When I tell people that I home schooled for three years, I always get shocked expressions and then an explanation of how they could never home school because they just don’t have the patience. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced those same parents to somewhat home school. Of course, they are not having to come up with the lessons or grade the difficult assignments, but they are doing the hard part of homeschooling – actually working with the kids! It will be interesting to see how much of America’s public decides to continue schooling at home when this is all said and done.
Parents, if you found that your kids were resistant to your teaching, please don’t feel that you failed. Even the most experienced of teachers has troubles teaching his own kids. Teacher by profession or not, all children remind parents that that’s not the way “their” teacher taught it!
The first teacher in a child’s life is the parent. There used to be a saying that half of what a person learns is learned before age 5. I can’t find that phrase anywhere on the Internet, so it’s probably been debunked. No one would debate the idea, though, that a LOT is learned in the first five years of life. For most, the teachers of all that knowledge are parents.
Parents of gifted kids have a little tougher struggle teaching their kids than others. This is because gifted kids already know everything! Don’t believe me? Just ask them! Gifted kids get a real charge out of saying, “I taught myself.” I was an adult before I figured out that I was not completely a self-taught pianist. My mother was just very good at tricking me into learning. A well-placed, “Let me show you this cool thing I taught my piano students today” would ensure that I was ready for the next hard learning. Never mind the fact that my mother provided all of the books from which I was learning or the fact that she was teaching students in a room very near me and from which I could hear every lesson. I was convinced I had taught myself! And I play pretty well now.
If you have a gifted kid, take some lessons from my mother. Sometimes you have to “back door” the knowledge. A lot more learning will take place in an activity than with a workbook or worksheet. Games are great teachers for gifted kids. When you feel that every bit of teaching brings an argument, take a different route. Gifted kids come from gifted parents, so don’t do the gifted thing and just give up. It’s worth putting some thought into your own childhood. To what would you have responded? If you can remember that and seek to employ some of the same tactics, you will find success. Gifted kids like learning; they just like to think they are in control! You can empower while still instructing!
- Michelle