Parents As First Teachers (Part 1)

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Femi got tired of his performance in school and has decided to fake being sick every morning just to avoid going to school. The school teacher and management pointed the accusing finger at Femi and his parent for his below average performance. On the other hand, the parents furiously fired back – accusing the school for gross incompetence and inadequacy in the education they give to Femi. The major fact in this story is that Femi is struggling in school and his future is on the balance.

This is a common phenomenon today. We have failed to well define the roles and responsibilities of both the school and the parents.

Parenting as defined is ”the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, financial, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood” Parenting include taking your responsibilities very seriously, using every opportunity to help develop your intellectual development. Children learn basically from what they see and hear. They also learn by what you make them to feel or perceive. Simply, parents can aid their children’s growth and development by interacting with them. The problem in this part of the world is TIME. Our parents barely spend enough time with their children.

By proxy, many parents provide learning environments without a direction or plan and this could either help or defect the children’s intellectual development. How can this be averted?

1.     Parents, you need to understand how your children learn. This varies though. The learning pattern of Femi may be different to that of Chioma. All children have an inborn capacity to learn (Forman and Kuschrer, 1983) Learning starts from the womb. That is why as soon as they are able to speak, they ask loads of questions. Their zeal to learn can either be nurtured or killed, based on the environment they are in.

      Parents, talk about leaning as a self-decided activity, not a command. Relate your daily experience to them as simple as possible. Teach them something about your life experiences every day. Please don’t wait for them to ask you questions before you talk to them. You say you are busy, right? Face the fact; you are working all because of your children. So interact with them always. You are their servant, at least till they enter into adulthood.

2.     Children will always experiment. “What will happen if I touch this yellow thing from this white stick”? You may have told them that is fire and it burns and causes pain. But can you really explain what pain is? Allow them experiment. When they put their finger in the fire or jump from the chair, you don’t punish them, instead teach with the experiment. They learn well when they are curious of so many things. Take the advantage. Get them toys that can make them think and be creative. Please don’t ever leave them to learn on their own or tell them you are too busy to answer their one thousand and one questions.

3.    Our children learn from whatever they can see in their environment. It may be Mountains, Buildings, Cars, People, Moon, Stars etc. They learn from both the good and the bad things. They grow up with this. But you as the parent must be there to help them. A child that his or her parents enjoy viewing violent movies where people are being killed with gun will grow up seeing killing as nothing serious and will enjoy violence as well. I strongly oppose parents buying toy guns for their kids. You need to know what interests your children because it is with this you will select what to teach them. Allow them to explore and be ready to ask their questions.

Watch out so as not to expose them to too many sets of skills at the same time. They wouldn’t be able to be focus and concentrate.

Let us take this bit by bit so that we can assimilate. I will conclude the topic in my next post. I seriously need your comments. Tell me what you feel about my writing, the blog and the topic. Share your own opinion.

Next: Parents as First Teacher (Security, Communication, Reading, Vision and Goal Establishment and Planning A Complete Learning Environment.