How to get your child to practice
Many years ago my daughter began learning how to play the piano, and she LOVED IT. But for some reason getting her to "practice" was harder than pulling teeth! And I know from experience that if she didn't practice she would soon stop loving it because she wouldn't experience any kind of progress. Kids get bored quickly if they don't see any significant progress. That's why video games have levels, and earlier levels are easy to get to.
So I came up with a plan. I call it the show me/teach me method. And it's very simple. Randomly throughout the week, when she's not preoccupied with something fun, I would say "Hey Ciera, show me what you learned in piano yesterday."
Kids love showing off what they know! After I let her show me for a little bit I would say "that's really cool! Can you teach me?"
Now, I don't remember much about my high school math class but one thing that really stuck with me was when my teacher told me that the best way to learn something was to teach it to someone else. That's part of the reason why I became a teacher.
Ciera was always more than happy to try to teach me what she learned, and it was the cutest thing ever!
Now this next part is really important: enthusiasm makes all the difference! If you're truly interested in what they're learning they'll pick up on that and want to do more. If you appear bored or uninterested they won't want anything do to with it.
Not only does this help your child practice, it's a fantastic bonding activity that you'll both remember for a long, long time.
Hope this helps! Feel free to comment below some of your methods for getting your kids to practice.
Hi, I'm Forest
I teach people how to kick ass for a living. You can read my story and verification post here.
Hi!
Good article, I am from a family of teachers in many generations so I can kind of relate to this. Not a teacher myself though, but since I run a local Go club, teaching the secrets of an ancient board game to people ranging from little kids to grown adults has opened up a whole new world to me. And indeed I find your example is one of the most efficient ones.
Now if I only could successfully extend that strategy to teaching my own kids it would be great. I never got it from my own parents, they were too busy with their own things and even my father who was a teacher, didn't find time to show interest in my progress, while being literally the best teacher to his own students. (Their words.)
We have a saying in Finland, "Suutarin lapsilla ei ole kenkiä" which translates to "shoemakers kids have no shoes". That kind of applies.
My elder son Leo practices karate, and while I personally try to be interested, I've noticed that although he really does like karate (not counting actually going there), he is hesitant to show me anything he's learned, which is a bit troublesome for me.
Both my sons were eager to learn Go, the boardgame I play, but as years have passed, they've grown to even dislike it. The younger one, Miro has even replaced his preference to Chess, just to yank my strings a bit I'm sure of it.
So while I truly think this is the way to do it, for my own kids I must have messed it up somehow. :)
Sometimes the hardest ones to teach are our own children. While I taught my girl karate for 3 years because I think it's an important skill for every child, I don't "teach" her anything else. I find others who she will listen to and look up to. Now that's not saying that I don't actually teach my girl anything. As a parent we're constantly teaching our children through our words, actions, and disguised lessons.
What a charming story. Would you or Cierra like to join us at Open Mic Night on Steemit?
I'll definitely look into it. Thanks for the invite!