As a parent, you’re pretty much everything for your child. You feed them, keep them safe, keep them happy, keep them healthy, and, yes, you teach them. Teaching your child is incredibly important because it’s what helps a baby grow into a self-sufficient adult.
So, here are a few things to consider when you’re trying to teach your child, including when to start and what you should teach them. Even if you send your kids to school, you still have a teaching role to play in their lives, so don’t think you’re off the hook.
Starting Early
One question that a lot of parents ask is, “How early should I start teaching my child?”
Technically, there isn’t really such a thing as teaching your children too early. Yes, a newborn baby isn’t going to be able to do calculus anytime soon, but babies and toddlers are literally designed to learn all the time. When you interact with your baby, you’re teaching them.
Some people even listen to classical music while their babies are still in the womb in the hope that it will help their development. Unborn babies can hear from the 18th week of pregnancy, and by the time they’re 30 weeks old, they even react to noises. They can hear the mother’s voice especially clearly, so talking, reading, or singing to them could be an early way to interact with your baby.
Once they’re born, babies can’t consciously do much beyond eating, sleeping, pooping, and crying, but this doesn’t mean they don’t take anything in. Continue to interact with your baby as much as possible so they’re more engaged.
By the time your child is a toddler, you can start teaching them how to do small tasks and baby chores. They should be able to walk by this point, and they will also start to talk and communicate. Educational games can be a great way to give them a head start as they learn how to read, draw, and play with others.
Reading and Writing
Ideally, your child should be able to read and write before they go to school, but every child is different. You can encourage them to learn by reading them books and showing them the words you’re reading out loud. If a kid can draw a stick figure, they have the ability to draw letters as well, so you can try to teach them how to write.
Once your child goes to school, you don’t need to completely relinquish the teaching to their teachers. You can still support your child’s learning. Look up tips for helping your 2nd grader with reading so you can teach them in a way that’s appropriate for their age.
It’s no secret that kids prefer doing things that they find more fun. So make reading fun. As your children get better at reading, get them to read out loud to you for story time. Encourage and reward your kids for reading more, especially if they do it independently.
As your child develops their own likes and dislikes, you might find that they don’t naturally enjoy reading. While you can encourage and support your child, you shouldn’t feel the need to turn reading into a chore. Use positive reinforcement to encourage your child and, if they don’t grow up to be a big reader, that’s fine. The important thing is that they have the ability to read well and comprehend what they’re reading.
Literacy is more than just being able to read words. Make sure that your children are also able to figure out what the message behind the words is. This will help them in school and outside of education as well.
Helping Your Child in School
Speaking of supporting your children’s reading before and during their school years, you should also help your child in other aspects of their education.
The most obvious way to do this is to educate your child at home. Home education isn’t an easy life, however. While it does have some benefits, such as the ability to teach your child on a one-on-one basis and really help them develop their abilities, there are some downsides.
Home education means having to understand your child’s curriculum and arranging the exams and lessons yourself. You can find a lot of resources online, but it still takes a lot of work. It’s also hard to maintain discipline and set time aside to teach your child.
Another benefit to traditional schooling is that you need to focus on helping your children develop socially. School forces kids together, for better or for worse, and they learn how to get on. Home educated children can become isolated very easily, so it’s important to find groups for your children to join.
But what if you do put your kids in school? This doesn’t mean you don’t need to teach them at all. You should still help your kids with their schoolwork and teach them things they wouldn’t learn in school.
Extra-Curricular Learning
As well as the curriculum your children will learn, you should consider other opportunities for them to expand their education. This might include learning a different language, or learning a skill or sport. Another option could be a summer camp that allows them to have adventures of their own.
These activities are great for your child’s life after school, and they also help them develop passions they might not have discovered. If they join groups, then your kids can also make new friends with similar interests.
Life Skills
One of the most important things parents need to teach their children is how to live and look after themselves. You can teach children how to cook and clean from a young age by introducing chores. Chores aren’t just a way to reduce your workload, but they’re also important for children to learn how to do.
As your children get older, you can prepare them for a more independent life. School won’t teach your children how to be financially responsible or how to calculate and pay taxes. Teach your kids how expensive it is to live and help them develop a healthy relationship with money.
They’ll thank you later.
