Please click here to visit our sponsor





Please click here to visit our sponsor

How to Help Your Children Learn


We all want the very best for our children and that includes giving them the best possible start to their education. There is a great deal you, as a parent, can do to achieve this. Your priority should be to create an environment that is safe, loving and stimulating.

CHILDREN LEARN THROUGH ALL THEIR SENSES

As we get older, we tend to rely on our sense of sight, and maybe hearing, to learn. We read, we observe and we listen. Children touch, taste, smell, look and then listen.

It's quite pointless to expect toddlers to learn by listening to you -- they're not being naughty when they gaze at you with those big eyes as you explain that it's wrong to spray your expensive perfume all over the bath (you spray the bath when you clean it, they're copying your actions -- they just haven't refined all the details yet).

The best way to teach your children about their world is the most difficult for you. It involves letting them try to do things for themselves (always under your supervision, of course).

When you are rushing to get to work, the temptation is to dress your toddlers, make the beds, tidy the room, pack the bags etc, while they remain passive recipients or observers. It takes much longer if you allow your toddlers to decide what they want to wear, to dress themselves, to begin making their beds and to pack their own bags. But if you deny them the opportunity to learn these things now, when they want to, you really have no-one to blame when they don't know how to look after themselves later (and when they don't want to do these things for themselves).

CHILDREN LEARN BY DOING

Children learn by doing - it bears repeating.

Children are also experts at the scientific method -- they observe their environment; they formulate hypotheses and they test these by carrying out experiments.

The toddler throwing objects from a high chair isn't doing it out of malice, to make you prematurely grey! It's part of learning what happens if you drop different sized objects from a height; what happens if you put a bit of force behind the objects and throw them; what happens if you tip that plate of squishy cereal upside down; what happens to the milk if you pour it into the vegetables ...

When your children become astrophysicists, they'll thank you for letting them conduct their early experiments in such a positive environment!

FOSTERING LEARNING

It's not desirable to just let your children do whatever they want to do -- you need to provide firm guidelines from an early age about what is acceptable and what isn't. By setting these boundaries, and being consistent with them, you'll give your children a secure environment in which to carry out their experiments.

Jennifer Stewart has a degree in English and History and taught senior High School for over twenty years. During that time, she was Head of Department, responsible for devising and implementing teaching programs, and for supervising young teachers. After leaving full-time teaching, she wrote (and now markets) writing courses for students and adults who want to improve their writing skills. Visit her website at http://www.write101.com

Jennifer also offers professional writing services - copy writing, editing and proof reading for your web pages, press releases, technical booklets, newsletters, business proposals, reports or any other writing projects.



MSN UK News

Babies' post-mortem 'inconclusive'
The Press Association - 12 hours ago
It is still not known what caused the deaths of two babies found in toy boxes at the home of a pensioner, after a post-mortem examination proved ...
Dead babies 'may have been twins' BBC News
Babies in box were twins Manchester Evening News
BODIES 'TWINS' Mirror.co.uk
all 65 news articles


Nevada rule protects inmates' babies
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - 10 hours ago
By BRENDAN RILEY, AP Writer Emergency Nevada rules to ensure babies born to women inmates don't wind up in the hands of abusive caregivers while their ...


Babies are bags of bits
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 6 hours ago
Fernyhough has used his daughter's development as a hook on which to hang a considered, up-to-date summary of what we know about how babies develop. ...


Bull rampage expands base of billion-dollar babies
Sify, India - 1 hour ago
... of companies in sectors probably unheard of five years ago, which have suddenly found favour with investors and become billion-dollar babies. ...


CTV.ca

Autism researchers say eye tracker technology may lead to earlier ...
The Canadian Press, TORONTO - 16 hours ago
TORONTO — Eye tracker technology used to study two groups of babies - either at high or low risk of developing autism - shows differences between the groups ...
New test spots autism signs in 9-month-old infants CTV.ca
Detecting autism in babies may aid progress Hamilton Spectator
Canadian researchers make autism diagnosis at 9 months: study CBC.ca
The Canadian Press
all 43 news articles


Giant snake hatches 40 babies
Independent Online, South Africa - 14 hours ago
Kampala - A 30-year-old python housed in a Ugandan animal conservation centre has hatched 40 offspring, newspaper reports said on Friday but wildlife ...


Julie Caswell's tips on dogs and babies
Detroit Free Press, United States - 22 hours ago
Expose your dog to babies in a controlled manner. • Present a blanket or clothes the baby has worn to your dog along with special treats. ...


Sex of San Jose City Hall baby falcons announced: Think 'girl power'
San Jose Mercury News,  USA - 2 hours ago
By Lisa Fernandez Birders watch as UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group field biologist Brian Latta bands peregrine falcon babies' legs on Friday, ...
Genders of SJ City Hall chicks revealed abc7news.com
Scientists Try To Find Gender Of Pergerine Falcon Chicks NBC 11.com
Falcon fans at City Hall waiting for genders to be announced San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
all 12 news articles


Dee Snider's 6th Annual Bikers for Babies Ride May 18
Westbury Times, NY - 8 hours ago
Bikers will hit the open road at 11 am Every year more than half a million babies are born prematurely, and more than 100000 are born with birth defects or ...


ITV to show big babies
Broadcastnow, UK - 4 hours ago
ITV is to air a 60-minute doc from indie Scarlet charting the biggest babies ever born. As well as meeting parents and their unusually large offspring, ...

Babies - Google News

home | site map

© 2006 www.elearn-university.org