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As a parent, it’s your job to do all you can to equip your child for the real world. This includes the way you make sure they’re educated. You can’t just leave that job solely for the schools to take care of. This is especially true for parents who are juggling children who don’t spend hours in school each day. There are plenty of ways you can actively improve your child’s overall learning experience from home. Consider the following three tips.
1. Discover Your Child’s Learning Style
Plenty of studies point to the power of learning styles. Some researchers point to four learning styles while others point to seven. Visual learners thrive off of looking at photos, charts and diagrams. If you’re able to teach in a strong visual manner, this can really help them retain the information. Auditory learners are excellent at retaining the information they hear.
Auditory learners also need to repeat the information back to you. A ‘call-and-response’ method works magically for them. Reading/Writing learners need to take notes, read content and study the written information. Note-taking practices only help to strengthen their ability to recall important lessons. Kinesthetic learners love to use their hands to learn.
Go on field trips, and be sure to wear 3-ply disposable masks to keep everyone safe. Whether you’re using flashcards, building dioramas or using show-and-tell segments to teach, kinesthetic learners will love a hands-on approach. If you pay close attention, you’ll be able to recognize what your child’s learning style is. It might even be possible that you have a child who stands between two learning styles.
Try your best to incorporate the styles in the best ways you can. While it can be tempting to try and strengthen areas that aren’t in the child’s learning style, it might be best to focus on amplifying their strengths as their superpower.
2. Make Learning Diverse and Creative
As long as you provide diversity to a child’s learning experience, they’re going to have a great time. Plus, they’ll have an easier time retaining the information. If you’re in the middle of teaching them how to practice their handwriting skills, it’s a great idea to consider using worksheets for each letter of the alphabet.
As you give them their Letter A worksheets and allow them to practice, play orchestral music that encourages focus as they work. As you focus on a specific letter of the alphabet, make all of the day’s lessons coincide with that letter.
If you’re infusing an art lesson into their teaching sessions, purchase clay that they can shape into the letter. The more creative and intentional you are about planning, the more engaged the children will be. If you try to do things as you go, the lack of preparedness will show.
3. Be Mindful of the Time
While it might be ideal to assume that a child can sit for hours and retain a ton of information, chances are their attention spans will not allow that to happen. Be mindful of the time when you’re trying to teach little ones. If you really think about adults, they tend to daydream and mentally wander after countless hours in the same space.
In order to prevent that from happening to children, give them breaks. During those breaks, allow them to play, relax or enjoy free time. Make sure the breaks happen often. If you’re teaching the children for a total of two hours, make sure the children are getting breaks every 15 to 20 minutes.
When you break up the two-hour schedule in that way, the time will fly by. They’ll remember the information, and they won’t feel like learning is a hard, boring process.
Conclusion
As the parent, you have the ability to make learning an amazingly fun and memorable experience for your child. Pay attention to how your child feels at the end of a teaching session to know how to pivot if you need to. While it’s not the easiest role to fill, you can boost your confidence as an educator by implementing these tips. As time goes along, you’ll get a better understanding of how to approach learning so that your child is able to thrive from an educational standpoint.