How To Get A Child To Learn

How to Get a Child to Learn

By Joseph Parish

One of the most valuable traits that you can instill within your child is the value of learning and the benefits of a good education. From experience, I can tell you that in my youth, I did not have this characteristic foresight. In fact, I did not even come close until I was in my late 30s. After realizing the error of my earlier years, I devised several ways by which one could create good learning habits for their young children. I am a firm believer that if you start them off young the eagerness towards learning will last with them on up into their adult life.

Being realistic a child tends to learn from the moment they take their first breath. This process is repeated indefinitely until such time as they develop a dislike for the learning environment. This dislike can result from a host of diverse reasons from receiving a punish for not learning a subject or a topic to being made fun of by other children in class. I recall times when I was in grade school that a slow learner was always the brunt of the classroom jokes. Eventually, that child never made it to graduation. No child should have to go through that sort of torture.

It is our job to prevent such actions, whether at school or during the child’s free time. Additionally, as adults, we have a responsibility to become the primary source of a child’s learning and educational experiences.  We must impart both wisdom and knowledge to these young minds if they are to succeed in life.

Although I have homeschooled my grandson, I must admit that teaching a child is far from an easy and simple process. When I was teaching middle school in New Jersey, I found the science and math classes involving the gifted or the talented children to be a joy. These children looked forward to learning and took great strides in achieving higher than normal results. Unfortunately, over time I was assigned to instruct the more challenged classes and I found that I was expecting more from all the children than they could provide.

With the new policies in force today, which abides by the principles that no child should fail, we find the lesser skilled children are competing with those who try the hardest to achieve. In my opinion, this is not right. Granted the child with less potential should adequately be encouraged to achieve, however, do not penalize the more intellectual students to achieve this end. Unfortunately, not all students are created equal. I would perform rather poorly if subjected to a topic for which I know little or nothing about, so why would we expect a child to be able to do otherwise?

Often children in school today are unmotivated. If they are not interested in a subject, the teacher encourages them to go play and maybe they will be interested in doing their math or science at some later time. Right, you can bet your pants that that child will never be interested. If you think that I am exaggerating guess again. This same sort of philosophy was being practiced overseas, while I was stationed there in the military. Needless to say, my wife and I saw the issue from a different perspective and insisted that my son do the work needed. There is plenty of time for him to play at home, but when in school it was a time for learning. A certain amount of pushing is necessary to motivate a child into learning.

There is a multitude of methods and tricks that can be employed to encourage children to develop the proper attitudes towards learning and create valuable skills. The first one which I would like to mention should actually not need to be stated at all. The answer is simple, you merely have to spend time with your child. You would be surprised at the various play times when you can secretly insert moments of learning. When my grandson was little, I purchased some Match-Box cars for him, when he grew up, he had one huge collection. We would sit on the carpet and we would each be given a certain number of pennies for which we could buy and sell these match-box vehicles between us. The object here was to get him familiar with the value of money. We eventually moved from all pennies to mixed coins where the need existed for him to provide change after a sale. This was only one instance where playtime was also a learning time. The child needs to be in an environment where they feel secure and loved. Playing games with them achieves these goals. As you spend time with your child remind them that you are proud of them and the thing they can do. When they do something that was expected encourage them and congratulate them on their achievement. Sometimes incentives work great.

The foundations of learning stem from a home environment nurtured in love and motivation. These types of situations encourage a child to do better than expected as they appreciate the added smile and words of encouragement. Children do not deliberately set out to fail. If they do then we have not set them on the proper path. Go back and keep trying. They likely want to do well, but don’t exactly know how.

Family involvement is critical for total success in the child’s training. They will get used to you telling them what a good job they did, and eventually it may mean nothing at all, however, if the same words emit from other family member's mouth or from a friend, then they take on a whole new meaning. These simple acts provide the necessary encouragement, nurturing, and support the child needs. Have relatives and friends, assist in encouraging the child in and out of school. In time these types of children will get on a roll and there will be no stopping them. This is an excellent move towards teaching the young mind motivation and persistence both in and out of school.

Play is not always with toy cars and pennies, but can be as simple as sitting on the sofa with the child and reading a book to him. When doing so you can encourage his imagination by play acting the role of one of the book's characters. As an example, suppose you are reading about Little Red Riding Hood. You could be the wolf and the child could be Little Red. Nothing like this is going to come out perfect, but it does its part towards learning. My grandson would watch SpongeBob SquarePants over and over. He got to the point where he had the complete show memorized and could sit there in front of the television and recite the dialog word for word.

Never give in to play first and homework second. Let the child know immediately that homework has the main priority in your home. Tell him it is like you are going to work. If you didn’t go to work there would be no money to buy anything that he wants. His homework, then should be viewed in the same aspects. Of course, it goes without saying that if the child completes the homework, you should check it for correctness and anything wrong should be explained. Homework which is not checked by the parent is as good as no homework at all. Over time the child begins to piece this and that together and they realize that if you are not checking the work completed than they can write anything they so desire and still pass. Always check their homework.

You may have to explain to the young child that there will always be time for fun and playing after the work is finished. Set the child up in a quiet place where they will not be disturbed and can study properly. My grandson had a small desk in my office where he would sit and complete his work. Time permitting, there is nothing wrong with the child completing the homework in his class if home schooled. Nothing says he must take it home to complete or do so on his free time. On occasion have the child tell you what he is doing in order to reinforce his learning topics.

Your attitude towards the subjects and learning process has a way of reflecting upon the child’s views as well. Don’t enter a study session with the attitude of “Oh no another day at the grind.” Have an open mind that it is going to be a great day for learning. Positive attitudes motivate the child to study harder and pushes him towards a path of achievement. Always let the child know that you are completely engrossed in what he is currently studying. Always ask him what he learned this day. Hopefully, he does not answer you as I did my mother when she asked me, “what I learned at school today?”

I replied, “Not nearly enough, I have to go back tomorrow.”

Visit me at Wordwriter.info