52 Ways to Help Your Child Learn
From
the California Teachers Association (CTA)
Parents
are teachers, too. Many parents, however, believe that "real"
learning is done only in school. Granted, much of the basic knowledge a
child must absorb to continue learning is received during the school
day. But young children learn as naturally as they breathe. Each day of
their lives they observe and explore the world around them.
Become
a partner with your schools in teaching your child. You can work along
with the teacher to spark curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm for
learning.
Choose
those suggestions from this publication which best fit your child's age
and interests. If you have questions about the suggestions, discuss them
with your child's teacher whose opinions may strengthen your own
efforts.
REMEMBER!
Listen with interest, encourage and ask questions, be generous with
praise, enthusiasm and sympathy. You can bridge the gap between home and
school and make learning fun for both of you.
- Read to your child often. Make a pleasant
experience of the event, making sure the session is relaxed and
unhurried. Let your child choose a favorite story and explain
pictures and answer questions about it. As time goes by you can stop
in the middle of a familiar story and ask what happens next. This
encourages memory skills and reinforces the material in the text.
- Begin talking to your child from infancy. Make
sounds, call attention to sounds and connect them with objects and
events. Talk to the child and explain activities as you perform
them. Listen and encourage conversation with you. Answer questions
patiently and as promptly as possible. Play listening games with
your child. A good bedtime game is to listen quietly and identify as
many sounds as possible — heartbeats, breathing, traffic.
Listening attentively is essential in learning.
- When your child is learning to read, try
"labeling" household objects with the object's name
printed in bold letters on masking tape; encourage the reading of
signs, posters — everything.
- Besides regular children's materials, read
aloud from ordinary books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements.
Your child will begin to recognize the fact that the printed word is
a part of everyday life that conveys useful, interesting and amusing
information. Set a good example by reading to yourself in the
child's presence, thus establishing the idea that reading is an
enjoyable and rewarding activity.
- Introduce your child to the wonders of the
public library at an early age. During shopping trips, browse
through the library answering questions about various books and
other printed materials. As soon as possible, allow your child to
apply for a library card and choose books. Encourage frequent use of
the school library. Read and discuss books brought home for possible
school projects or during family sharing periods. Subscribe to a
children's magazine. Children love the idea of having their very own
periodical.
- Make certain the reading area is comfortable
and well-lighted. Take special note of any signs of reading
difficulty that may be caused by poor eyesight. If such problems are
noted, take prompt action — see your physician to determine
whether the child needs glasses.
- Search out the better television programs for
children. Public television, especially, provides a wealth of
interesting and educational programming. Take the opportunity to
watch some of the productions along with your child. Discuss the
programs. Note comments and try to answer questions. When words are
shown, ask that they be read to you or read them to the child.
- Before you select books for birthday or
Christmas, ask the teacher's advice. Books tailored for the child's
age-group and skill in reading, as well as those that dovetail with
topics and times being studied in school, will make the book more
readable and therefore more enjoyable. Also, when selecting books
for gifts, choose those of "special" interest to the
child.
- When your child is writing a school report,
show that information from several sources is better than relying on
just one book. This way the child will get acquainted with the wide
world of sources available on any given topic.
- Hang up a large chalkboard on which to write
messages. Have a family bulletin board, too, and occasionally pin up
cartoons and short magazine articles you think your child will
enjoy.
- Encourage the writing and addressing of
personal greeting cards, invitations and thank you notes, writing
grocery lists and putting names in an address book. Suggest a
backyard "mailbox" for exchanging regular letters with the
child next door. Write notes and letters to your children. Encourage
a written reply. Give praise for all efforts in writing.
- Word games like "Scrabble" can help
increase your child's vocabulary and improve spelling. There are
many games that have junior versions. Ask a salesperson for
assistance.
- If at any age your child seems "turned
off" by reading, don't make an issue of it. Casually leave
"irresistible" books around -- books you have about
subjects that interest the child.
- Give your child practical experience using
mathematics at home. Mention the size of containers, such as pints
of cream and half gallons of milk. Encourage help when you bake, lay
carpet or tile, or seed or fertilize the lawn. Allow your child to
measure ingredients, areas or quantities of material. Use the metric
system of measurement to increase the child's knowledge of and
proficiency in the use of the metric system.
- Before a shopping trip, have your child read
newspaper ads and price the cost of items to be purchased. Encourage
comparison of prices and quantities marked on containers to
determine the best buys. Allow the child to purchase an item and
figure out the change to be received. Other ways to help children
apply their growing knowledge of mathematics to practical situations
are: letting them double check the addition on grocery tapes, manage
an allowance, read thermometers, barometers or even stop watches.
Let them calculate age, weight, height and dimensions, or figure gas
purchases and mileage, tolls and other trip expenses. Encourage the
use of the metric system.
- Bingo, dominoes, toy telephones, card games,
board games, calendars and clocks with large numbers all can help
familiarize your child with the world of numbers.
- Put your preschool child's counting ability to
work. In preparation for meals, let the child count out forks for
the table, dinner napkins, pieces of cake, or any other quantity.
- If your child is having difficulty with
multiplication tables, buy or make flash cards and use them on a
regular basis. Children will enjoy giving answers they know and will
earn more complex problems through drill. Let your child explain the
math papers brought home from school, and take time to help with
correction and understanding of mistakes.
- Above all, ask and listen to your child's daily
experiences. Communication is the key to successful learning.
- Keep your child supplied with sheets of paper,
crayons, finger paints, modeling clay, burlap, paste, marking pens,
scraps of cloth, styrofoam, yarn, scraps of wood and water colors.
Provide work space for the child and encourage the creation of works
of art.
- Proudly display your child's best creations on
the wall, door, bulletin board. Give frequent opportunities for the
expression of artistic ability — making valentine and greeting
cards. For example, encourage help with holiday decorations.
- Encourage musical activity in the home or on
family trips. Family songs are fun for everyone. Let you child make
up songs. Let the child be a music maker as well as a listener. A
toy piano, drum, tonette, tuned bells, or mouth organ can help teach
the rudiments of rhythm and tone.
- If your child plays an instrument, help budget
practice time and make uninterrupted practice time available. Listen
to those tunes the child thinks are good. Encourage your child to
perform. Genuine praise does wonders.
- Allow your child to observe forms of art in
nature and his/her surroundings. Observation and experimentation
opens up the doors to confidence. Be positive about the child's
attempts and encourage development of interests. Help your child to
really "see" the subtle variations in nature. Point out
differences in intensity of colors.
- To encourage creative writing jot down stories
your child tells, songs "made up." Show them to the child
later. Suggest they be illustrated and "published" for
grandparents or other relatives at Christmas.
- Be subtle in helping your child learn. Keep
things light-hearted and fun, never grim or tense. Make learning
fun, for both of you. And, remember, listen to your child. Don't
stifle curiosity. Don't brush off questions, or after a while, you
won't be asked.
- Provide the opportunity to listen to songs,
poems, stories, or plays in English through the use of tapes,
television and radio.
- Read to your child in the home language. Doing
so will help prepare them to learn to read in English.
If your child is learning a foreign language:
- Ask the local bookstore clerk if there are
games or flash cards in that language. Borrow simple
foreign-language tapes (recommended by the teacher) from the public
library.
- Encourage your child to acquire a "pen
pal" in a country or from another school district which is of
particular interest to the child or the language being studied.
- Help your child learn all that is possible
about the natural world in which we live. Encourage curiosity in the
area of geography, land formations, climate and weather. Try to
answer questions when your child is young and, when older, how to
find the answers. Discuss current events, encourage the reading of
newspapers and periodicals and the watching of local and national
news telecasts.
- Provide your child with social studies research
material, including a dictionary, atlas, globe and almanac. A map of
the city and gasoline road maps are excellent for plotting trips and
helping the child understand geographic relationships. Keep the
research items conveniently close to the TV set for use during news
and documentary programs.
- Widen your child's horizons with visits to the
airport, the docks, the courthouse, the museum, a historic landmark,
a factory, a newspaper — whatever is available in your community.
Some television stations and local newspapers schedule guided tours.
- On trips, provide your youngster with a
notebook and pencil. Encourage the child to draw pictures and make
notes of things of interest along the way. Help with a collection of
samples to take back to the classroom.
- Map puzzles are good "learn as you
play" items for youngsters. distinctive shapes of states,
countries and continents form pictures in the child's mind to help
your child learn and remember.
- Discuss the world of work with your child,
including the demands of various jobs and professions and the work
and training necessary to qualify. Stress the idea that training can
begin at an early age and that attention to school work is vital for
future success. Feel out notions about future career plans,
including personal preferences, inclinations, and natural skills.
- Teach your child the importance of being a good
citizen by discussing at the dinner table local candidates for
public office, issues and problems of the community. Help with the
judgment of each person individually rather than by race, creed,
color, by curbing unthinking remarks about others. Give books that
reflect the diversity of American culture. don't be afraid to guide
your teenagers into the fascinating realm of ideas. Junior high and
high school students love "rap sessions" on serious
topics.
- Stimulate your child to make use of all senses
in discovering the surrounding world. Encourage curiosity about the
feel of textures and materials, characteristic smells, sounds,
tastes, weight and sizes of things. Train the child to look
carefully and to see beyond the surface appearance of the
environment.
- Children are normally curious and should be
encouraged to find answers to questions by patient observation and
through the use of references, either at home or in libraries and
museums. Let the child manipulate and learn about familiar objects:
a dripping faucet, the household water system, a nutcracker, an old
doorbell, discarded appliances, locks and door hinges, household
plants and gardens.
When making household repairs, servicing the family car or other
domestic equipment, include your child as an observer. Natural
scientific and mechanical skills can be discovered and developed in
this way, and many scientific principles can be demonstrated in
firsthand and practical ways.
- Make certain that you teach your child rules of
safety in the handling of electrical, mechanical and chemical
equipment. In this modern scientific era, a whole range of
educationally approved toys and games are on sale for gift-giving to
the budding young scientist in your home. Consider giving a
subscription radio earphone set, general science kit, an ant farm or
toy farm that grows real crops, binoculars, an aquarium or
terrarium, a chemistry set, a model airplane, a biography of an
inventor, a microscope, a telescope or a magnifying glass.
- Work with your child on projects such as making
bird feeders, caring for pets, setting up a home weather station,
observing the night sky and preparing a family vegetable or flower
garden. Take the opportunity to confer with the child's science
teachers. They welcome such parental interest and can give many
useful tips to help you reinforce your child's formal science
training.
- Encourage your child to be a
"collector." Provide a place for collections, even if it
is a dresser drawer, a soapbox, or a shelf in the bookcase. An
upended orange crate provides shelves for "display" of
rocks, insects, leaves, stamps, shells. A dime-store picture frame
can display summer collections of flowers, leaves or even insects.
- our child's health is
reflected in most areas of schooling and should be cared for by you
and your physicians and dentist. Any condition of a serious nature
should be reported to the school. You should continue to emphasize
personal hygiene and cleanliness. Diet is of prime importance. Begin
each day with a good breakfast. Follow through on eye and ear
screenings and routine immunizations. Consult your child 's physical
education teacher concerning physical development and coordination
and how you may assist.
- See to it that your
child has enough sleep each day and is properly dressed for weather
conditions. The child should be kept home from school if definite
signs of illness such as a rise in temperature, a suspicious rash or
a severed cough are noted. Send a note to explain the absence
when the child returns to school. Be alert for signs of poor vision,
such as squinting, frowning or red, watery eyes. Faulty hearing can
be indicated by ear aches, chronic inattention, or too frequent
requests that statements be repeated.
- Encourage the habit of
vigorous daily activity. Active play builds strong muscles, which
are basic to good health and posture. Join your child in active
games and stress good sportsmanship. Encourage participation in
creative activities and individual and team sports.
- Children should be
taught their full name, address and telephone number at an early
age. Select the safest, most direct walking route to school and
check to see that your child uses it. Explain any traffic hazards
along the way. Teach your child to stop at the curb or at the side
of the road; to look both directions to be sure there is no traffic
or that traffic has stopped before crossing; to WALK across the road
in the crosswalk; and to obey a student patrol or adult crossing
guard if there is one. Warn your child never to get in a car or
accept a ride with a stranger.
- If your child has to
travel to and from school on a bus, teach him or her the
fundamentals of bus safety — to stand well back from the road
while waiting for the bus; to remain seated while the bus is moving;
and to keep his or her head and arms inside the bus at all times.
When it is necessary to cross the street to board the bus, teach
your child to STOP, LOOK, LISTEN, and then WALK across the street to
the bus only after the bus driver has signaled that it is safe.
Children learn very quickly from experience. Why not ride a bus with
your child and demonstrate the fundamentals of bus safety? If your
child is permitted to ride a bicycle to school, be sure the child
knows and obeys bicycle laws. The bicycle should be checked
frequently to be sure the brakes are working properly and that the
handlebars and seat are not loose.
- Does your child
"hate" a certain subject? Find out why. Your child may
need extra help. Maybe your own aversion to a certain subject has
caused it. Seek the reason behind the dislike, then enlist the
teacher's help so that you can work together to conquer it.
- Learn as much as you
can from the school principal and staff about classes, teaching
methods, club activities. Then you can give your child help that
fits into everyday learning programs.
- When your child asks unusual or divergent
questions, ask, "What made you think of that?" Does your
child automatically accept whatever answer or information is offered
to him? Encourage him to question it. Encourage your child to think
of alternative options and the reasons that support such options or
answers.
- To solve problems, children need strategies —
systematic ways of thinking. Help your child to develop and use such
strategies as: breaking a problem into small manageable chunks, to
think from other people's viewpoints, question how the problem was
approached and a solution attempted. For example: How did you solve
that problem? Could you have done it a quicker way? What are your
assumptions? What makes you think the way you do? Successful problem
solvers check for accuracy, learn from mistakes, are persistent and
confident.
- When your children leave the house to go to
school, send them off with a smile; when you next see them, give
them hugs. In this small way, you may maintain a positive
relationship with them — one that is so important in these days of
social turbulence. Your support and encouragement will help guide
your children toward successful futures and will give you the
satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best as a parent.
More
Information from the California Teachers Association Family Involvement
|
