LO 4.3

Learning Outcome: 4.3
Outline how family members, peers & other significant members in children's lives contribute to young children's awareness & immersion in key literacy & numeracy concepts, through demonstrating recognition of my own potential prejudices & projections, noting ways I hope to overcome them

Since beginning our new topic around literacy and numeracy, my attention as been drawn much more closely to the my own literacy and numeracy skills. It it has been interesting recognising all the literacy and numeracy experiences i generally engage in throughout my day. I am actually shocked by how often I am required to be numerate and literate to complete specific tasks. 

My day begins before I go to bed, when I am required to set my alarm to get up in time to get ready fro the new day; I use my numeracy skills to work out what time the alarm must go off in order to ensure I can get ready on time. I also often find myself counting how many hours of sleep I will be getting that night. When I wake up, after turning off my alarm, (as sad as it is) the first thing I tend to do is scroll through my Facebook news feed, reading all the posts from my friends and family; this requires my literacy skills in order to be able to read and comprehend what it is I am reading. I am required to use my numeracy skills for breakfast when I am measuring my 1cup of cereal, then adding 3/4cup of milk. I must be time-wise whilst showering to make sure I am not late for wherever I am headed for the day, and also I need to turn the shower taps on to particular strengths to ensure my shower is not too hot, nor too cold. Brushing my teeth again requires measurement of time. (I have not even left the house and already have used many literacy and numeracy skills!!)

Some days I use the bus and am required to organise some money to pay my fare. Other days I drive my car, which it is highly important to ensure I will have enough petrol to get from point A to point B. Meanwhile, I typically would have went a few texts messages or made some phone calls, both of which I am required to be literate to effectively communicate. Before entering my Uni class, I often find myself having a quick glance over the weekly set readings (which I always seem to forget to do beforehand, whoops!); it is important that I can not only read and understand, but also be able to elaborate and make further connections, etc, through the readings to be able to participate and expand my learning in class. Even for preparing dinner, as I was threading a piece of mushroom, then some capsicum, then onion, then another piece of mushroom onto skewers, I realised I was using my numeracy skills to create a pattern/sequence to ensure my kebabs were even with flavour. As you can see, my literacy and numeracy skills play a huge role in my day to day activities. This shows how truly important it is for humans to develop these life demanding skills, in order to become socially independent beings.