Parents Teaching Children

Our local paper, The Kalamazoo Gazette, started a new column that will run every Tuesday. It's geared for parents to learn how to teach their children. So, of course, I hammered this out, first draft, and emailed it to the editor of the column.

Parents: Children's First and Forever Teacher

As a teacher and teacher-educator for 30 plus years from elementary to university and from South Jr. High and Vine Alternative To Western Michigan University here in Kalamazoo to an International Boarding school in London, I've learned a bit about kids and learning.

Those who teach do know, a little, and moreso, love to learn. Therein lies the key.

What do your children love doing? What are they best at doing? What excites them? Progressing from those interests and passions, you can teach them any subject matter. Knowledge is interrelated not compartmentalized.

Say, for example, they like playing soccer. Naturally you can provide them with magazines and books about soccer and soccer players or find articles online about teams, history, individual players, interactive computer games, and more. Talk with them about what they read and what interests them. Make a specified time for the WHOLE family to read TOGETHER once or twice a week at a minimum, for a half an hour without interruption.Turn off the computer, cell phone and T.V. Kids mirror what they see. Do you, as a parent, read? Do you read with and TO your children? Do you discuss what's going to happen next or what they like or dislike about a certain book or article or magazine or newspaper? Doing so helps them learn to predict outcomes, a key characteristic of "good readers".

Each of you can share a paragraph from what you read as an example of what you like or do not like about what you read and why. This can lead to all kinds of other discussions about varying subject matters. The world is an interesting place and anything that has ever been thought has been written about, in more ways than one. Talk about point of view. Children's books like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, told by A. Wolf, is a great way to introduce POV and how perspective affects actions and thoughts.

Play games. Have your children find misspelled words in environmental print. Lunch or dinner special boards or store marquees are an easy place to begin. Quik Mart? Quiche? Children first learn through what they see out in the world. A two year old can pick out a MacDonald's sign from all the rest IMMEDIATELY and without hesitation.

While you're driving, ask the kids to look for misspelled words instead of hitting each other in the back seat. Misspellings are everywhere. I once saw a sign at an elementary school here in town (I won't mention which one) which stated: "Enrolling new kindergardners now!" I stopped and left the principal a note. Who would want to send their child to a school who misspells the word kindergarten? I attended that school and was frankly appalled. And the principal is your PAL and would want to know.

This in turn brings up another fun way to learn to remember how words are spelled. Mnemonic aids. This is simply a fancy way of saying finding ways to help you remember something by using something else to trigger one's memory. ARITHMETIC. Acronymn for A Rat In The House Might Eat The Ice Cream. Or stationEry which is a letter that goes in an Envelope, spelled with an e, not an a, as in stationAry meaning "fixed" or "not moving". Or a most commonly misspelled word, de-FINITE-ly. Finite is the root word and the word is NOT spelled de-finate-ly, which is how the majority want to spell it.

Discuss what a root word is and then tackle prefixes and suffixes. It all makes sense after awhile, even when spelling English, which by the way is NOT a phonetic language, but one which is a combination of many languages. Otherwise, phonics would be spelled "fonix". Talk with your children about how weird words are and how they are NOT spelled the way they sound. Make it a game.

Have them pick words from a dictionary, if Mom or Dad are good spellers, and see if they can stump you. Have a family spelling bee. Just have fun with it. Remember when you had fun learning? It's still possible. Make it a contest. Whoever comes up with the most examples of misspelled words kept on a list with place, location and corrected spelling over a week's time, wins. Everybody likes a prize, including Mom and Dad.

Observe HOW your children learn best. Do they learn best by watching or doing? Do they like to touch things? Are they constantly active? If so, their learning style is tactile/kinesthetic True of many of us. Do they like you to SHOW them first? Visual learner. Also true of many of us. Do they like listening and learn best that way? Auditory. Weakest category of learning styles with the least percentage, yet we sit our children down and say "Listen to me!" and we sit them at desks all day while we "talk and teach". Not a great plan. Play the telephone game and see how acute the auditory skills of adults are, much less children.

Knowing how your child learns best is a good place to begin. Just knowing your child and spending time with them is the real foundation of teaching them you care about them and that you value and enjoy learning with and also through them. And don't think they can't teach YOU something. I sometimes learn more from 3 year olds than I do many adults. "Out of the mouths of babes...", as has been said.

Play. Grow.Teach. Explore. Learn. But most of all, have fun with your children. They will be adolescents and adults all too soon, but they will never forget the times you spent together as parent and child.

Virginia S. Little, Ph.D. Learning and Change in Human Systems