You want what’s best for your boys. You want to set them up with all the life skills they’ll need to go out into the big wide world.
Start at home. It’s easier to encourage learning and curiosity than you may think!
Here are some helpful tips to encourage learning within your household:
Ensure They’re Getting Enough Balance
It’s important that when it comes to work and play, there’s a balance between the two. If you’re putting too much emphasis on one but not the other, then they’re likely to feel like they have to work when they want to play and vice versa. Balance is key, and it’s something that even as adults, we continue to learn as we adopt that work-life balance that many of us are after. Starting them off young with that balance can be beneficial, and so it’s worth looking at how you can encourage this throughout daily life. The weekends should be the days where they have fun and perhaps not think about their school work, whereas the working week is allocated for homework and focus on their studies. The more balance you can encourage and provide, the better.
Offer Advice
As we go through life, we learn a lot about the world and ourselves in general. Your children may agree or not agree with your way of doing things but it can always be helpful to offer your input and advice where needed. Teach your boys basic life skills like cooking, cleaning, and managing money. These skills aren’t necessarily taught at school, and so it’s good to give them practice in these life skills at home.
Do A Weekly Family Quiz
A weekly family quiz can be a fun way to spent time together – and a great way to sneak in some learning. You can take it in turns to host the quiz or perhaps contribute a round each so that everyone gets to play host. Family quiz night can be helpful in encouraging a learning environment but to also encourage a bit of healthy competition too. Of course, competition can sometimes end up in a little bit of arguing, but that’s natural and normal (and part of how boys learn about boundaries).
Provide Rewards On Completion Of Homework
Homework is hard work, especially when your child has spent all day learning. It’s hard for boys to concentrate and behave for hours on end, so the last thing most boys want to do when they get home is homework.
You can help them overcome their inertia by providing your child with rewards whenever he completes his homework. It could be an edible treat or perhaps a promise that you will take him to the cinema or a trip to his favorite place. It’s good to associate good behavior and work with rewards so that they can do the same for themselves when they do good and achieve great things in their life.
Read Together
And finally, if you’re thinking about reading benchmarks by age, then it’s worth reading together, rather than asking them to read alone. Sometimes it can be fun to have someone read with you or to read parts that perhaps they are struggling with. It’s also a very helpful way in bonding with your child and having that time together to enjoy a new story or one that you yourself listened to as a child too.
It’s important to encourage learning in your children from an early age. The more they learn, the more opportunities they may get in life. Use these tips to teach your sons essential life skills and the pleasure of learning.
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