Plate spinning educator
With young children around the role of the parent extends from teacher, cook, bottle washer, counsellor, swimming instructor, dietician and taxi driver. When they finally go to school is it viewed with relief or dread? A few precious hours between 8am to 4 pm when parents, especially mothers, get a break, or the loss of the learning bond nurtured over the first five years?
During those early years you got a great buzz from the child’s development; those first words and steps; answering the stream of “why’s”; the solo control of their bike. They in return felt confident with you as their mentor, the reference point for all they didn’t know or understand.
Those precious intimate days of teaching that involving a high degree of repetition and example progressed at the pace of your child as their knowledge base rapidly developed.
After holding sole responsibility for your child’s learning during the early years suddenly the programme is handed to a third party. In the past this involved a significant break in your role as a “teacher” but now parents are able to take a far more supportive role in the schooling of their children.
The repetitive practice function, so productive in those early years, is often sacrificed in school due to pressures of time and availability of resources, yet 75% of learning retention is achieved through practice! Similarly, being part of an average class size of 30 in school understandably dilutes the child’s mentoring link.
Working with the teacher to follow the national curriculum, parents can now access the same modern teaching resources used in school that allow them to practice the lesson content with their child at home. Importantly the emphasis is on fun as these resources are predominately educational games.
Being able to interact with your child’s school work in this highly productive manner overcomes the gap in your mentoring support, and is far more productive in helping their understanding than trying to help or manipulate their conventional homework.
Alistair Owens
www.keen2learn.couk
