Learning is often something that kids find boring, and they’d much rather focus on other things that grab their attention, but it doesn’t have to be that way. As you get older, you can appreciate the importance of learning, but kids won’t have that – unless you teach it to them. Teaching them to love learning and education is the head start in life that every child needs, and you should make sure you can find a way to help your kid appreciate their education more.
Make It Fun
Learning doesn’t have to be all about heads down and reading, or listening to someone talk the whole time, and there are plenty of ways learning can be made more fun for your kids. Even at a very young age, something like these plush alphabet letters is a good way to bridge the gap between fun and learning something new. They can help your children associate learning and reading, with something that they like – it’s important that you know how to do this from when they’re very young if you want them to love learning early on. This will help them do much better in school when the time comes when they grasp how important and valuable education really is.
Lead by Example
It’s not enough to tell your kids that they need to love it, you need to show them how to do it. Show your passion for learning, talk to them about the things that you love, and teach them about it. Being more passionate about a topic that you’re teaching can often make it much more interesting for the person listening, and it might even help to encourage them to want to get involved with what you’re talking about. If you can show that you’re having a great time with something and that it is in fact something that can be enjoyed, your kids will learn to follow your example.
Get Involved
Letting your kids get to it on their own isn’t always the best way to go about it. Reading, for example, is something that many kids won’t want to do in their free time, and that’s something that you could try to get them into. Setting a reading time for you and your kids, where you read with them or read alongside them can be a great way to get them interested in reading on their own terms. Sure, they don’t need to be buried in books every time they’re not busy, but getting them interested in reading is a good start to instilling a passion for learning.
Make sure that if you’re going to get involved, you make it something that’s relevant to them, that they can understand and enjoy. Picking something too challenging for everyone to do may discourage them from wanting to keep going, and you might end up putting them off for some time. If it’s a book, pick something easy to read, and engaging for them – maybe even relevant to their hobbies and interests.
