Nicholas Bate

Blast from the Past

first posted May 2007

TTD (Things To Do) to develop your child's imagination
From the earliest age:

1. Read to them, including the classics such as Rudyard Kipling's The Just So stories.
2. Ensure there are always plenty of drawing materials around.
3. Talk to them intelligently.
4. Catch them doing things right: praise them.
5. Limit screen (TV/video/computer) time especially at the earliest ages.
6. Read (yourself) Neil Postman's The Disappearance of Childhood.
7. Don't be influenced by the rationalisation of other parents e.g. "it's OK for them to watch that cert 18 film" when clearly it's not.
8. Be interested in them. Be interesting.
9. Start.

The Challenge of Parenting

The great Cultural Offering helps us think through our parenting strategies here and here.

Read to your children.

It's increasingly a lost art: reading to our children. Start it in your family. Re-start it if the tradition has been lost. Why?

Children love it.
It's bonding.
It develops a child's imagination.
It develops vocabulary.
It's a nice thing to do before falling asleep.
It's a ritual in an otherwise busy day.
It completes the day on a high spot whatever has happened.
It creates discussion points.
Choosing some of the classics (e.g. Rudyard Kipling) not only 'rounds' an education but establishes fundamental ways of looking at the world.
It broadens the mind by reading about other jobs/people/parts of the world.

Yep, read to your children.

Exams

The summer vacation is long-forgotten and those apparent idle threats from our child's teacher last year are now a reality: it's a major exam year. And more than ever those results need to be good. How can you help your children? Try the following:

1.Start early. Don't wait until January mocks. Start now.
2. Get the revision habit. Start rolling revision: revise last week's work, then last month's work. That makes it easy pre-exam.
3. Ensure you have great revision notes. Hassle the teacher now for great notes. If no luck, buy some revision guides before they sell out next Easter.
4. Create a proper study area. Think: pads of scrap paper, decent lamp. Good writing area, supportive chair. Shelves for books.
5. Get a large year calendar. Get all exams marked. Show number of weeks left.
6.Don't threaten: 'if you don't do well in these exams....."
7. Encourage. "I noticed you did some extra french work ....well done."
8. Help with a bigger picture.Why do they want these exam results? What career do they have in mind?
9. Visit employers, universities before they absolutely need to. It gives them a vision beyond the school grounds.
10. Teach them study skillls: how to remember, concentrate, review, take notes. If you don't feel you're good at it, ask the Head Teacher to do a special class.
11. Encourage quailty study: short, sharp deep periods without distraction rather than long evenings with an iPod in their ears.
12. Look for creative study materials: search the net for videos , podcasts and downloadable study aids.
13. Ensure good breaks at Christmas and Easter: avoid burn-out.
14. Keep teachers focused: ask for prompt marking and guidance: what will create a brilliant answer?
15. Start today.

What about some real skills?

You and I know that however great the school your children go to, however great the teaching, however many GCSEs they get....they seem to miss out on so many Life Skills. You often think about it and wonder where to start? Here's a great prompt list.