A Quest to be a Learning Savvy Parent

It’s interesting how siblings can have totally different personalities. This is the case with my two boys. The older one is an outgoing person who loves to hang out with friends. My younger son enjoys himself more as he draws and doodles endlessly, is less of a TV person than his brother and has a totally different sense of humor.

When it comes to learning styles, they can not be more different. The younger one is definitely a visual learner, while the older one is quick to pick up even mere concepts. Sometimes, it is a struggle for us to explain something to him unless it is properly and clearly illustrated. Most of these instances have us ending up laughing at the comical scene we make: the rest of the family struggling to make him understand something and him blowing his top over the fact that we are unable to make him understand.

Moreover, these instances opened my eyes to our need to understand a lot of concepts regarding educating children. My husband and I haven’t had any formal training in education or teaching as most parents are. This should not stop us all, however, from trying to gain a little more knowledge about how children react to learning, how they acquire information and what their unique learning styles are.

If parents are aware of their kids’ unique intellectual and learning abilities, they can better support them in school and can come up with strategic and inventive ways to enhance the learning process. This way, learning is facilitated and retention of information is enhanced, not to mention, school becoming more fun.

Concepts like multiple intelligences should at least interest us a bit, as they impact directly on our kids’ chances at success in their education journey. Multiple intelligences, a concept conceived by Howard Gardner, is a list of seven different ways by which people express their intellectual abilities. The seven multiple intelligences are: Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Spatial, Inter-personal and Intra-personal. For a description of each of these intelligences, you may want to visit: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

As moms, it is important for us to take note of how our kids respond to the learning process, and try our best to suit their learning abilities with how we motivate them to learn and how we support them in their school work. If we know for sure that a child has strong musical intelligence, we should support him and give him all the opportunities to grow in that direction. Music, audio tapes or audio books should be great materials for them to learn from.

It is also noteworthy that most people are good at more than one type of intelligence. For example, some children score high in both linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. This gives parents more options in developing kids’ potentials. We should do our best to motivate our kids to discover their strengths and support them to develop those.

It is likewise important to be on the look-out for some difficulty in coping with their lessons simply because their school has a limited approach to instructional styles. Traditional schools focus on the linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, without realizing that some kids may not necessarily be responsive to such styles. Sure, today’s educators are aware or even trained on modern educational concepts and theories like multiple intelligences, but there is a world of difference between knowledge and what is actually being implemented at the classroom level. It is at this crucial point where we, parents, can make a tremendous impact on our kids’ learning journey.

Recently, I was told by my younger son’s teacher that he is quiet and shy in class, but that is how he really is – he can be noisy at times, but he is generally quiet and keeps to himself as he immerses in drawing, doodling and working on weird crafts. I informed the teacher that perhaps, another reason why he is quiet in class is the possibility that he might not totally understand the lessons - which brought me to my point that my son is a visual learner, and at times, he needs illustrations for him to grasp some ideas or concepts. Thankfully, the teacher was receptive and promised to keep that in mind in the future.

We only have a limited window of opportunity to maximize our influence on our kids’ learning journeys. Let us maximize that by being more informed and enlightened about these educational concepts.

Mommy Academy

Mommies are the first educators of their kids. If so, we mommies must have some sort of a plan, some sort of a curriculum, which should guide us on how to enhance our kids’ knowledge and make them appreciate the value of learning.

This need not be a sophisticated plan, just a guideline, for us to cover every aspect of a child’s outside-school education needs, particularly the toddler years until at least junior school level.

I am not also thinking of educating our kids in terms of school subjects or academic topics. I am talking about life skills and emotional/psychological preparedness to take on life as they grow up.

The first thing that we should work on is the love for learning and knowledge. Sometimes, because of our busy-ness with home life and a career on the side, we simply miss the importance of laying a good foundation for our kids’ education. By foundation, I mean their attitude towards learning as an endeavor. Early on, we should try to present the whole business of learning as an adventure, a way to open their eyes to a world of possibilities for them.

For example, a three-year old child can be made to understand that a school is a place where every child can meet other children while learning how to read and write. Just this kind of introduction to the concept of school gives him positive thoughts about the place where he will get his first taste of formal education. This should get him excited over school.

This love for learning can also be developed at every opportunity that we are with our little ones. Anywhere we go, we can make it a point to teach them something new. For example, a trip to the supermarket can be a session to teach them about the terms used for different kinds of meat, or the different food groups, or even shapes and colors.

It is important to assess each of the children to learn their unique inclinations and interests. Knowing these, we should be able to know how to approach the subject of cultivating the love for learning and actually imparting knowledge to them.

Of course, this endeavor to educate our kids in “Mommy Academy” requires time and resources, though not necessarily expensive. It is advisable to set aside a monthly budget for the purpose, but do an activity or purchase an educational material every other month. For example, you can set aside a few bucks for this month and then add it for next month’s budget to be able to afford a trip to a historical site or something like that.

Some suggested ways to educate our kids are the following:

- Through educational software or toys
- A once- or twice-a-year trip to someplace big like a big museum or a historical site would be nice.
- Spending an hour or so in the local library at least one weekend a month

There are a lot of other ways to educate our kids our own way. Even for holidays, we can prepare a simple brief about every destination for all the kids to read about prior to departure so that they will gain knowledge about the places they have been.

The knowledge they gain from these kinds of exposure will stay with them because they gained them while they were enjoying with the whole family.

Toy-ing With the Idea of Smart Mommy-ing (Part II)

Most parents approach the subject of choosing toys without much thought. Some buy toys without much planning and weighing. As long as it is in vogue, it is affordable, or it simply excites their children, they go for it.

It is crucial for parents to choose the right ones – even if they are relatively few in number. What matters most is that they would have such a great impact on the owners that they grow in more ways than one while playing with them.

Toys are the objects with which children first develop the concept of personal ownership. Toy ownership is thus an excellent opportunity for you to teach them about keeping their belongings (in this case their toys) tidy, sharing them with others and even the concept of not wanting too much and too many at a time.

It is helpful to explain to the children that at some point in time, they will have to let go of some toys they have grown out of to make room for newer ones. They should not cling to them when other children can also benefit from these toys. In doing so, the children are trained early on in life to de-clutter and have room for those toys that they love best.

Last but not least, toys are not always bought – they can also be made by the kids themselves. Open to them the possibility of making their own toys. With art and craft materials, you can join them to make silly items that make them laugh or put their imagination to work.

During these sessions, you can actually observe them and can tell what their interests are and what they will be good at. You can tell who have more patience and persistence or those who are resourceful, who have artistic inclinations and who need more help in that department. Turn these sessions into regular times of bonding and developing their character.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to guiding your child’s development with the right kinds of toys. Whatever effort you put in today in choosing the right ones for them, the more returns you will have in the form of well-adjusted kids.

Toy-ing With the Idea of Smart Mommy-ing (Part I)

To take off from my last post on evolving into a blog that will tackle issues on parenthood and mommy-hood in particular, here is the first installment of a two-part article on making the right choices of toys for kids. Hope you will pick something wise from it:

Being mom is such a demanding role. If you want to play it satisfactorily, you have to have serious commitment to continue growing and learning from past mistakes. It requires you to consistently apply yourself to the task of nurturing, caring, guiding, and loving the whole family. Most essentially, you will have to be vigilant in protecting them and making sure that nothing or nobody harms them physically, spiritually and psychologically.

You might say, “Well, that’s a given and I surely will bust anybody’s butt who has the gall to hurt my baby.” Unfortunately, most moms maintain this protective stance in regards to people, mostly. They do not have the same vigilance when it comes to toys they allow their kids to have access to.

Yes, toys are important and they play an important role in a child’s development. Remember, though, that they did not come to be on their own – they were made by people, businessmen, to be exact, who are after profit only. Yes, they may employ the best designers and child psychologists to come up with these costly toys and gadgets. But there are some who want nothing but gain and go on to sell products that are unsafe, inappropriate or totally useless.

There are also clever businesses that use the best marketing strategies to sell their products, so much so that they are able to create a need for these products in the minds of their consumers. Of course, the parents will have to shell out the bucks to buy them.

Toys are indeed important, and this is the very reason why moms should be smart enough to determine which ones the kids should play with to ensure they are safe and they are actually benefiting (either physically, emotionally, or mentally) from all these playthings.

Mommies should be extremely discriminating and choosy when deciding which toys to buy their children, or allow them access to. Safety of the kids when playing with toys (i.e., will your three-year old not end up making dinner out of those small parts?) is the number one consideration. Make sure that they are non-toxic, they do not have small pieces attractive enough to swallow, and other similar factors.

Safety is not the only consideration, though. You should also look into the mental, physical, social or psychological benefits of the toys that you give the children. Go for age-appropriate ones that have educational value. Look for pieces that stimulate them to think critically and to be resourceful and creative. Or, choose toys that encourage them to be active while playing with it. Social growth is also important so go for toys that can be played by a group of children, instead of just one.

Go for toys that do not encourage violence or portray hurting others as a normal behavior or glorify characters that have evil characteristics. You might think that I am a killjoy since most kids have access to video games. You can still allow them video games but choose the right games. In the long run, when they are teen-agers, you will have lesser worries that they will get into fights or brawls since the behavior was not encouraged early on in their life.

Consider the price of a toy as well. Even if you are filthy rich, avoid splurging on toys that end up under utilized, anyway. Decision making in purchasing a toy should be made into an opportunity for you to teach them how to be money savvy (at least the older ones). It is wiser to deposit what little amount you were able to save on toys towards your child’s bank account.

Sometimes, busy moms and dads fall prey to guilt and buy the most expensive toys and gadgets to make up for the fact that they do not spend enough time with their children. The sad news is, if they pick the wrong kind of toy, or they give toys too often just to make up to their kids, they end up doubling their shortcomings to their children. Not spending enough quality time with your children is not a good sign in itself, “bribing” them with toys just to make it up is even worse.

Choices in toys and how often you buy them tell a lot about your parenting style. Be sure to send the correct messages to your kids. Even in such simple things, you can show them that you value them and that you are concerned how things like toys can affect them in the long run.

More on “smart mommy-ing” in the next post.