How Can I Help My Child At Home?

 

Helping your child at home is almost like trying to fit exercise into a busy routine. If you don’t have much time, it is better to give 10-15 minutes of quality time every night, than one hour a week on a Saturday, when neither of you are really into it. Here are some ways to help:

– Make learning fun- If you have the space create a fun learning environment, where children will enjoy working with you. At the point when learning becomes boring, you have lost the battle.

– Don’t be negative- If your child becomes bored or frustrated, give them a break and come back to them when they are in a better mood. You want learning to be a positive experience, not one in which the child becomes frustrated.

– Be positive but critical- Help your child to achieve, set their own targets and be proud of their achievements. If they haven’t done a great job on a project, be supportive but positive. Get excited with them, “Hey, I think you could make this even better! Do you want to know how?”.

– Read with your child- Reading is not just about learning to read. Teach your child to enjoy reading and make it a bonding experience.

– Teach your child independence- Help your child to want to learn by themselves. This is the overall goal of education. If you can achieve this, then your child will flourish.

– Talk to your child’s teacher- Find out what your child is learning and more importantly the method that they are using. There is nothing worse for a teacher when you are teaching one method in class and they come in with a new method the next day, that completely confuses the structure of their learning.

– Model learning- Children will copy you and want to do what you are doing. If you are having fun writing, then more often than not your child will want to do it too. If you are distracted and not fully focused on your child, then don’t expect them to be concentrating either.

– Support learning- Aside from the work given to your child at school, set up a learning environment full of educational toys. See our post on the top ten toys that you must have at home.

– Find fun ways to teach- Try not to get into a routine of just sitting and teaching. Get your kids active and make learning fun. At BEYC with have a growing library of activities for parents to help children with a whole range of subjects. Scroll down to the bottom and click on a picture to choose your game.

British Early Years Centre is an International Kindergarten in Bangkok.