What is ‘Family Learning’ and why does it work?
Did you sigh with relief when your son or daughter went back to school after lockdown?
Trying to manage home learning and all the work that was sent through without being a qualified teacher, was challenging to say the least. I’ll admit, even as a qualified teacher, it was tough trying to teach my children and there were days when emotions were running extremely high in our house.
But, here we are, a few months down the road and perhaps you are realising that your child is really struggling with the learning at school. You want to help but are not sure how. You DEFINITELY don’t want to go back to the confusion and frustration of trying to teach the way you did back in the lockdowns.
FAMILY LEARNING is a solution. It will support your child’s education, making sure they stay on track, whilst maintaining harmony at home.
It’s a term to describe a playful, fun experience that results in a culture of discussion and learning at home and will make the biggest difference to their achievement at school. Here are answers to 3 important questions that you may have about Family Learning.
What does research say about Family Learning?
Research shows that children who have families that support their learning at home show positive effects, such as:
Better behaviour
More confidence and greater self-esteem
More enthusiasm about learning
Better results
The government also acknowledges the importance of this and offers a number of programmes where families can benefit from courses that teach activities that parents can use with their children at home. Unfortunately, it’s usually only pre-school and Reception children who benefit from this kind of partnership. Once a child is in Year 1 and beyond, this type of help dwindles and school takes the lead.
Many studies have discovered that families who learn together improve children’s life chances and those children are more likely to continue with their education after they are 18. This has been put down to the fact that families can make the most of EVERY DAY learning opportunities such as listening, talking, playing, singing and sharing books together.
If parents leave learning entirely down to schools, there is a danger that their child may slip through the net of the system and not reach their full potential.
We have very large class sizes in the U.K. Infant classes are usually capped at 30, but Junior classes can be as large as 40+ in some schools. Many children miss out on learning because there are just not enough adults in the classroom to help everybody. Also the curriculum is very fast paced and can easily leave children needing more time to learn but it has already moved on. Many parents know all of this and want to do something to help.
What does Family Learning actually look like?
You are not your child’s teacher and you don’t need to be. Family Learning is not about sitting down and trying to replicate the way things are taught in schools. Children don’t want to do more of the same as they do at school. In fact if they had learned something there, they would not need to go over it again. Children need to visit learning in lots of DIFFERENT ways.
The TIME you spend learning alongside your child is so important. Did you know that your child can only concentrate for about 2 minutes for every year of their age? That means, if you have a 10 year-old, the time you give to learning something should be about 20 minutes. After that you both should take a break.
Children find sitting down to learn difficult. Of course, there are times when children must be still, for example when they are writing but when they are trying to understand something, it’s actually beneficial for them to fidget and move.
Using movement to learn is amazingly powerful. An example of this could be to do jumping jacks whilst saying the times table. Draw attention to how you land when you are on each one. It is this type of attention to detail that children LOVE and REMEMBER.
Using creativity and stories can also really help and as children get older there is less time for this in schools. Using all your senses to learn and remember information is how our brains are wired up. So, try to encourage lots of different ways to get your senses involved. If you think to yourself, ‘I’m sure they wouldn’t be learning it like this in school’, you’re doing it right!
How can I find time for Family Learning?
There may be times when you and your child are enjoying and engrossed in learning together. It will not feel like learning to either of you and those moments should be treasured. However, there will be many other times when your child finds something more challenging to learn. It’s these times that family learning really makes the difference.
Spending SHORT BURSTS of time REGULARLY count much more than big chunks of time that happen once in a while. Habits and routines are what will make sure there’s improvement and change. Making sure that you have this short amount of time in your day is the first step. Find room for it at a time where it will never be interrupted and then make it as short as 10 MINUTES a day. Habits will stick if you make them so easy and manageable, that it will be hard to say ‘No.’
This bite sized consistency is what I love and why I believe family learning can make the biggest transformation to a child’s learning. It also puts the power back with the person who cares the most about that child - YOU!
My programmes incorporate family learning. The advantage of taking part in ‘Fresh Start’ and ‘Next Steps’ is that you have an expert alongside to support and guide you and give you advice that will transform your child’s learning.
If you want to know more, check out my literacy and learning programmes and start to really make a difference to how you support your child’s learning at home.
