AS my child grew, the ‘school’ extended outside the walls of our home. We did not follow a set curriculum of daily lessons because, at that time – 20 years ago – the national curriculum was not available outside the formal system as it is today on the Internet.

Doing it on my own meant making a determined effort to expose him to as much information as possible. So, I took him on trips to places of interest, where he also met and talked with interesting people.

The most informative of these trips were to the exhibition halls of the Institute of Jamaica, full of interesting and unusual items of Jamaican nature, history and art; our frequent visits became his ‘classrooms’ of Jamaican Natural Science and Botany. The Institute also held summer schools, which were fun learning experiences and the staff were always keen to interact with a curious child.

Another ‘classroom’ was Port Royal, offering a beautiful, calming ferry ride across the harbour with many lessons in Jamaican history. There I talked to him about pirates, the early history of Jamaica, the earthquake, the British Naval history. I told him about the visit of Queen Elizabeth II when a Jamaican man played Sir Walter Raleigh and laid down his coat for her to walk on.

Hope Gardens and its zoo was another favourite ‘classroom’, in which we spent many pleasant days learning about animals that he had only seen in books. We could wander at leisure in the daytime when there was hardly anyone there except workers, from whom he learned a great deal – always insisting that he and the lion ‘were talking’.

At home the TV set became another tool of education from channels like Discovery that taught him about nature and animals, CNN that showed him the world outside, and the Sesame Street programmes – the most fun way of teaching children the basics.

I used this interest in these TV programmes to teach him the first words he learned to read: “The End” repeated onscreen at the close of every Disney cartoon. Sesame Street published a series of books that I used to supplement the learning he was gaining from their programmes.

And of course, being at my side at all times was a major part of my son’s education, socialising him into all aspects of the community in which he lived and showing him the lives and activities of the people he would mix with as he grew older.

He accompanied me to the offices of newspapers I contributed to, and made friends with journalists who encouraged his intelligence by giving him books and magazines to read.

Such trips also taught him how to greet and be greeted by adults, how to listen to conversations and when to participate in them, how to distinguish between people of good intent and people who might do him harm. All this gave him the basis for lifetime social skills.

The above article is excerpted from Mrs Blake Hannah’s book Home – The First School, soon to be published by Jamaica Media Productions. Send comments and questions to: jamediapro@hotmail.com.