Home is a comfort zone for not only kids but for us as well. But the pandemic changed everything for us. It linked our home to our school and workplace. After the long break at school during covid-19, it was tough to engage the kids in learning. After a few weeks, the kids adjusted to the very new hybrid environment of studying and playing at home. When schools reopened, it created a disbalance in the kids' environment. They shifted to the previous routine of studying at school and playing at home, and again, it became a challenging task for the parents to engage kids in learning at home.
Learning involves different approaches and each kid’s brain functions differently to process information. If you want your kid to perform well and happily engage in learning, try to determine their learning style preference/s. Each kid can have more than one learning style preference as well.
There are four main types of learning styles in the education system:
Visual learning style - Kids who are visual learners, prefer to take information through maps, graphs, charts, diagrams, shapes, patterns, etc. but they might not respond to photos and videos in the same way.
Auditory learning style - Kids who are auditory learners take in information when they are listening to the information or speaking to themselves such as listening to recorded lectures or a recording of their voice.
Reading/Writing learning style - For kids who prefer the reading/writing way, they process information in the form of texts instead of visual or auditory representations. They take in information when they read or write.
Kinesthetic learning style - Kinesthetic learning, also known as tactile learning, is a learning style in which kids learn by doing physical activities instead of watching a presentation, listening to a lecture, or reading and writing. Kids who prefer kinesthetic learning, take in information using tactile experiences such as stimulations, practice, personal experience, etc.
To find out your kid’s learning style preference/s you can use a psychological assessment ‘VARK Questionnaire’ under the guidance of a psychologist or through an online generated questionnaire.
Once you find out your kid’s learning style preference, it will not only help you provide them with the information in an appropriate approach but also help your kids enjoy the learning process.
To help your kids learn at home and engage themselves in virtual learning, you need to keep a few things in mind which will add to the approaches to learning:
Set up a learning space - A learning space is a very basic yet essential part of learning. Plan and arrange all the necessary items, starting from the bookshelf, study table, etc. in one place. Select a distraction-free zone of the home with good lighting. Kids won’t sit for long in one place and prefer to keep educational toys for themselves. Keep dustbins, files, and google folders handy to help your kids have an organized study space.
Create a daily routine - Create a sleep and wake schedule for your kid. They like a safe, arranged, and routine life. Keep track of their class and activity schedules and prepare them accordingly. Arrange fun learning activities for them at home.
Get them hands-on technology - In today’s world, where most of the work is done on technology such as tablets and computers, it is essential for the kids to have accessible knowledge of it. To have parental control on the sites they have access to is to be taken care of and it is necessary to fix a time limit for using electronic gadgets.
Take off-screen breaks - Too much screen time is bad for their eyes and it should be monitored. Instead of learning on electronic devices, encourage them to read real books and write on paper. Engage them in learning activities in that they can play with objects, blocks, papers, etc.
Praise their efforts, show empathy and patience - Who doesn't like to be praised? Praising a kid will boost their spirit, maximize their enthusiasm and act as a motivation to engage more in the activities they are praised for. If they take time to learn something, give time to them, hold your patience, understand the root cause of the problem, be empathetic and help them find solutions.
To-do Lists - To form good habits in your kids, you can create a to-do list that involves different activities for them to complete daily. The activities can include - meditation, putting away mobiles/tablets while studying, cleaning the study space, practicing the subject exercises, choosing a subject to study which needs more attention, writing down their doubts in points to ask in the next class, etc.
Test/Evaluation - Remember when we use to have the tests, our parents used to sit with us during our study hours and take our tests and assessments to track our progress. How about repeating this history? Take your kid’s test once or twice a week and evaluate how they are doing. Try having new ways of taking tests like flash quiz cards, matching the column, and summarizing down the key takeaways!
Opportunity and Strength - In schools, all the subjects are compulsory and kids need to give time and effort to each subject. Rule out and focus areas on the subjects which seem like the opportunity to them to improve their skills. Evaluate what they are good at, and mark it as their strength to them.
When we think about learning, it definitely rings a bell when our parents used to teach us at home and accompanies a flood of memories. Now, you are a parent, so try to create good memories along with good learning and habits.
We wish you happy parenting!
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