How to make kids learn?
By thuhuong
@thuhuong (823)
United States
February 6, 2010 12:29pm CST
I don't have any little ones yet but do have many little ones of whom are nieces and nephews. I am always interested in what they're learning and how. Do users here have kids and how do you help them with their learning and what methods do you use to enable them to keep learning?
4 responses
@maryihla (103)
• United States
6 Feb 10
We are born with the natural inclination to explore and discover. Studies have shown children learn best when allowed to investigate the world around them. I once watched my baby granddaughter scrutinize her hands for a full six minutes. She wiggled her fingers in front of her face, and made repetitive pinching motions with her thumb and forefinger.
Discovery is only part of the learning process. Children must also master what they have discovered by interaction with their environment and the people in it. My granddaughter eventually used the pinching motion she'd discovered to pick up pieces of cereal and put them in her mouth. She learned this by watching her older sister.
Children are natural mimics. I have a video of another granddaughter at 14 months, sweeping and mopping the floor. No one taught her this skill, but she had watched her mother perform the chore many times. More complex skills, such as reading or riding a bike, require practice.
Mental development can be stimulated by offering choices ("Do you want to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt today?"), encouraging creativity ("It's just fine if you want to color that cow purple."), and asking the child's opinion (Why do you think Elmo is sad?).
To develop large motor skills, play games that involve skipping, galloping, and hopping on one foot (balance). Small motor skills can be developed by such activities as constructing valentines (cutting), making a garland for the Christmas tree (stringing beads), or creating a Mother's Day gift (painting).
Promote social and emotional development in school-age children with activities such as creating a family tree, learning a song or dance from another culture, writing letters to a pen pal, or raising funds for a charity.
Family members and caregivers are a child's first and best teacher. If the love of learning is instilled at an early age, the result is a lifelong learner.
@thuhuong (823)
• United States
7 Feb 10
Thank you for enlightening me with great facts and most importantly your experience. I do believe the children are the future but without guidance they will wither so learning and education comes first. In knowing how little minds can develop into mature thoughts and eventually into adults that in turn keeps spinning the next level of learning, everyday it's always something new for the little ones.
@epicure35 (2814)
• United States
10 Feb 10
Learning by example it the most effective learning method there is, so it's wise to be a good example, and model the right way to behave and do things. Postive reinforcement is also necessary. Children love to be praised for a job well done. A good learner is also a disciplined learner who must cultivate good character traits, such as obedience, persistance and perseverance. Making learning fun and a joy helps with all that, because learning can become difficult and arduous at times, depending on the material or the lesson at hand. I'm reminded of a children's book I once read which is germaine to the discipline of any "discipline" - "First come the lessons, then comes the fun." Tending to what must be done first builds responsibility, attentiveness, and accountability, necessary for all learning.
@epicure35 (2814)
• United States
10 Feb 10
Thanks for your kind comment. In my haste to post, I forgot to mention the attributes of patience and a genuine love of learning on the part of any who would teach.
@mzz663 (2772)
• United States
6 Feb 10
I always had fun helping my kids learn. When they are little you can make them pudding and put them in a high chair or put freezer paper on the table and show them how to do the alphabet or numbers and they can eat it while they are learning.
Always try to make if fun for them.
When my kids got older, they would be doing homework and they would get frustrated as much as I would and I would tell them to go do something else for half an hour and come back to it when they felt better.
Games are a great way for them to learn, I think the more fun they have while they're learning the more they are willing to learn.
@thuhuong (823)
• United States
7 Feb 10
Yes, play is very important to the child. Without it seeing them bored is heartbreaking, even helpless. Because I haven't had children yet, I see them sometimes as fragile beings. This I'm told from parents is a mistaken thought as they are more clever I think. :)
@floridia (296)
• Algeria
6 Feb 10
mother is the school of children, when they born till the age of teenage children take their personality from their parents especially the mother.
the important is to let your children play with others to get good social skills that's a big matter.
paly is a gate to learn in childhood.
another thing that don't try to learn children reading or writing before the age of 6.
i hope that u understand what i've written.
@thuhuong (823)
• United States
7 Feb 10
Yes, I have understood what was written. Thank you! For a mother to be the child's gate through teenage years is a long time to carry forth. The child to learn everyday until they are ready to go about doing so alone is a big job to take. I guess, the commitment is solid as without it, you're basically saying 'no' to the child to whatever it is out there they will learn.