Suggestions For Helping Children Learn

April Rice is our guest blogger this week.  She has lived in the South but went to college in freezing Idaho.  Her kind spirit and bright smile bless all with whom she comes in contact, especially her husband and her family.  Professionally, she has taught for several years in Florida and Mississippi.  Here she shares a few tips on some ways to empower children in our lives in the area of learning.  Enjoy!
 
Teaching is a passion I’ve had for years. When I see a light bulb or an “ah-ha” in a child’s eyes, I realize that this child is one step closer to influencing the world, and I was privileged to be a part of it. Many people spend years researching and conducting live studies on how children learn, when children learn, and how much they retain. However, I find philosophies associated with this field non-influential; a child does not come with a textbook of philosophies, so why do we try to use one when it comes to teaching them facts, concepts, or new ideas? Each child is extremely different with incredible personalities that shape how they learn. I have found through experience and personal conviction that the main ingredient in successfully helping children learn is to help them realize that they CAN learn. Encouragement goes a long way, and when that encouragement is from a mother, it can build many positive results. A child needs to know they can learn, achieve, and create new things, even if it’s a spaghetti space station out of marshmallows and spaghetti sticks. Speaking of space stations, when children associate HANDS-ON activities with concepts, they get it. Many children are kinestetic in the sense that objects and movements used in teaching ideas bring connections to facts. I currently teach engineering, and every time I want my students to remember a concept that I feel is difficult, the lesson starts out with an activity where the concept is  interwoven into the activity. When students finish designing a device, and we’ve walked through the process together, they not only learn how to apply the concept but learn it at the same time.
 
It is important to remember that all children learn differently, and if you, as a mother or a teacher, are to find success, remember to teach each child differently. One of my mother’s greatest attributes to her success in raising 8 children was her ability to help us learn in ways that were specific to our needs and personality. Remember a child’s mind is sponge-like, and studies show a child’s brain does not fully develop until they are in the mid-20s.  As teachers and mothers and others who are privileged to be around these “little ones,” we have the responsibility to make sure what they absorb is healthy knowledge that will grow into ideas and discoveries which eventually change the world. May we help our children soak up the goodness around them.