It's important to bring home the fact that as parents, we have to put some time and effort in helping and motivating our children get into the habit of spending regular time, on a daily basis, learning and consolidating what is being learnt at school.
Don't we all remember the time when we were excited about sending our kids to Kindergarten? All the preparation, the emotion, expectations, and tears that makes it such a memorable day? We get excited about everything that the child does, we monitor every step of their initial learning and as soon as they are in year 5 or 6, our enthusiasm dampens. It becomes harder and harder to help them with their homework, as the teaching methodologies have fundamentally changed to the extent that trying to help them with what we know would confuse them even further.
It is a known fact that by the time a kid turns 8 he would have learnt 80% of what he needs to know about life. Logically, this means that for the next 72 years he would gradually be learning the remaining 20%, (sic).
Does it not make sense, in that case, to teach the child as much as possible within the first 8 years, especially math and language skills? It is a proven fact that a child can learn and understand multiple languages if exposed to each for at least 3 months at a time.
A friend of mine came from Israel, married to an Irish guy. They spoke English at home as the husband couldn't speak Hebrew. Their 4 year old child, therefore, grew up without a word of Hebrew-except for the occasional ones from the mother--. They went on holidays to Israel for three months; on their return the kid was speaking fluent Hebrew!
Why then, you might ask, do kids not grasp what is being taught at school and need the extra help with homework? There are many reasons; the most logical ones that come to my mind would be distractions and peer pressure. Kids get easily distracted in class and miss important parts of lessons. They are too embarrassed to ask questions or don't want to be called a nerd if they did.
The speed at which children learn is astounding! With all the resources available today, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The internet has scores of educational companies that have spent millions in putting together educational sites that are helping countless number of schools and educational institutions round the globe to better the quality of teaching numeracy and literacy. Both teachers and parents are able to have access to fresh and long proven methods of teaching. These teaching aids are the same as are being used by expensive educational institutions. Many of those sites are readily available for free or for a monthly subscription.
So finding help online is not hard. Parents can easily learn concepts and help their children understand math from an early age. Most of the work needs to be done at home, no matter how little time is spent with a child. Everything that is taught on line (not all the sites, unfortunately) are the exact methodologies used today and would teach the child exactly what is being taught at school. Helping a child 15 minutes every other day can be life changing. Firstly, it would help discipline the child into a routine from an earlier age and secondly, reinforce what he learns at school. This practice is bound to pay off in the long run, without any doubt.
More and more schools are using online resources to teach and help students reinforce lessons taught in the classroom. It's not always that a teacher can provide one on one attention; and it's crucial that the opportunity is given to those students in need to get the help on the spot, and what better medium than the internet? Teachers will be monitoring individual progress from time to time, thus using their time more efficiently. There are countless numbers of teachers out there who really see the benefit of online teaching. Many of them are spending extra hours looking for sites that might fit their students' needs, which could help facilitate them in their teaching endeavors, but who, somehow, couldn't find the ideal solution in their quest. The time has come to change the face of learning and give the opportunity to our kids to access a world of knowledge that is out there, and which has been left untapped for far too long! by Richard Pidial
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