By Casper A Labuschagne
Raising and educating children in our modern society are complex and challenging. However, it is not something that parents can ignore. Once you are a parent, you have a responsibility towards your child that is beyond food, shelter and love.
The point to realize is that your child starts life with a clean slate, so to speak, and you, as parents, are the most important teachers in your child's life. Most parents understand and accept the fact that they are responsible for raising their children and many parents, particularly those who await the birth of their first-born, plan every detail ahead of the baby's birth. They read books on the subject, seek the best medical care, and prepare the child's room. Everything is in place when the baby is born, and these parents are ready to raise the child to the best of their abilities.
However, many parents do not realize that "raising" a child is not the same as "educating" a child. Most parents love their children and provide them safe and loving homes. This takes care of the first and most important aspect of early childhood development, establishment of a bond with your child. But this is just the first step. A properly defined and implemented development plan is necessary to build on this bond. Otherwise there is no guarantee that actual education will take place. The next step is to define a development plan to make sure you cover the following developmental areas.
(1) Your child's vocabulary
(2) Your child's fine motor muscles
(3) Your child's large motor muscles
(4) Your child's imagination
(5) Your child's social skills
An example of a plan to develop all five areas is as follows:
(1) Vocabulary: read the same nursery rhyme or fairy tale on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to your child. On Thursday, do not read the story, but ask your child to tell you the story. This will show you how much your child has learned and if there are words and/or concepts your child did not understand.
(2) Imagination: On Thursday, also ask your child to draw a character from the story.
(3) Fine motor muscles: On Friday, read the story again and let your child color in a coloring picture.
(4), (5) Large motor skills and social skills: on Saturday, pay Grandma a visit or go on a field trip to the mall.
Creating a development plan is easy. Just use a calendar and decide what to do each day. This is such a simple step, but it really sets you up to succeed. Remember that we are discussing 2-year old kids here: the plan is not complicated.
At this age, the most important thing is to read stories to your child. This takes just 20 minutes a day! Most parents do such reading with their children in any case. Few parents however, read with a specific purpose in mind.
With your child's development in mind, you will read to your child with the specific goal to develop your child's vocabulary. You will include assessment days to assess what your child has learned. Most importantly, developing this plan ensures that you develop all areas adequately.
Conclusion
For best results, treat your child's education as a project. But incorporate into this project fun and laughter so that learning becomes "play" for your child. Create a properly defined development plan that will cover all aspects of early childhood development, and then implement the plan by doing a little each day.
Raising and educating children in our modern society are complex and challenging. However, it is not something that parents can ignore. Once you are a parent, you have a responsibility towards your child that is beyond food, shelter and love.
The point to realize is that your child starts life with a clean slate, so to speak, and you, as parents, are the most important teachers in your child's life. Most parents understand and accept the fact that they are responsible for raising their children and many parents, particularly those who await the birth of their first-born, plan every detail ahead of the baby's birth. They read books on the subject, seek the best medical care, and prepare the child's room. Everything is in place when the baby is born, and these parents are ready to raise the child to the best of their abilities.
However, many parents do not realize that "raising" a child is not the same as "educating" a child. Most parents love their children and provide them safe and loving homes. This takes care of the first and most important aspect of early childhood development, establishment of a bond with your child. But this is just the first step. A properly defined and implemented development plan is necessary to build on this bond. Otherwise there is no guarantee that actual education will take place. The next step is to define a development plan to make sure you cover the following developmental areas.
(1) Your child's vocabulary
(2) Your child's fine motor muscles
(3) Your child's large motor muscles
(4) Your child's imagination
(5) Your child's social skills
An example of a plan to develop all five areas is as follows:
(1) Vocabulary: read the same nursery rhyme or fairy tale on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to your child. On Thursday, do not read the story, but ask your child to tell you the story. This will show you how much your child has learned and if there are words and/or concepts your child did not understand.
(2) Imagination: On Thursday, also ask your child to draw a character from the story.
(3) Fine motor muscles: On Friday, read the story again and let your child color in a coloring picture.
(4), (5) Large motor skills and social skills: on Saturday, pay Grandma a visit or go on a field trip to the mall.
Creating a development plan is easy. Just use a calendar and decide what to do each day. This is such a simple step, but it really sets you up to succeed. Remember that we are discussing 2-year old kids here: the plan is not complicated.
At this age, the most important thing is to read stories to your child. This takes just 20 minutes a day! Most parents do such reading with their children in any case. Few parents however, read with a specific purpose in mind.
With your child's development in mind, you will read to your child with the specific goal to develop your child's vocabulary. You will include assessment days to assess what your child has learned. Most importantly, developing this plan ensures that you develop all areas adequately.
Conclusion
For best results, treat your child's education as a project. But incorporate into this project fun and laughter so that learning becomes "play" for your child. Create a properly defined development plan that will cover all aspects of early childhood development, and then implement the plan by doing a little each day.
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