8th April, 2020
Now!
Now? Yes, the answer is now. But what do we mean by teaching? Why should you start teaching your child now? How? And teach what? Read on to find out what a primary school teacher of almost 15 years about it.
Define Teaching
When people hear the word teaching, they picture sitting at a desk with books and worksheets. This is not what we mean.
Teaching can range from learning simple, new words like, ‘mummy’, ‘dada’ to learning habits like putting on their own shoes to actively learning numbers and letters.
Here we’re talking about teaching your child subtly, so that they won’t feel like they are forced to understand something or feel like a failure when they do not get it.
Do not wait until they go to school!
Many think that home is for relaxing and playing – which are also great things – and only school is for learning.
The reality is, the younger a child, the faster they learn. Children are like sponges and pick up things so quickly, Right now is the best time to teach your child. Not only will it help your child enjoy school more when they start, but also creating the foundation now will help them to learn new concepts and skills long after they’ve already become an adult.
You have potential to help your child be the smartest they can be and speed up their brain development by starting the learning process early.
What to do:
First of all, teach by example. Let your child see how you put on your shoes. Let them see you counting things out loud. Let them see how you choose the best fruit at the supermarket.
Involve them. Ask them to help you choose the best fruit. Ask them to help you find your matching shoes – even though you don’t really need the help. This will help them learn to use logic and problem solving skills – which will later help them in subjects such as maths and science. By developing these brain patterns now, it will help them when they learn more complicated things in school.
Incorporate numbers, letters and logic into every day activities. For example if you are walking down the stairs, count them. If you see the first letter of your child’s name on a car licence plate, point it out and get excited about it. Look for opportunities to teach and point out these things and very quickly they’ll start doing it themselves. Don’t forget to commend them when they do, as this will help them to find enjoyment in learning.
When they are getting older and developing personalities, find their passion and focus on that. Many, including teachers, seem to focus on what area the child is weak in and focus on that in order to improve it. This often results in the child being frustrated and feeling like they can’t do ‘anything’ and just giving up in general in addition to just slowing down the child’s learning.
Focus on what their talent. If your child is just obsessed with numbers, start buying number books, number games and printing out some number colouring pages or watch number cartoons.
Focus on what they love and are good at and expand on that. When they start feeling accomplished in their ‘area of expertise’, they will gain more confidence to tackle other subjects they might not be as competent in.
Note: This does not mean only learning maths if that’s what they are good at. Rather, make it a big deal, but still incorporate other subjects.
What not to do:
Do not have an allotted ‘learning time’. Remember school? How much you loved sitting down with your homework out and massive books ready for the first lesson of the day? No? Nobody does because nobody ever felt that way. This rigid way of learning can often stifle a person’s thinking
process, thought flow and especially creativity.
Creativity is not only in things like art and music. We also use it in problem solving - thinking outside of the box for new ways to work out a problem. Now, in school it’s inevitable that they’ll sit on hard wooden chairs and at a desk and we can’t do anything about that. But avoiding this at home can help your child to enjoy learning and in turn, learn faster.
Do not force your child. If they don’t want to sit and read that book or complete that learning activity that you have prepared, do not force them. Do not give up either. Use subtle techniques, for example incorporating the subject or learning point into conversation.
Do not get impatient or angry when they don’t know something. It seems obvious but when you’re tired and had a long day and you’ve explained things in the simplest way possible and they STILL don’t get it – it’s not easy. If they’re really stuck, move on to something else. Leave it for another day.
Remember, they will get it someday - they always do and you don’t want to put them off by scolding them.
Don’t give up! We’ve mentioned this a couple of times, but it’s an important one. Like with any goal in life, picture the end result, focus on the positive and this will give you the motivation to keep going. Your child’s brain is an amazing thing and babies are all secret geniuses, it just takes time to unleash their incredible learning power.
What to teach & activity ideas
Teach numbers, letters, habits, independence, directions, animal names, manners, problem solving, history (people, places, museums), goal setting, goal accomplishing, tidying, organising, reading, drawing, dancing, musical instruments and other languages! Do it all! But have fun with it.
Kids have a natural love for learning and feel great when they know something new - so be creative and do something new every day!
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