Cultural psychologist Barbara Rogoff, describes children’s learning at home as a process of ‘Learning through Observing and Pitching In’ (LOPI), based on children observing and contributing collaboratively in the endeavors of their family and community. During my summer break, I’ve noticed many examples of young children learning through observing and pitching in. On a weekend away camping, I spotted a child and his parents working out how to put up a new tent, a process involving experimentation, sharing suggestions, groans of exasperation and cheers of relief when the tent was finally up and ready. On a bus journey into town, I sat behind a brother and sister playing a game with their mum on her phone, talking energetically as they exchanged ideas about how to solve a puzzle and move to the next level. During a day at the beach I watched grandparents, parents, teenagers and toddlers build the most elaborate sand castle I have ever seen, complete with tunnels, a moat and a moving gateway constructed from driftwood. And at the supermarket, two very young children dressed as superheroes helped their dad with the shopping, fetching items from the shelves and piling them into the trolley.

In each of these activities children were building and using skills, knowledge and dispositions as part of their involvement in family life. They were learning not through instruction but through their relationships and interactions with the people, places and materials that make up their everyday lives. These learning episodes often involved trial and error, problem-solving, collaboration, collective activity and conversation. Whilst ‘curriculum’ tends to be associated with schools and settings, we can also think of these everyday experiences as a form of curriculum making. The educational researchers Murphy, Huber, and Clandinin frame these episodes as familial curriculum making.