Tutoring your children can be quite a challenge especially if they are primarily studying from home and their daily routine or schedule has been disrupted.
Published: July 26, 2021
By: Annabelle Fee
Most parents have faced this issue during the whole of last year and safety comes first so this trend seems likely to continue, the following parenting tips and tricks will help you achieve maximum retention and productivity in the home environment.
1. Scheduling and Ambience Is Key
The reason why children are able to study well and through long hours in a school environment is largely due to the routine setting with fixed times for all activities. If you are planning to tutor a child at home make sure you make a set schedule for them to adhere to; according to the University of Queensland magazine.
Not to mention you can use a productivity or day planner for this purpose as well, now there are kiddie versions of this available on Amazon.
After setting a time for the tutoring make sure you have a fixed space where all the learning is to take place; it could just be a desk with all the stationery and books next to the window! However, if you can arrange a separate room or revamp a room in your home for the purpose, all the better.
2. Identify Learning Styles
Every child learns differently, educating yourself about the different learning styles can help you deduce which one your child best responds to, and that should dictate your tutoring strategy.
Learning styles were first created and became popular in the 70s and were adapted to the Vark learning model identified in a 1992 study by Coleen E. Mills and Neil D. Fleming. Although in recent years there has been some criticism by various researchers; in particular Harold Pashler and Mark McDaniel in their 2009 meta-analysis but all in all these styles are still popular for deducing learning personalities and motivations in children.
Logical– children that prescribe to the logical style like to break down knowledge into smaller sections to retain it better. They also work well with abstract or metaphysical concepts and their explanations. Identifying themes and patterns also comes naturally to them according to the Inspire Education blog.
Kinaesthetic– these children like to move around, explore and stretch their imaginations. It can be difficult to get them to passively sit and learn something so you need to be creative and adopt a more active engagement-oriented method.
Interpersonal– these types of children are gifted at teamwork and are natural leaders so they work well with others to complete a project like a science experiment. Their abilities are magnified when they are in groups. They communicate well and seek validation from peers.
Intrapersonal– children of the intrapersonal learning style work well in solitude with less background noise and little interference by outside people. They are introverts and have problems with effective communication although they may be highly creative, meticulous and ones that pay attention to detail.
Linguistic– lastly children that are gifted with the linguistic style work well with writing and reading tasks, they usually love books and languages and they are great at extempore reproduction of learned concepts. They can communicate effectively too so they score high in most academic testing situations and will do well in journalism according to Inspire Education student training programs.
You can use your own knowledge of your child’s personality to identify learning styles, use a standard MBTI personality test or use any of the multitudes of online resources that can help you reach a fruitful conclusion.
3. Communication Is a Two-Way Street
Most children do not respond to intimidating methods of teaching or tutoring, they respond best to a communicative, interactive atmosphere where they are allowed to voice their own ideas and ask questions.
Appreciation and encouragement also go a long way in helping a child study well and retain what they have learned.
Give positive feedback on their performance and be mindful of overtly criticizing. Instead, as the Scholastic blog mentions: use words like ‘if you tried this, you might score better’ or ‘how about we try this method?’
4. Partnership and Patience
If you are talking to your child instead of involving him/her in the conversation, it is a losing game. When tutoring you need to make the child feel this is a partnership for a shared outcome instead of a chore or a dreaded task.
5. Use Your Imagination
Children for obvious reasons respond to thrill and a sense of wonderment. That is why tutoring mechanisms that are geared towards creating an adventure through sensibly and creatively planned lessons show the most promise in terms of keeping children interested and motivated. If you want to teach them creative writing, for example, consider taking long walks and encouraging them to write descriptive passages of what they see. The same can be applied to principles of science that can be elaborated using fun experiments and projects.
References
The University of Queensland Australia. (n.d.). Teaching kids from home- top tips. The University of Queensland Australia Contact magazine.
8 Steps to Tutoring Success. Scholastic. (n.d.). https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/homework-help/homework-project-tips/8-steps-to-tutoring-success.html.
Campbell, L. C. (1995, November 30). Teaching & Learning through Multiple Intelligences. ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED415009.