Teach Kids the importance of learning for a lifetime
Parents often assume that once school is out for the summer, their kids are done learning. However, as they enter adulthood and jobs or other types of schooling, children will need to learn new skills in order to be successful.
Developing a pattern and thirst for lifelong learning at a young age can help them today just as much as it will in the future.
In this post we’ll discuss ideas and resources parents can provide for their children so they continue learning all year round!
We aren't going to waste anytime. We have been working hard to help parents keep those kids entertained and learning in their own ways. Reference our blog on how kids learn here.
Parents tips for kids on how to develop a love of learning
1. Learning is a lifelong process
Help your child to understand that learning is not something they will only do for a few years before going on to career and then be done. Everyday there are new things to learn, even after many decades of experience in one’s field.
2. Teaching your kids to learn will help them for the rest of their lives
Teaching them to be lifelong learners will help when they are looking for a new job, in college or as an adult in general. Think about yourself and what you have had to learn to get to where you are. What you thought was important 10 years ago could be vastly different and a lot of that is due to how you have had to adapt to life's curve balls. Don't be afraid to let you kids know that what they think is important today might be really different in 10 years from now.
3. Kid were born to learn
Kids are natural learners, but they need guidance and support from parents and teachers on what to learn and where to go for learning resources (We have included some resources below). As kids grow the sense of how they learn may change or what they thought was important will shift. They develop their own interests. Recognize that those might be different from your own. Enable kids to keep that spark of learning lit.
4. Encourage your kids by telling them it’s ok if they don't know something
Contrary to popular belief, mostly by children and teens, they do not know everything. One way to help htem understand this is by telling children that you just learned about the same thing yesterday, or had trouble with this topic when you were a kid too. That will give you a chance to help them figure out ways to overcome unique problems.
It is normal not knowing everything.
Pro Tip: try searching YouTube, videos on topics often have explanations of things in an animated way and even songs!
5. Model good learning habits as a parent
I will preface this with, this is extremely difficult. Sometimes all us parents want to do is lay down and look at the phone with 100% expectation that we are going to waste some time.
Children mimic adults which means our children are watching us all day long - make sure they see you reading books, browsing informational through websites and creating new things (i.e. woodworking projects, painting, learning a new game or even memorizing poetry.
6. Schools should be more than just test-prep centers
The school day should have time for play and exploration as well as lessons. A parent and teachers responsibility should be making all aspects of education interesting by connecting what is being learned with how it is used in the real world.
Schools need to change from places where you go to learn just what you need to get a job to being able to provide students opportunities for lifelong learning that are more than test prep centers.
Some ideas include collaborating on projects with other schools around the world or traveling abroad and letting the world provide unique experiences that kids wouldn't have received otherwise.
Visiting new cultures and experiencing the dynamic world through virtual modern technology or actually exploring expands local culture and enables people to better understand systemic and diversity issues in our communities and on a global scale.
Too many times it seems that communities only focus on their community and not how they fit in the fabric of a global community.
Attitude and a positive mindset about learning can be taught through modeling good habits and by connecting education to life experiences for children; parents should study with their kids and broaden the conversation from what the instructor is requesting to what the kid needs to learn about the topic.
7. There's no such thing as too much learning or too many skills
Educating our children is the most important thing that any of us can do. And yet, it's not something we talk about as a society very often.
Schools should be more than just test-prep centers. They should help provide kids with an understanding of why they're being exposed to certain topics and how learning in general can make their lives better for now AND later on down the line when they might need to use skills learned as part of a job search or other situation.
Learning how subjects work together like math, science and art will also give them insight into how these things are related--in ways even adults may miss out on!
Making learning a lifelong pursuit gives young people opportunities for success throughout their lifetime.
It is also important to note that as children grow and learn new things, they are going to need to adapt to new and unique situations. As they harness new talents and expand on them they are not only benefiting a company they can also have a big impact on their community.
8. Expose children to reading at a young age, read with them and encourage them to read on their own
Recent research touts that children that are read to at a very young age are better prepared for the beginning school years. Parents that read varying books using different voices can help children understand in new ways how words are used, not only by a lot of people from certain locations but from areas around the world that use the same language but have different accents.
This makes sense because readers naturally encounter new grammatical patterns when they see them in different contexts or hear them spoken by people with accents from outside their dialect region. As we grow up, our brains make connections between these recurring sentence structures so that we can more easily understand what's being said--even if it’s written differently elsewhere!
I recently went through my report cards from first through third grade. The consistent theme in most of them, other than "does not play well with others", was that I needed someone to read to me or someone to read to with encouragement that I should be reading every day. No one every did, and as a result from a lack of ambition or initiative to do it on my own, I ended up graduating High School with a fifth grade reading level.
That is tough for a grown man to admit but at the same time, I want to share with you that kids need engagement to help them learn. If they do not get engaged to learn, most will not naturally try to find new ways to learn independently.
Resources for parents to help their kids keep learning
-Help kids find what interests them by exposing them to as much as possible (e.g., taking art classes if the kid has an artistic interest)
-Allow children time outside of school for hobbies or skills related activities.
-Find mentors who share similar interests with children and offer guidance through their chosen pursuits: e.g.: someone who loves tennis but also knows how it takes dedication and hard work
- Learn about something you’ve never heard of before - find out what it is
- Take time each day to read as much as possible.
-Encourage kids to read difficult books and think of how they can make them more accessible for themselves - have a dictionary close by or highlight key words you don’t know
-Find out about what your children are learning in school and give them extra credit for learning a related topic that with enhance what they are learning.
-as summer approaches, see if there are summer camps that your children can attend. These don't have to be in the woods by a lake. Most large cities offer day camps for kids for a few hours in a specific niche. Like art classes, woodworking, mountain biking, boating, etc.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
We have discussed a wide rand of ideas and topics around the idea of continual learning. Keep children engaged by participating in their learning experience, give them extra credit ideas that they can work on independently outside of the course curriculum, and let them decide what interest them and get them into programs and extra curricular activities that will expand their interest on their interests.
Kids are awesome. Help them love learning by keeping them engaged in new topics and allow them to explore in their own way. As they learn, and develop a love of learning, they will have a better understanding of how to keep themselves engaged in lifelong learning.