Weekend Edition ~ My Child is Not a Natural Learner - Part 3

I decided to stretch this article into three parts. Because, this can be a deep subject with many facets, and individual to each family. So I wanted to touch on as many reasons as I have come across on this topic.

In thinking on this, I wanted to add just one more thought, we are not perfect. I am not perfect, my children are not perfect. I now have a teenager. While some parts of academics took me a while to figure out how to teach my children while they were younger, the teen years are coming up with new challenges. Hormones, and teen angst can hit the best of children. I remember, my own challenges with it as a teen. Such a hard age. So I have also came to terms with some days, we just have to sit back, and have a honest heart to heart talk with my preteens and teens. They are going through a lot of hormonal, and other puberty related growth changes in life that have a direct effect on their attitudes, feelings, and otherwise. And sometimes we just need to have open, honest, and loving talks, that sometimes include tears both from the child and the parents, with them to help them through this time. The YPA book has some good suggestions on these times as well. I put academics on the back burner during these days, but that doesn't mean they are not learning. Remember personal progress. They are learning about other things those days, and it will help them when they sort through the emotional things to make better academic progress the next day or next week. This can also be said of children who believe they are dumb or stupid, and get angry about learning. Maybe step back, even if they are not a teen or preteen, and think about having a heart to heart with them, and finding out what they are thinking, and helping them through that emotional rough patch so they can bust through it and get to the academics learning part.

I hope these articles help you with relaxing and finding confidence that you are a great teacher for your child, and maybe just need to either wait, or put away some things that may be hindering your child. Keep in mind also, that most learning does not look like what you may have in mind, that public schools have conditioned us to believe is the only way to learn. A lot of learning is from watching mom and dad, and living with you. So when you feel your children are not learning, step back, and re-evaluate what you feel learning is. What were they doing last year? What are they doing this year? It's very very rare, that a child would not have made progress in a year in some form or fashion. We just sometimes have to reprogram our thinking on what learning is, and think about the individual progress each child has made every year, every month, even every week. Living with them, we may not see it, so sometimes have to force ourselves to really evaluate this and make sure we are being honest, and most likely your child has progressed... just maybe not in what your goal was, or in the way you had been expecting it.