There is a school of thought that says that you should leave your children’s education to the teachers so that you do not create problems by all the children starting a new class or term at different levels to one another. The fact is, though, that all children will naturally be at different levels and it is no reason to disadvantage your children by not giving them the kind of head start that will help them to succeed around their peers.
As parents, you might have started dreaming about announcing their graduation news with cards (from a company like Jostens – https://www.jostens.com/graduation/high-school/announcements). However, it takes constant educational assistance and patience to help a child become scholarly. With this in mind, let us look to ways that can help your child achieve success from education, whichever school you decide to send them to.
Enough Sleep
Many teachers will say that the reason children do not perform to their best in lessons is that they are tired. They are right on this because many parents do make the mistake of thinking that children have surplus energy to give away when the fact is they need more and not less than adults to face the day ahead.
With this in mind, we looked up the recommended hours of sleep required in any 24 hours for the different age groups. They are as follows:
Newborns (up to 1 year) – 14 to 17 hours.
Toddlers (1 – 2 years) – 11 to 12.5 hours.
Young Children (3 to 5 years) – 10.5 to 11.5 hours
Children (6 to 7 years) – 10.5 hours.
Children (7 to 13 years) – 10 hours.
Teenagers (13 – 18 years) – 8 to 10 hours.
Adults (18 – 60 years) – 7 or more hours.
Adults (61 – 64 years) – 7 to 9 hours.
Adults (65 years) – 7 to 8 hours.
So, at least 7 hours is recommended for every age group, and more for children and teenagers, who will be in education. This means that it should not be the case that children play video games or watch television until the early hours. This kind of activity should be restricted to a certain time only. Many of it goes undetected in bedrooms with headphones on, perhaps, but it is important to keep a close eye on it as a parent so that children get enough sleep and are educated by a variety of different activities, not just gaming and TV.
Study Space
As your child gets older there will be possibly more opportunities for them to do learning at home or independent learning for their subjects. You may, if you have the option to, want to provide them with a small space where they can complete their learning in peace away from commotion and distractions. You may want to potentially decorate this space with fun wall decals that could possibly help promote creativity and even help them focus when they get distracted.
You also could consider getting them the appropriate furniture to help them feel comfortable when using this space for what could be long periods of time. In addition to this, you could also install appropriate lighting and shelves to store books and material. This can easily be done by looking up “handyman near me in Ocean Grove” (if that’s where you live) and having these professionals affix anything you might need.
Reading
There is no substitute for hearing your child read from an early age and then having them continue to read to you. It gives them fluency, improves their vocabulary, comprehension, and makes them able to read faster while maintaining that understanding. Reading is the basis of everything. It is how we learn from any subject. So, not having given it enough attention early on will only slow down a child’s progress later on. It is also about creating that love for reading, too, by allowing them to choose books rather than them only getting to read the ones they are told to read.
Flashcards
Flashcards are a great tool for helping children to remember words. Word recognition is a big part of reading. Then, of course, there is that added complication when learning the English language where words will sound the same yet be spelled differently and have a completely different meaning. A tip here might be to single a few of these out at an early stage so that your child understands the difference. This prevents common writing habits from forming. For example, teach them the difference between words such as “there” and “their” sooner rather than later.
Presentation Skills
To cater to all ages here, there is no doubt that as education continues, there will be that need for your child to need to present their ideas verbally in front of their class. This can be daunting enough as an adult but it need not be when a child has grown up with it. The ability to talk about a chosen subject for 3 minutes without notes would be a good exercise to get them used to this. Start them with a subject that they are passionate about. Then keep this up, increasing the family group that will be listening to them.
Percentages
Think of areas of maths that will prove useful to your child in later life. Provide some examples of what they will need to know for employment, for example. Anyone in business will, for instance, need to know about percentages to be able to work out income tax and sales tax.
Repeating the “times table” at an earlier age will help with working out maths at speed later on in life. It is surprising how useful knowing this can be for lots of mathematical calculations.
Science
An interest in science from an early age will give your child an interest in nature and how things work. It encourages greater engagement with the world in general. A curious child becomes one that is eager to learn.
Geography
Putting in context the world around us is about having a thorough understanding of the world’s places. This will also make a child more interested in the news when it is shown on television.
Learning to drive in later life is about navigating your way around and this is something that can be learned as a passenger before anyone is even old enough to drive.
History
The value of history is in being able to learn from the past. Having your child help research your family history through obituary archive websites like https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/census/1910-records will certainly give them that interest in past events. A good place to start too is to learn about the different kings and queens, as these set out the different periods in history that we can associate all kinds of events with.
So, think about what subjects will give your child a head start in the world initially and then those that will help in later life too. We can aid the educational journey of our children and give them a chance in what has become a very competitive world. What is remembered early can set us up perfectly for a lifetime of learning.