought to actually realize how important senses are for children. You must have witnessed on numerous occasions a child trying to touch, smell or even taste something they are seeing for the first time. This is instinctual and unfortunately appears to stop as children grow older. While formal education does encourage children to process new information in alternative ways that mostly favor intellect and technology, it seems to limit children’s contact with their senses. Especially after primary education. How often do students get to use their touch, smell or taste to find the answer to something? How often are they encouraged to rely on just one of their senses to get to the solution of a problem?
Bearing in mind that learning is multi-sensory as well as the fact that formal education sometimes disregards this, the Greek LOL Summer Camp aims to trigger the students’ senses with fun activities that they cannot get enough of, like blind tasting games.
What does learning Greek have to do with blind tasting?
First of all, everyone loves food and food can be quite educational. And when it comes to language learning, people retain information more easily when they associate it with a fun memory. In this way, at our Summer Camp simply by playing this game students learn the fruit in Greek for example twice as fast as it would take them to learn them in class.
And then there is smell. The sense of smell is one of our most powerful senses that is really underused in formal schooling. Yet scientists claim that it is the sense that is mostly associated with memory. In other words, once our students try some Greek karpouzi blindfolded, they take a quick sniff and remember the word forever.
Classes are important. Even at a Summer Camp like ours that mostly aims to make children happy and boost their confidence in speaking Greek. However, engaging in activities that they do not have the chance to do every day at school, activities that energize all their senses and bring them closer to nature are even more important than classes. After all, if we have learned something from our Summer Camp is that children learn and remember what they have learned when they are having fun. And trust us they love our blind tasting games!
