Some children find learning in school difficult, how can home learning help?

Education is an amazing tool for life – it provides experience, fun, exploration, interest, knowledge, confidence, self-belief, goals, results…… every child has a right to it, and every child deserves it. All children learn differently and at their own pace – schools have a responsibility (in my opinion) to recognise every child’s ability, build on it and not to ignore or dismiss any additional needs a child may have.  Schools have many resources to help children learn, benefit, and advance on their own educational journey, home learning is also an option however.

When my children were young and attending Infant school, I realised very quickly that the methods used to teach are extremely different to how I learned. I have a distant memory of my youngest child sitting at home and suddenly making the loudest noise and waving his arms about – I had no clue what was happening – I discovered that he had been learning phonics and that sound and movement was all part of this! Who knew?? I discovered that my local council provided adult education courses that covered these new methods in teaching English and Maths, and quickly took advantage, and it was great. Not only could I help my children, but I gained A Level equivalent qualifications too.

For some children a school building isn’t the right setting and learning becomes difficult –  some parents / carers choose to home school and at the moment there are many parents / carers who are trying to home educate with no choice – home learning help is out there – is always on hand to offer advice.

Remember – learning doesn’t have to only take place at school – children don’t just stop absorbing information on Friday at 3pm…they are listening, watching and learning all the time. There are many ways that we can teach our children informally outside of the classroom…

Walks in the park – you could provide questions about the trees, birds, plants, animals – how many can they see? How many different types? How many different colours? they could make a fact sheet to keep or stick on the fridge.

On a journey – make words out of the letters on car number plates, play eye spy, name ten fruits beginning with A – work your way through the alphabet. Count how many caravans you see being towed. This helps memory and imagination.

At home – get baking – your child could help weigh, mix or decorate. Something I used to do with my children is let them choose 4 or 5 different cold ingredients and have a mini MasterChef – no cooking involved but creativity encouraged – the only down side to this is that it had to be tasted by the judges ! Build camps or pretend the floor is a lake and you have to cross it without getting wet – using cushions as mini rafts…all good fun and your child is using their imagination and discovering logic. Your child could be creative with scrap books – using pictures to make designs. Dance and sing – your child is exercising and learning words – and maybe discovering a talent.

Reading with your child – have interesting books – ask your child what books they would like – let them choose – encourage them to read back to you – point to objects in the book and ask your child what it is –  all enhancing your child’s mind. If you sit and read, chances are your child will copy and pick a book up.

If you have more than one child encourage activities that promote team work – all get involved – build things, have races (I think a bit of competition is good) – when my children were young there were never losers – everyone always got a prize. The list is endless of how you can continue teaching whilst having fun at the same time. Enjoy learning with your child and remember – stay safe!

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