When it comes to our children we only want what is best for them, and because of that we will do what we can to help them thrive. One area that you may be thinking about, especially if you have been dining homeschooling recently or just trying to help your child in school, is their learning journeys and education.
There can be a lot of pressure surrounding learning and if you are not careful, it can mean that you end up worried. In turn, your child can crack under the pressure of education and what is expected of them.
However, you can help your child to learn more effectively. This might be in school or in the home environment. It might be that they need help with their work day to day or just with their homework. Maybe they don’t understand certain things or you are struggling to explain it. With that in mind, here are some of the ways that you can help your child to learn more effectively.
Encourage More Reading
When it comes to learning and education there is one thing that can have a positive impact on it and that is reading. However, not all children have a love for reading and so this is where you could be making a big difference to your child’s life. It might be that you want to encourage reading alone, or make it part of your routine to read together. It could be that you look into reading comprehension strategies and other ways that you can help encourage good reading habits. Reading can help with english, life skills and even understanding certain concepts, so the more your child reads the better things will be. However, try and not put too much pressure on it. If you can get a little time each day where they read a few pages of a book then that is a win worth celebrating.
Use Visual Aids
Sometimes, especially with younger children, they can find it difficult to understand concepts or may find that they respond better when they physically can do things. This is when visual aids can be really helpful. You could look at using counters or cubes for maths, actual party games that can help with english concepts or even using real money when learning about money as part of a match subject. Using visual aids can help a child to understand things more clearly.
Have Downtime
Of course, you want to encourage as much time as possible spent on educational valued subjects and activities but there is a lot to be said for scheduling in regular downtime as well. This helps their mind to relax and also could help them to take new things in more clearly and quickly. Downtime could be anything. Perhaps reading a book, or maybe trying some yoga in the afternoon. You could also encourage meditation or even a little bit of TV watching. Lastly, you could encourage them to start a gratitude journal. This could help them to come up with habits on positive thinking which is a good thing for their mental health and general wellbeing.
Get Active
Education is important, but also you need to think about their general health. This is when you may want to encourage them to be more active. This can help your child to feel alert and angered when it comes to learning and performing their educational activities and commitments. Getting active is a great way to get those endorphins pumping around the body. It can encourage good mental health and also enable you to feel happier as well as themselves. You could go for a long walk, exercise together and run or do a workout. It could even be swimming or just raining their heartbeat for a little while. The more active they are, the more engaged they are likely to be in other activities.
Don’t Be Afraid of Screen Time for Educational Apps
You may be thinking that you want to avoid screen time and other things to do with tablets and computers, but actually then can be hugely beneficial for your child if using educational apps. For starters, they may be more keen to play games on their tablet, even if they have an educational focus, because the novelty is that they are using a device. There are so many interactive apps you can try for reading, english, math and even learning a language that a little bit of screen time could prove beneficial. Also in terms of other uses of devices, it is always a good way to enable them to have downtime and play games with their friends or do things that don’t necessarily have an educational focus. It is all about finding the right balance.
Slow Things Down and Try New Things
Sometimes you need to work at a more suitable pace for your child. So if you feel they are not grasping the work or not understanding, try and slow things down or look at a different approach to help teach them. Slowing down, doing extra activities surrounding the subject to give confidence in what they are doing can be more beneficial than just trying to keep up with a time scale that you think is suitable. This is a more flexible approach when it comes to home learning as you can work at your own pace.
Explore Strategies to Help You Explain Things if You Are Stuck
Last of all, take time to think about how you can help your child learn new things. Sometimes how you are explaining it might not be the best way for your child to grasp a specific concept. If you look online, you could use youtube videos and educational blogs to help you try alternative strategies. The more different approaches you try, the better you will be at understanding how your child learns and what you can do to help them.
Let’s hope these tips help you to enable your child to learn more effectively.
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