The Real Learning Starts At Home
Whose responsibility is it to teach our children, and where should they receive their primary education? It is grading time for many school systems and regardless of our children’s conduct and if the grades are poor or soar, these questions remain unanswered.
So often we point fingers and place blame when we feel that our children have been improperly or inadequately prepared for their next level in life; be it their transition from preschool to elementary school, elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, from college to career or from life to the next stages of life. Unfortunately many adults feel ill prepared for the next stage in their lives educationally and socially.
Because much of what we perceive, understand, know and become stems directly from our experiences At Home, it is our responsibility to build a foundation for our impressionable little ones. Everything from manners and hygiene to colors and how to write a check can be part of At Home learning.
My mom was not a degreed teacher but she had the greatest impact on my early learning. She taught me how to tell time at our kitchen table with a white paper plate and a black crayon while in the midst of frying chicken, and she accomplished both tasks effortlessly. She simply drew the numbers to resemble a clock and made me count the dashes between each number. I learned colors by doing laundry and numbers by counting change in her purse cooking with her. I grasped phonics as she required me to sound out words and to speak and read properly At Home. It was her insight, persistence and patience that prepared and established the groundwork for my development. I trained my son through these same methods. He is now 17 and graduating from high school in May. He is smarter and speaks more articulately than I do – Thanks Mom.
It is incumbent upon parents and the ever increasing number of grandparent guardians to be the primary teachers and provide reinforcement to the secondary educators (those in our school systems) when it comes to shaping and molding the minds of our children.
You may not feel qualified to be your child’s or grandchild’s primary educator, but much of what you know comes from the parental figures in your past and a wealth of personal experience, and be at ease knowing that there are also resources to help you with those things you were never taught or just plain forgot. The real education begins At Home.
“I may not have all the answers, but I know the One who does.”
If you have questions or a topic of interest email me at athomewithshellie1@Yahoo.com or find me at www.athomewithshellie.com I would love to hear from you!
