Engaging with your children

During the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic it is easy to get lost in the idea that we need to ‘teach’ our children the national curriculum of learning in its entirety. We want the best for our children and as parents are the best and first educators for their children, the way learning is facilitated for our young humans should be through engagement and child lead activities.

The pressure and idealism of teaching our children at home can be a scary and uncharted experience for many parents. Just remember that idealism and realism are two vastly differing things. Many of us are not qualified educators or home school experts, many of us are still working from home or are essential workers, or are coping with high levels of stress due to the current economical situation in the form of job loss, pay cut and uncertainty about the future. On top of these we are trying our best to remain calm and provide continuity for our children, run a household, cook (with no chance of a takeaway when you’ve had an average day) and clean. It is exhausting and it is okay to feel overwhelmed.

So what now? How do we teach our children? How do we ensure they are still learning and experiencing things that grow their capacity to gain new knowledge?

WE PLAY, WE ENGAGE and WE FIND OUR INNER CHILD.

We are firm believers in why write something that someone else has already said. So below is an exert from an article on wehavekids.com that outlines how to engage with your child, because finding that inner child can at times be hard but can be even harder when our minds are elsewhere from stress.

From wehavekids.com – Children just want to have fun!

“This may sound obvious – but making a lesson or family activity fun can take some work!

Here is how to make an experience fun and engaging for young children:

1. Share your enthusiasm. We adults live in a cynical world where we have forgotten how to play, but young children exist in a state of perpetual wonder. So don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself – clown around a bit and pull a face, lead a game yourself and get the children to copy your actions, show them with your voice and your body language that you are really excited about spending time with them doing an activity.

2. Make a game out of it. There are very few activities that can’t be turned into a game when you are trying to engage children. A game just means that you are trying to see how well you can do something, or you are challenging yourselves to reach a goal, or you are showing off what you can already do – and then seeing if you can do something even harder. Friendly competition with no real losers will quickly engage children with an activity. A simple phrase like ‘lets see how fast we can do this …’ will soon grant you the children’s full attention.

3. Give the children an active role. No one likes a lecture and children least of all. The best way to learn is by doing and children in particular respond really well to getting a chance to try something for themselves. So include them! Even if you are telling a story, you can get them involved by getting them to act out some of the parts, or predict the repeating lines. And the wolf said … (everyone) and I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!

4. Provide real experiences wherever you can. Your interaction with children is a chance to pull them away from the virtual world of computers into a real life sensory experience. Children love what they can touch and taste and smell. Reading about animals is no substitute for meeting real live animals. Hearing about the life-cycle of a plant bears no comparison with getting to dig up soil and plant your own seeds – then checking back on how they grow. Not to mention cooking and eating the product at the end! Even if you can’t get outdoors, you can still offer a real life experience – crafts are great for this, so are hands-on science experiments and dramatic role-plays.

5. Use Color. Colorful visuals are essential for engaging children, especially young children. Think of the story books you loved when you were a child – I bet they had beautiful colorful pictures, or else the story gave you a wonderful colorful image in your mind. Clowns know what they are doing with their costumes – children’s attention is drawn by color. So use colorful posters, storybooks or flashcards to engage young children and keep their attention.

6. Stories are always interesting. Everyone loves stories, and children most of all. A well-told story will always engage children’s attention. The best teachers are the ones who have learned how to make any information into a story. The latest neuro-marketing research has demonstrated that our brains remember stories better than any other form of information-sharing, making stories the best way to teach just about anything! Stories are particularly powerful for teaching life-lessons and moral values, but a creative teacher can turn even a science lesson into a story.

7. Be clear and be consistent. Children can relax and engage better if they know what to expect from you, if they know what the rules are and that you will stick to them. Consistency is key. Children hate ‘unfairness’. The rules are the rules – and this can even be fun when you set up a system of rewards that lets them chart their progress. Children actually really like having a routine, where they know where they stand – like Saturday is ice-cream day or Friday afternoon is free-play time. A structured routine gives them a safe space in which to play.“

https://wehavekids.com/parenting/how-to-engage-children

So our advice to you as educators and parents is:

1. Make sure your child is happy and safe
2. Make a commitment to block out part of your day where you will not pick up your phone (its very easy to just quickly check something, but children notice and feel the disconnection)
3. Worksheets are busy work, experiences that are authentic will teach them more than a worksheet ever will. Go on a bear hunt and find some obstacles they need to overcome, plant some seeds and share the life cycle or bake a cake and measure the ingredients. Ask questions that get them thinking deeper.
4. Being present is the best present your child will ever be gifted from you and whilst we understand this is stressful, enjoy the time to be your child’s best teacher again. Teach them the life skills that formal education often misses the opportunity to support.
5. Ask for help. Whilst we are not physically present to support your child and their journey, we are here to support you and them in any way we can.
6. Engage with the Centre. We would love to see our kiddies again, as we miss their bright sparkly faces and ‘the things kids say’ every day. Post up what you are doing with your child at home on Educa. We want to be able to see what they are up to and support you with ideas to extend their learning.

From us to you, just be a parent first and educator second. They need you to provide them shelter from this storm and they have the rest of their lives to formally learn, do not rush the process or place unnecessary stress on yourself or them.