Young Talent: 5 Simple Steps for Giving Your Kids a Head Start in Education

Raising a child is a huge, daunting task. We all want the very best for our children, so how do you equip your child to be the best they can be? What can you do to give them a head start? There are thousands, if not millions of ideas and theories, and it can be overwhelming. 

Photo by Lina Kivaka from Pexels

To keep it simple, we have put together five easy ways that you can help your child to thrive:

Find a Great Early Learning Center

Are you worried about sending your child into care so that you can go back to work? If you find the right place, they are sure to love going each week. An early learning center will help them socialize well with other children, introduce them to some of the rules and routines that they will be expected to follow at school, and instill in them a love of learning. 

Young children’s minds are hungry for new information, so by fostering and encouraging that early on you set them up for a smooth journey once they get to school.

Visit a range of centers, observe the children at play, and gauge how comfortable you feel with the center management and the educators before you make a decision.

Read to Them Every Day

This is something that as a parent you hear regularly, but the importance of reading to your children can’t be understated. Reading books out loud to your toddler helps them develop their language and listening skills. Try setting aside 5 or 10 minutes every day. 

If you have story time every day with your child from the age of 1 to the age of 5, they will have already read nearly 1500 books before they start school! Reading a wide variety of books will open their minds up to different ideas and concepts, however, at times, they may want to read the same book over and over again. That is okay too!

Sing Songs

Singing songs and listening to music with your kids is both fun and educational. From the time when they are small, they will respond to the sound of your voice. Singing lullabies to your baby is a lovely way to bond with them. As they grow, playing with musical instruments is a beneficial method of developing fine and gross motor skills. Music also offers many opportunities for repetition of counting practice with nursery rhymes like “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” and the alphabet.

Do Lots of Drawing

Holding a pencil or crayon requires fine motor skills. The more regularly you practice these skills, the better they will become! So even if your child is just scribbling on a piece of paper, it is actually helping their development. As they grow, you can start to show them the correct way to hold a pencil, to trace lines on paper, and to draw shapes and patterns. Eventually, you can teach them how to print and write cursive letters and numbers. 

Praise and Encourage Them

Learning new skills can be tricky at times. Keep praising and encouraging your children in their attempts, and remind them that everyone needs to practice to master something new. It is worth making sure that you recognize the effort that they are putting in and the strategies that they are using to approach the new task, rather than just praising the results. This will help them to see the value in persevering even when they feel frustrated.

Remember, the most important thing that your children need is your love and support – everything else is a bonus.