Best Methods to Encourage Learning in Your Children
It is always said that the best students weren’t born the great learners they are today. Personality plays a vital role in a child’s willingness to learn. Most great learners today had to learn and train themselves to learn and become what they currently are. To become a great learner, the student should possess the basic aptitude and get the right motivation towards the desired direction.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a teacher or parent when handling learners is limiting their learning to the classroom. We all understand that the classroom is the primary source of instruction. However, you shouldn’t limit your learners’ social, academic, and intellectual growth within the classroom walls. You should extend beyond the four walls to maximize their ability and desire to learn.
With the right tips and guidelines, you can promote utmost learning among your children and students. You can also motivate them to learn beyond their abilities regardless of their personality or attitude. We will explore some of the most valuable strategies that you can apply to help your learners and children discover the joy of learning, whether at home or in an online school Utah.
Create a Reading Atmosphere
Contrary to what most people believe, reading isn’t the key to a successful life but success to learning. It doesn’t matter how little you read as it promotes learning in human life. Children who develop a great love for reading eventually become great learners, while those who struggle with reading struggle to learn as well.
Besides helping your child develop a rich vocabulary, reading also plays a significant role in helping the brain process concepts. As your child reads more, they also learn to communicate effectively and perform better in language, science, and art classes. Good readers perform well overall, making them great students in all subjects.
Develop a reading culture in your children from their childhood, and they will sharpen their reading skills and a love for the same. Begin by reading to them every day, and when they can read on their own, you can allow them to read aloud. Create a family reading schedule and encourage everyone to read for about 20 minutes every day.
You should also serve as a role model for your children or learners by reading regularly and filling the space with reading materials. By having magazines, newspapers, novels, and posters around the home or classroom, you create a reading atmosphere and demonstrate to the little ones the importance of reading.
Making reading fun rather than boring and frustrating is the key to developing great readers. Children who find reading boring and frustrating can’t be good readers, thanks to their diminished learnings abilities. You should also allow them to pick their favorite books, read them and create activities to make their reading experience fulfilled.
Put Children in the Driver’s Seat as Much as You Can
It is unfortunate how the education system makes the learners feel 100% controlled. Withdrawal is one of the leading effects of such learning systems.
As a teacher or parent, you should find a balance between guiding the children during the learning process and letting them have control of their learning experience. Always provide opportunities for your little ones to have direct input into their learning choices while providing these options simultaneously. For instance, when giving a writing project, you should allow them to pick a topic they feel comfortable writing about.
It is also advisable to allow the children to select their extracurricular activities. Putting kids in control of their learning environment, style, and activities makes them feel part of the learning experience, which motivates them to learn better.
Encourage them to Communicate openly and Sincerely
A good learner should know how to express their opinion respectfully regarding everything going on with their education. You should encourage open and sincere communication among your learners, allowing them to express their likes and dislikes and concerns in a respectful manner without fear of being condemned. Even if you disagree with their opinion, you should be keen to validate their feelings, as making their opinion seem useless can make them disengage from the learning process.
Good learners know that their opinion is necessary for the success of their learning process, and no one can judge, ignore, discourage or put them down for voicing their thoughts.
Identify their Interests and Focus on Them
Children thrive in learning when they focus on areas of their interests. These interests vary from one child to another, which explains why you must take time to determine your little one’s interests before focusing on the same. Doing so makes them fully engaged in the learning process while making the experience fun-filled.
You can make your child a good learner by encouraging them to explore subjects and areas that fascinate them. If they love dinosaurs, for instance, you can get them interesting books that talk about dinosaurs after which you can give an exercise concerning the same.
Apply Different Learning Styles
Every child is unique, which explains why some learning styles suit them best. Others also learn best with several learning styles, which makes no single learning style or combination right or wrong. Keep introducing new learning styles and encouraging the little one to try out until you get what works best for them.
These learning styles are classified as visual, verbal, auditory, social, physical, logical, and solitary. As the name suggests, visual learners learn effectively by seeing how things work as the auditory ones listen. It is advisable to employ all these techniques on your little ones before finding the most effective option.
Employ Game-Based Learning to Create Some Fun
Game-based learning isn’t a new concept in learning. It has been in existence for a long time, and it brings a range of benefits, such as motivating the children to learn and keeping them engaged in the process.
In addition to the above tips, it is essential to focus more on what the child is learning rather than their performance. Besides, you should help them stay organized and celebrate their achievements, no matter how small.