Expert: Ken Jensen - 7/15/2009

Question
what do you advice us about ways of teaching our children inside home?

Answer
First, I believe that a child's primary educational experiences always take place in the home.  If parents value education they will take advantage of everyday situations to train their children in the way they should go; and the child will likely see that education is important and become an educated person.  On the other hand if parents do not value education then the child will likely not value it either and remain uneducated.  For this reason I am a public school educator who supports home schooling.  If the parent is truly educating their child- as opposed to simply sheltering him/her from life- then the child will likely see that education is important and become a life long learner.

The ways of teaching children are as numerous as there are children in the world.  As the parent educator your role is to first determine what the child already knows, then how the child best learns, and finally provide learning opportunities that draw from previous experiences.  I understand that some children are more teachable than others, but this simply means that you have to work harder with some children than with others.

One piece of specific advice that I would give is based on the research of Carol Dweck.  She discusses the difference between fixed and growth mindsets.  When you praise a child when they get a correct answer they begin to believe that the correct answer is all that matters.  Students in this environment take on a fixed opinion of their intelligence and become unteachable when new concepts are presented.  On the other hand when you praise their effort, student's take on the idea that their intelligence can improve through their own efforts, they become more teachable, and are more likely to become life long learners.