Last week we talked about what you can do to prepare for a parent/teacher conference aimed at addressing your child’s learning problems. Today I would like to discuss ways you can make learning fun for your child. These tips can be used by teachers, tutors or parents.
The first way to make learning fun is to use games. There are a lot of learning games on the market today that use digital technology to entertain kids as they learn. However, you are not limited to electronic learning games. Common board games can also be used as a learning device. For example, Candy Land may seem like a mindless board game, but it actually is a great game for learning colors, matching shapes and counting. It can also be used to help your child develop fine motor skills.
Fun activities that involve reading directions and measuring items are also great ways to encourage your kids to develop useful math and reading skills. For example, you can have your kids help you assemble a desk that you bought from a box store. They can read the instructions, measure parts and follow the instructions to help you assemble the desk for their room. Cooking is another great learning activity that helps to develop direction following skills, measuring skills, math skills and science skills. (We’ll talk more about cooking next week.)
Private tutoring services can be a great way to deal directly with your child’s learning concerns, however, what you do after their tutoring sessions is going to impact their retention rate. Work with your child’s academic tutor to come up with supplemental activities to enrich and reinforce what they are learning in their tutoring sessions.
August 13th, 2009 at 7:14 am
I am currently in the process of helping my 12 year old learn Spanish. Reading a manual in spanish or cooking a Spanish dish from a Spanish recipe are great ideas to help her learn in a more fun, interesting, and practical way.
August 13th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Those are fun and interesting ways to teach kids how to speak a foreign language.
I just had lunch with a very dear old friend and her daughter is learning French in school. My friend only brushed up on her French and now only speaks French to her daughter.
A couple of days ago she asked her if she wanted to go to the library, then held up a library book. The daughter replied in a complete sentence that she wanted to go to the library. The benefit was two-fold. She said that their relationship has improved tremendously because of the bind they are creating. Pretty good for a mother-teenage daughter relationship!
September 28th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Teaching kids a foreign language at an early age is so efficient.
As early as 2 years old, we could teach our children skills that could benefit them for a lifetime. For me, besides music, and art, I taught them language – Spanish.
The fun part of the lesson is the process; I learned and became fluent in Spanish too. And there are times that we told each other stories in Spanish. It is lots of fun.
I’m thinking of another venue of learning for them. I love my kids.
October 30th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Fun games can be very interesting for your kids where they can learn and play at the same time. The main advantage here is that your kids never lose interest doing fun things and side wise they get some knowledge.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:54 am
I don’t really like the idea of private tutoring. Only children with wealthy parents can afford it – and the thought of children with wealthy parents getting a better education than those with poorer parents makes me uncomfortable. Plus – isn’t school enough – let children enjoy their time off.
I do think learning by playing games works though. If education is fun children will respond much better.
November 7th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Sam, that simply is not true. Private tutoring does not particularly mean expensive. In schools there is peer tutoring. Many teachers also help kids after school or during study period for free.
And no, for many kids, school is not enough. Some kids need extra help and are at a disadvantage if the school or parents does not provide for the individual attention.
Learning by playing games is an excellent idea, but at the same time, an entirely different subject. You are hooking two learning strategies together thinking that by using games it will solve the problem. Learning is a very complex process and for many kids who have learning disabilities, reading issues, and much much more. they need more help.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:29 am
learning fun through usage of digital technology is better way to play game.plenty of games are available in the market with reasonable price.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:08 am
Beautiful post.. Always a bit of practical education or any kind of teaching which makes a child to get involved in the process of learning works out the best. A bit of technology likes pc games, TV cartoons, etc will make no harm for sure..
March 16th, 2010 at 12:46 am
I think you bring up a good point about many day to day activities being good learning experiences. Different kids learn in different ways, many students can learn by doing something much quicker than through a book.
The thing I regret most about my university when I was studying Chinese, is that the school would provide us plenty of details about Chinese opera, but little information on how to talk to the taxi driver in Chinese.