Whether it’s helping your child to complete their homework or simply working with them to practice certain subject areas they struggle within school, supporting your children with their learning is a sure way to nurture their development.
If you need a little inspiration on how best to do this, here are a few ways to support your child’s learning outside of the classroom.
What are the benefits of doing at-home learning?
There are countless benefits of learning at home with your child. Sometimes children don’t feel confident enough to ask questions in front of the whole class and this can lead to them falling behind. By providing at-home support, you can provide a safe space with your child for them to ask as many questions as they need to for them to understand. As a parent,you can utilise your one-on-one time with your child to inject as much fun as possible into their homework so that they create a positive association with it. This will help to build your child’s confidence over time.
Give children time and space to explore
When approaching learning with your child, it’s important to give them time and space to explore. If it’s a completely new topic this could take the form of allowing them to ask lots of initial questions, providing demonstrations, drawing a diagram, and so on. Allow them to get to grips with the subject in a way in which they feel comfortable.
Be open to exploring different ways of learning
There are 4 main learning types that categorise the way in which a child best absorbs new information.
These include:
There are free online tests available that you can do with your child to find out what their learning type is. Once you’ve determined this, you can tailor the way you teach them at home.
Make learning at home fun
The more fun you can make learning at home, the more likely your child is to want to participate, harnessing new skills along the way. There are plenty of ways to make home study sessions more engaging. One good way is to involve them in an educational game or project.
This could be drawing and painting – to practice art and design skills, acting out a scene from their favourite book – to improve their confidence in reading aloud, or even using a fun STEM inventor kit – to teach them about electricity as part of a science project.
