I have four children, ages 14, 12, 9, and 6. Of course they are the world’s most beautiful children, and they are smart, and talented, and funny. You might think I’m saying this because I’m their mom, but I’m serious – they really are.
Okay, now that I’m done bragging, I’ll move on. We were playing a game the other day (Blurt, in case you’re interested) and I couldn’t help but notice how well my six-year-old was playing. We were using the rules from the junior version of the game, where you write down the spelling of the word as part of your answer, and I believe I only corrected his spelling once, and that was in the word “giraffe.” He got all the other words correct, and I was amazed. And proud. But not surprised, because he is, after all, my son.
I realized how much children learn from being around other people. When my son hears the rest of us talking, he learns new vocabulary words, and because he’s hearing them in context, he understands what they mean. He’s a good speller because he reads a lot, but also because he sees how his older siblings spell—he loves to watch them draw and write, and then he draws and writes his own things based on their ideas. They hate that—they think he’s “stealing” from them—but he learns. He retains that information, and later, he can still spell those words, even without the original in front of him.
Our children are learning all the time, whether we are purposely sitting down to create a learning moment or just moving forward through our day. They absorb, like little sponges, and they pull out the information later on. Just as they learn the basic skills of speech from their families, they will learn all the other necessary skills. What better learning environment can there be than a place where they feel loved and adored?
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Creating a Learning Atmosphere
Letting Your Kids Set the Schedule
Teaching Higher Subjects at Home