As a parent, supporting your child’s learning is one of the most effective things you can do for their development. Positive attitudes and examples can be all your child needs to thrive in a learning environment. You don’t need to be a scientist or a mathematician to set great examples for your child, either! Read on to figure out how to effectively support your child’s learning.
Teach Your Child That Failure is Valuable
Most people think that failure is bad. However, failure is valuable – it’s a learning curve, and a stepping stone to success. Everybody starts somewhere. Making sure your kids are not afraid of failure will encourage them to try new things and take risks. It can be a good idea to share your own failures with your kids and discuss how you learned from them and how they benefited you. It’s also important to note that over-praising your kids can lead to problems when they feel like they aren’t as ‘amazing’ as you led them to believe. When praising, it’s always better to praise the effort that went into whatever it is, rather than the results!
Make Learning Something Your Family Loves
Learning should not be seen as a chore, and yet by many, it is. Try to make learning something not only your kids love, but your family loves. You shouldn’t stop learning when school is over!
A good mood makes you smarter, more engaged, more creative and more willing to persist at a difficult task – so sending your kids off to school with a good attitude will work wonders.
Allow Your Kids To Find and Follow Their Passion
If your kids show a specific interest in something, or they garner a lot of joy from a topic, then they will also find it easier to excel in it. Don’t lead them to believe that they have to be great at everything. It’s unrealistic. Encourage following their passions and dreams from a young age, and try not to put too much pressure on them to be good at the things they just don’t gel with. Of course, if they don’t like a subject like maths (something we all need to use at various stages), try using real world examples of where math has helped you and could help them. They might not love it, but they could learn to better tolerate it.
Enjoy Learning Games
If you can transform learning into a game, children will likely get stuck in. They are hard wired to want to play! This can also help them to learn much faster and keep them engaged in the subject matter. Sites like Bakpax can also be useful, as they are easy to use and tend to engage kids more than boring books.
Motivate With Consequence, Not With Punishment
Don’t threaten to take something away from your child to motivate them to do better. This isn’t how life as a grown up works. Instead, you want to learn to nurture a strong sense of motivation. Motivation by consequences will help your child to learn self control, build their self esteem, and will set a good example. If you motivate them by punishment you could reduce their self esteem and they will learn to deceive you.
