10 Ways to Increase Your Child’s Learning at Home

Here are some ideas to increase learning at home:

 

1. Limit the amount of TV a child watches in a week.

2. Limit the amount of time a child spends playing video games.

3. Play board games like Scrabble, Boggle, Backgammon, Chess, Rummy, Risk and other games that require math, spelling, reading, and strategy skills.

4. Read to younger children every day and encourage older ones to read by providing a wide variety of books and magazines.

5.  Encourage natural curiosity by helping a child find answer to questions.  Even when you know the answer, sometimes instead of answering the question help a child to look up the answer.  Not only will the child learn the answer to the question but will learn more about the subject and also, how to do research.

5. Ask questions about everything (What kind of bird is that? How did people mend clothes before the invention of sewing machines? How did people decide where roads would be place?).  Then have your child help you look up the answer.

6. As you do ordinary chores like washing dishes, laundry, or pulling weeds talk about what you are doing and why.

7. Use learning games, books, and projects as rewards rather than punishment.  It reinforces the fun of education.

8.  If a child shows an interest in a subject, encourage her or him to look for more resources on the subject and develop a project incorporating what he or she learned.  (Beware:  This is how someone ended up with a dog sled in her living room!)

9. As child is preparing for a quiz or a test, let him or her ask you the questions he or she thinks might be included.  Don’t worry if you do not know an answer.  It is a great way to model to find an answer.

10.  Create a question jar containing papers with questions that will spark an interesting discussion or journal entry.  When a child is bored, he or she can draw a paper.