Raising a Child With Positive Attitude Towards Learning
Learning isn’t merely memorizing something, most people judge a person on his/her ability to memorize something. Is that all there is to learning? No, learning is a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning. It is completely understanding and fully controls acquired knowledge about certain topics. This being said, can a child be forced to learn? No, people learn on their own, we can merely amplify it by teaching them deeper things about what they wish to learn. If your child has no intention to learn, no school or teacher or whatever can change that. Preschools, thus focus on sowing the desire to learn in the minds of young kids. Remember, parents, are the primary source of everything to the child. Parents should raise children with the right attitude towards learning, it may seem insignificant because your child is so young, you may think “He’ll get better, as he grows older.” you couldn’t be more wrong! It is when the child is young that we need to help the children develop the right attitude towards learning.
Here are a few important things you need to follow to achieve this:
• Give your child a head start
This does not mean that you need to push the child academically while he is just about making sense of the world around. What it does mean though is that you need to hold your baby, make him feel loved. Singing to the baby, using gestures, talking to the child even though he does not understand all that you say, playing with him, all go a long way in developing a connection with the child that in turn impact his intelligence.
• Reading to the child
This is one habit, which if begun early helps the child develop language skills, not to mention the fact that it lays the foundation for a lifelong love of reading and learning.
• Physical Exercise
Physical exercise not only keeps the child healthy, it has several other benefits including impacting the child’s still developing brain with increased blood flow.
• Encouraging effort and not the outcome
One other way that you can ensure that your child puts in enough effort in his learning activities is to encourage effort and not the outcome. Ever so often we are guilty of calling the child a “ good boy” or a “ good girl” when they are able to achieve a great outcome. Similarly, the child is labeled “ bad” if he does achieve the desired results. Praising the child for his efforts go a long way in making the child feel that he is in control. On the other hand, if you praise him only for the outcome, each time that the outcome is negative his self-esteem can take a beating. For the same reason, he may be hesitant on taking up tasks that he perceives as being “hard” and may be content living in his comfort zone
◦ Eliminate Fears
Although some children dislike school because they find it boring or pointless, others have legitimate fears that prevent a positive attitude from fully blossoming. Identify any sources of trepidation your child is facing, including interpersonal problems with abusive teachers or bullies, and situational problems such as stage fright during oral reports. Eliminating or effectively dealing with the root of children’s school-related fears and anxieties can help them feel more enthusiastic about attending class.
• Eliminate negative verbiage from your student’s dialogue. When you hear your student say “I can’t do it,” take a step back. Bring this negative verbiage to your child’s attention. Dive deeper into the meaning behind it. Ask questions. “Why can’t you do it?”; “What’s holding you back?”; “How can I help?”; “What do you need to be able to do it?” From there, lay out a plan to remove those barriers. Show your child that you are in this together, and together you can come up with a plan to turn “I can’t” into “We can.”
• Incorporate a rewards system to encourage positivity at all times.It’s not unusual for children to lack motivation to be positive, especially when dealing with a defeat or sense of failure. How can you teach them to improve their behavior during those negativity-drenched times? The answer may be a rewards system that provides positive reinforcement for optimism.
• Explore Your Children’s Interests
Children should also be allowed to learn various skills and areas that interest them. Ask your children if they have an interest in learning anything particular. Chances are they have wanted to know more about something in their life.
Perhaps you can let your child pick what the family is doing for your weekly education time. Or, you can enroll your child in music or other lessons. There are even summer day and overnight camps that are focused on dance, music, theater, science, math, reading, and writing.
• Give Your Child The Gift Of Failure
In our pursuit to do the best for our child, we very often forget to give him an important gift- the gift of failure. Allowing the child to take reasonable risks and learn from his experiences goes a long way in preparing him for life. The next time around stop yourself in your tracks if you feel the urge to rush in and solve a problem for the child which if left by himself he is perfectly capable of solving on his own. Remember if they haven’t tasted failure at all as children, they may find it very hard to come to terms with disappointments and failures that you cannot control for them as they step into adulthood.
• Encouraging Creativity
Exposing your child to music, painting, craft and many other such activities allows him to develop not just a love for the arts but also an overall creative streak that goes a long way in enhancing his problem-solving abilities. In fact, research has proved that listening to music can significantly impact attention span besides reducing stress levels.
Well, in this article you learned Raising a Child With Positive Attitude towards learning.
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