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When you became a parent, you probably dreamt of all the things you would teach your child. After all, nothing beats the buzz of seeing the wonder in a young mind as it learns new skills. You might even have initially planned to homeschool, but then, your child sent a spanner into the educational works – they simply failed to listen to you.
This is more common than you might think, and it’s often a sign of a child who feels completely comfortable at home. That might not be much consolation when they’re entirely ignoring your lessons, but your child likely sees you, and the family home, as a safe, happy haven. It can therefore be confusing when you start telling them they have to do something which, often, they might not be altogether engaged with.
This reality can become especially frustrating when you send them to school and they instantly start engaging with their teacher on tasks you’ve been struggling to interest them with for years. While it’ll be a relief to see them advancing, you’ll still wonder why were they so against that activity when you did it?
It’s important to answer this because, as their school education continues, the exercises they complete at home will become every part as vital as the work they do in school. Luckily, a reluctance in at-home learners often stems from a few key mistakes that you might not realize you’re making. We’re going to help you overcome them by considering a few here.
# 1 – Failing to Make it Fun
You might have a certain image of at-home learning that involves sitting at the dining table with books and happy children, but it’s time to shake things up. Children who sit at a desk in school all day are probably always going to resist sitting at the table. Even during the preschool years, this stuffy setup is unlikely to result in truly engaged learning.
Instead, at-home learning in the early years should revolve around fun lessons that your child isn’t even always aware of. To begin with, even something as simple as playdough sessions are great for everything from creativity to fine motor skills. Beyond that, things like puzzles and themed activity books are fantastic for cognitive learning that never feels like work.
Even once your child is in school and needs to learn more specific topics, try to approach every task with a fun slant. Instead of forcing them to read a book as they’re developing their phonics, invest in fun wordplay games. Or, if you’re looking at specific things like double consonants, try options like these 10 Fun Activities to Help Your Child Learn Double Consonant Words – Begin, which include the use of great tools like shaving foam and flash cards. Simply make sure that fun is always the main focus, and more engaged learning will inevitably follow.
# 2 – Choosing the Wrong Approach
Teachers undergo years of training and are well-versed in the best ways to engage young minds. You have no such training and are far less likely to know how to approach an engaging learning session. This can result in frustration on both ends, and it’s an issue you can overcome by simply reassessing your methods.
With younger children, it’s especially important to approach with realistic expectations in mind. After all, expecting a child at this age to focus on one set task for an hour or more will always lead to fallouts and distress. Young children simply aren’t programmed to concentrate for that long. Equally, if you become stressed and angry due to your child’s entirely natural resistance to such a long-winded activity, you risk making learning look daunting and dull.
Instead, do some research or simply talk to your child’s teachers about how long they should be focusing on tasks, and how you can help them to remain engaged for that time. Most commonly, it’s advisable to pick up on your child’s cues to get a handle on this. Approaching with this increased level of understanding ensures that your child is far more active and engaged on their own level. Admittedly, it might mean that you have to cut your sessions short because your child simply isn’t engaging one day, but that’s okay and is a far better way of handling things than pushing the point and overwhelming your child entirely.
# 3 – Teaching at Odds With Classroom Learning
Many parents make the mistake of charging in with at-home learning that sits entirely at odds with whatever children are learning in the classroom. This is a problem for various reasons, especially because if you jump in with, say, a different phonics approach to the one your child’s used to, you may hinder their learning rather than helping. Even if your disparate approach doesn’t directly stand in the way of classroom learning, a child who’s already absorbing a lot of information at school may switch off if they’re also facing brand-new lessons at home.
Instead, it’s far better to ensure you’re always tying home learning in with broader classroom focuses that your child is familiar with. This way, they may enjoy telling you what they already know about this topic, and are liable to pay more attention in general.
It can be especially useful to speak with your child’s teacher about things like additional worksheets that tie-in with classroom activities, or simply what book they’re reading in class that week. You could then encourage that same reading at home, or engage in additional activities like drawing their favorite character or designing their own book cover. For an added incentive, let them take these finished items into class, where the teacher may then display them for everyone to see.
Takeaway
Try not to take it to heart if your child engages with their teacher in ways they fail to engage with your learning efforts. This is completely natural and, if you avoid these fatal mistakes, it needn’t stand in the way of great learning at home, too.