Family Quest
While "Quest Atlantis" has been predominantly integrated into school contexts, we recently explored its potential to bring together parents and children in an after-school context. "Family Quest," a five week family program, is designed to bridge the intergenerational gap between parent and child by fostering shared learning through participation in inquiry-based play. Around middle school, children become active participants of different communities and create their own practices outside their family life. Research has shown that parents tend to be displaced from their role as teachers as their child begins bringing externally-developed competencies home that have not necessarily been mastered by them. On the other hand, given the amount of new information they face, children still need their parents' guidance in making sense of the world around them. In Family Quest, parents and children come together for six 90-minute sessions in an after-school setting to work on Missions related to different content areas such as Math, Science, and Language Arts. Parents and children work together to solve complex problems, share expertise, take on alternating roles as student and teacher, and bring individual and family experiences to progress through the play space.
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