Children are curious by they nature. They ask questions, they are always eager to try new things, and they want to discover something new. But if this is true, how come it happens that children struggle during school years? A school program isn’t always enough to make children interested in the learning process. While they might some things worth remembering, this as well might not happen with all of the subjects.
However, the situation could be quite the opposite as well. Your children can’t only master new subjects quicker than the others but also enjoy this a lot (which is often even more important). In order to achieve this result, you should take the learning process into your hands. Don’t rely on school teachers to dictate your child’s attitude towards the learning process – instead, do it yourself and try to do it right.
When to start teaching your children to love learning?
The answer is quite obvious: from the young age. Your children learn all the time: they learn how to speak, how to walk, etc. They can learn other things the same way. Moreover, they can learn how to love the whole learning process as well. Some parents think that the best way to provoke a child’s interest in learning is to reward them for their efforts. However, this will most likely make the child more interested in the reward, not in the process.
Instead, here’s what you can do to teach your child to love learning:
Always answer their questions
This is one of the easiest and the most challenging tasks at the same time. Children ask their parents questions all the time and it requires a lot of patience to answer them. This patience, however, is required if you do want to provoke your child’s interest in learning. If you answer their questions and try to do so in details, you’ll make the whole experience positive. You’ve probably witnessed situations when children’ questions made their parents annoyed and they tried to avoid them or to shush their kids instead of answering. Such reaction often makes children feel like asking questions is a bad thing – and that’s not what you would like to achieve probably.
That’s why it’s so important to be patient. If you don’t know the answer to a certain question, Google it and try explaining it to a child. Or admit that you don’t know it and offer to look for the answer together.
Focus on the positive side of learning
Both successes and failures are inevitable when it comes to mastering a new skill or to learning something new. Your children need some positive encouragement here as well to enjoy the process more. The failure itself can be pretty frustrating for a child – but it’s up to you to change that. Try to switch the child’s attention from the failure, helping them to focus on the positive instead. For example, if they tried spelling words and spelled only 2 of 5 right, say “Wow! You did it twice! Let’s see if you can do even more next time!” This way a child won’t feel discouraged – on the contrary, they’ll get some praise and extra motivation to try harder next time.
Let them choose what to learn
Of course, it’s good when a child knows all the basics when they go to a kindergarten or to a school. However, there’s a big chance that some subjects and skills would look more appealing to your child than the others. While it’s important to master all the basic skills, don’t be too pushy if your children don’t like some of them. Try to focus on the ones they like the most and then encourage them to spend at least some time mastering the others (if those skills really are important to master).
There are plenty of parents who wanted their children to engage in certain activities and to develop certain skills. However, if a child doesn’t like a skill or an activity, it’s always better to focus on what they love instead of forcing them to learn what they dislike.
Help them understand that learning never stops
The best way to do so is to show that learning is indeed different. It doesn’t limit itself to school subjects and therefore doesn’t end when school hours end. Moreover, while it is obligatory sometimes, it also can be fun and free of choice. This might seem obvious but it’s still important for you to point this out for your children and to make sure that they indeed enjoy the whole learning process – for example, by using games to make it even more fun. There are some children who go along with learning just because they think that’ll please their parents – but you probably wouldn’t want that.
Be open to your child about your hopes and expectations, help them with finding the right tools and learning sources. Try to be the example too, showing your children what you learn (and that you don’t stop doing so even now) and telling them more about your hobbies, favorite learning subjects, and interests. You might as well consider joining them in their learning process or engaging in a certain activity (for example, reading) together. After all, this might look even more fun and enjoyable for children this way – and this also will give you another opportunity to bond with them.
What do you do to provoke your child’s interest in learning? Please share your stories and experience in the comments below.
Author Bio: Christina Battons is a creative writer and content strategist from LA. Currently, I write for various sites. My posts address the topics about self-education, professional development, also good cause and effect essay topics. In my spare time, I prefer to read novels and crime thriller stories. You can connect with me through Twitter.
