Achievement tree, green pen principle and other ways to get your child interested in learning

Simple exercises can interest the child, arouse interest in learning. Expert Victoria Shimanskaya spoke about them. In her opinion, emotional learning practices will help children learn effectively, avoid unpleasant situations, make conscious choices, and build relationships with their parents.

How emotions affect learning

The emotional background is a key factor in intellectual development and fertile ground on which a child’s talents sprout. In quarantine, parents have additional time to identify which school subjects arouse interest in the child, perhaps this is where the talent is hidden.

The psychologist believes that it is not necessary to strive for excellent grades in all subjects, it is better to delve into the study of what the child is interested in, and simply maintain the rest of the knowledge at a good level. It has been scientifically proven that grades do not affect the professional self-determination of children, but developed emotional intelligence, creativity, the ability to work in a team and build communications allow the child to more consciously approach the choice of a university and profession.

Such conclusions were made possible by the study “What influences professional awareness”, conducted in 2019 for the Moscow Center for the Quality of Education with the participation of more than 2000 high school students. To get a complete picture of how to properly engage in child development, Victoria recommends referring to Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs.

The pyramid is based on the physiological needs of the child – sleep, nutrition, sports, then it is necessary to ensure safety, and arouse interest in learning through unconditional love and acceptance of parents.

“A parent does not need to be a teacher, you need to be a mentor and instill in your child a love of learning,” says Victoria Shimanskaya.

How to get your child interested in learning

Exercise 1: Apparatus Competition

Enter the rating of school subjects at home. For good grades, successfully completed assignments and viewed courses, add points to the subject. Try to focus the child’s attention more on what he learned new today on the subject, what interested him, and not on the teacher’s grades.

You can present the rating in the form of a table, a picture, or use your child’s favorite toys: the red car plays math, the blue one plays Russian. Support all participants, but pay attention to the favorite, perhaps this is where your child’s talent is hidden.

Exercise 2: Five types of content

Usually at school they use standard approaches to explaining topics, but after all, all children are different: it is easier for someone to understand the diagram, for someone give metaphors, while others need pictures.

Try to connect your fantasy and invite your child to tell the same fairy tale in 5 different ways. It can be a pantomime, a comic, a scene from Lego, a video, a performance. The same trick can be applied when studying school subjects. If mathematics is difficult, count on chocolates, draw and use diagrams.

Exercise 3: Achievement Tree

Draw a big and beautiful tree on a piece of paper. Every day, attach leaflets to it, on which, together with your child, write down or draw his achievements. Discuss all successes, but do not criticize.

To support your child, notice what he does best and add new leaves yourself. This simple practice will help the child to accept and love himself unconditionally, and not through the prism of the assessment and attitudes of others. Stable self-esteem will help in the future to adequately accept both your victories and failures.

“The Achievement Tree is a powerful tool and a great tradition for your family. First you will help the child, and then he himself will begin to see what he can and can do. It is enough to devote 5 minutes a day to this activity, ”comments Victoria Shimanskaya.

Why can’t you say “well done”

The child is dependent on adults and completely relies on their opinion, so even praise should be correct. When we say “well done”, he thinks: “We need to remember what I did for such an assessment, and repeat it another time in order to become good again.” This is how the child learns manipulative behavior.

It’s better to use “I-messages”, use this formula both when you praise and when you scold: “I feel .. because you … and I would like ..”, for example, “I’m glad that you washed the dishes yourself, and I wish you did this more often” or “I feel annoyed because the room is a mess and I wish the house was cozy.”

At first, it will not be easy to get rid of the “well done”, but for the sake of the healthy psychological development of the child, it is worth trying.

Homeschool Rules

So that the accumulated fatigue and irritation do not spoil relations in the family, you need to agree on the rules. Explain to loved ones that everyone will have to make compromises as soon as you work from home.

• Prepare signs “Mom is working”, “Dad is busy”, “Study is going on” Use them when you need to focus on what’s important. Tell the children that when mom is working, she cannot be distracted by games and questions, and when dad is sitting at the computer, he should not be disturbed and turn on cartoons loudly.
• Set up a reboot. Ten minutes of dancing will help relieve fatigue: prepare a “family playlist”, let each family member choose their favorite song. Take some time between activities and just dance together.
• Follow the green pen principle. At school, teachers use a red pen when highlighting mistakes. Thus, every day the attention of the child is focused on the fact that he does not succeed, this can destroy the desire to learn. It is better for parents to pay attention to the positive actions of the child, to highlight what happens. Without a reminder, the child went to brush his teeth – praise, “underline with a green pen.”
• Create a home book of complaints and suggestions. To do this, take 2 cups – red and green – and stickers. Write all the comments that you have during the day on stickers and put them in a red cup, all praises in a green one. Just remember that if you criticize, then it is worth praising. In the evening, you can all get together and discuss the results of the day, find new solutions together that will help you be less annoyed and more happy with achievements.

Social skills of a ten year old

After you have dealt with school knowledge, you should pay attention to social development. You can check your child using the following checklist. By the age of 10, a child should be able to:

• Introduce yourself and tell about yourself;
• Ask for help;
• Follow instructions;
• Concentrate on the task;
• Properly express disagreement;
• Accept rejection;
• express gratitude;
• Apologize;
• Control emotions;
• Take responsibility and accept criticism.

Remember that it is emotional intelligence that has a particularly strong influence on the future of the child, on his ability to make informed, balanced choices.