Helping your child learn

Take a look at your child’s homework books and what do you see? Nicely written neat paragraphs? Tidy lists of facts and figures? If so, your child’s teacher no doubt has much praise! Teachers like to see neat handwriting – after all, it makes their job a lot easier.

The problem with this common or garden note taking is that, in a word, it’s boring! Yes, there is the occasional diagram or graph, but mostly it’s a good old bland sea of sentences. The important key words are buried in fluff and wordy paragraphs with little to stimulate the imagination.

Might it be better to help our children learn a way of studying that capitalizes on how our brains work?

Our brains process and remember information by linking. We tend to think that our thoughts are linear, similar to speech or written text. But learning within the brain is done by linking ideas, questions, words and pictures in huge inter-connecting branches and webs.

Your child can therefore revise much more easily and effectively by using visual learning diagrams like webs, maps, trees and timelines to incorporate the key words and important facts that he needs to remember, rather than copying out paragraphs of text. This may sound trivial but it makes a very, very big difference to understanding, memory and recall!

Watch out for the next kids goals parenting newsletter with lots of ideas to help your child learn effectively and be successful at school!

cyberhugs,

Cassie