The Judd children learning some Mandarin from family friend Nikki Rhoades.

Family finds innovative way to learn more about their family and friends

[March 30, 2020]  With five kids and an extra thirty plus hours together a week, some might wonder, what does a family do during the state of Illinois shelter-at-home order?

Mother of five Rachael Judd said, “While there are a lot of options, one activity we’ve decided to do is get to know our friends better.”

As Judd said, “We often ask kids what they are doing in school or with their hobbies, but do the adults in their life ever get the chance to answer the same question? Do your kids know what their family and family friends do for a living or a hobby? When we asked, it was clear our kids did not.”

To help the kids learn more about what others do, Judd said, “We put out a Facebook post and asked our friends to “guest lecture” for our kids while we are all at home.”

For these lessons, Judd said, “We are using the free version of the Zoom software to connect. Our instruction to each lecturer is to introduce themselves, prepare 10-15 minutes of information on a topic of their choice [on] either something they love about their job or information about a hobby they enjoy and then be prepared to ask questions.”

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So far this week, Judd said, “we have learned how to play Scissors, Rock, Paper in Mandarin, have learned about life in Ecuador and a received a family history lesson about our great-grandpa who worked on the Apollo missions as an engineer for NASA.”

The family is “also looking forward to learning about journalism, sign language, how our brains work and so much more!”

Judd said, “This is a great way for us, the parents, to connect with our friends for a moment and for our kids to get to know more about the adults in their life. Simple, short and free!”

[Angela Reiners]