Parents Blog » Teaching your children

Are you a parent or a teacher? You can be both because you are already an expert!

Alan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:40:16 +0000

Many parents do not naturally see themselves in the role as a ‘teacher and they could so easily be so and really help their children with their education.

“It’s not what I do. I simply do not have the knowledge to be a teacher to my children, it’s not part of my identity, and I leave all that to the teachers”.

This view that many a parent has was emphasised to me the other night when I was at a public speaking workshop. Here is what happened.

A friend of mine, Angela, stood before the assembled audience and asked them:

How many of you here tonight are a parent?

What was the answer? Well, hands shot up for about 80% of the people there.

How many of you here are a teacher?

The answer, just one lone hand went up, from a man in the back.

Another question from Angela ; Sir, and how are you a teacher?

The answer from the man in the back; “I am a teacher because I am a parent”.

Perhaps you will not be surprised to hear that I was the man in the back.

In fact as a parent you are ideally placed to help your children learn and to be their teacher. Compared to your children with all your years of experience, no matter what your educational level, you are already an expert.

Do you believe this? It’s true. It can be part of your identity; it can be part of what you are, part of who you are and part of what you do.

You can be a teacher because you are already an expert. Believe it!

Make your children laugh and their learning will greatly improve

Alan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:35:45 +0000

Researchers have shown that laughing reduces stress and less stress results in improvements in learning. Less stress in your children will improve their learning.

When you are helping your children to learn, the moral of the tale is to get them laughing, telling jokes, having fun, and that way your children will more easily succeed in their learning and at school.

Happy children are motivated, stressed children do not want to learn.

So how can you help your children with their learning and give them a good time and make it fun?

Essentially we suggest that you as the parent take part in collaborative learning with your children, having a lot of fun whilst doing so.

On our Blogs you will find tips, techniques, and methods of how to do this to help you greatly improve your children’s abilities and learning.

Teaching children – What’s good for teachers is good for parents – happy parents boost learning for their children

Alan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:34:25 +0000

Parents, I’m sure that this will not come as a shock but it has been found that children are affected by the emotions of their teachers.

The children who have teachers, who are happy, funny, smile, grin and who love their work, do much better than children who do not have such wonderful teachers.Are you really surprised? No? I thought not,and nor were we when we read about this.The question that arises is this.

Is there a lesson in this for parents?

Well, the advice to teachers prior to teaching is therefore to get in a good mood,de-stress, and be prepared to use material that is humorous and fun, that way their students are more likely to do better.

So what lesson is there from the world of teaching for you parents?

Yes, you’ve got it! When you are helping your children to learn, do it in a fun and happy way and your children will do a lot better.

So, as is said in my home country, England, “have a laugh”. Have a laugh with your children and get involved with their activities.

At ‘The Learning Well’ we say something similar – “make it fun, then you’ve won”.