I have spent many, many years helping children become better learners and succeed in school. I have been part of all the ‘new’ educational approaches that teachers have been encouraged, and in some cases, mandated, to use in their classrooms. I have tried them all, liked some, and dismissed others.
I was trained in the UK in the 60’s- yes, I am that old!- and I believed in child centered education. Not the child centered approach where you let a child rule the roost, do whatever he or she wants and expect them to magically learn and become a better person, but the child centered approach that said you start with the child, you work out what the child needs to learn, and then help him or her learn it.
I taught in a time when there was no set curriculum. Teachers were expected to understand what children needed to learn next, and to plan their lessons accordingly. Not a perfect system, I admit. Some children might have learned about dinosaurs every year for three years! I wonder how many of them went into paleontology?
Not having to teach a set curriculum allowed me to concentrate on helping children learn rather than getting through the set lessons. I tried all the newfangled ways of helping children learn. I can’t even remember the number of ways teachers were supposed to teach reading.
What I learned was this;
The only way to help children become good learners is to help them develop the skills they need to know how to learn. Once a child knows how to learn it almost doesn’t matter how you try to teach him or her, they will learn whatever way you try to teach them.
The one surefire way to help your child become a better learner is to make sure that they know how to learn, that they have developed the skills they need to be able to learn.
And the good news is that you don’t need special training to be able to do this. Once you know what skills your child needs to develop you can quickly and easily incorporate learning opportunities into your daily routine.
This is what Leading to Learning is all about, helping you find simple ways to make your child a better learner. If you haven’t already signed up for my free report and weekly tips on how to do this – look in the right hand corner and start helping your child today.
