Two rules to follow to help your child get the most out of their passions
1. Make sure your child is truly motivated to learn. Otherwise, they will begin to develop an unconscious aversion toward learning and come to treat it as a requirement rather than a tool for getting ahead and a source of joy and purpose. If your child is like most, they probably think the learning part of school is boring. Beyond helping them find things outside of school they love learning, help them find fun ways to learn. For example, if they are bored by their math homework, sit down with them and have a conversation about something they can do that requires the skills being taught in the homework, but that is fun to them. If they are working on arithmetic, they can walk down the street and tally all the trees and flowers and then do subtraction to see how many less trees there are than flowers. And, while they’re at it, you can help them look up the names of the trees and flowers (science). There are always ways to help your child see the fun in learning.
Loving to learn may also be the most important skill of the future. Read just about anything on the topic of the future (e.g. The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond) and what stands out is that although we don't know exactly how to be prepared for it, everyone agrees that continuous learning will be a minimum requirement to adapt and thrive. Making sure you find ways for your child to be truly motivated to learn will set them up to be continuous learners, not just learners while in class, doing homework, or pursuing a college degree.
Developing a lifelong love of learning may be one of the most important lessons you can teach your child to live a happy and successful life.
2. Focus on what your child does well and can get better at. It’s all too common to point out what students do wrong and what they need to fix or learn to do it right. You got a B. How can you get an A? We recommend that you focus on what your child does well naturally or through self-motivated effort and hard work, and help them find ways to get better at those things. In the real world, people use their strengths to get ahead, not their weaknesses. Don’t waste time trying to make your child well-balanced when you can help them develop advantages based on their strengths. As it turns out, a person’s strengths are often things they are truly motivated to learn about as well.
Loving to learn may also be the most important skill of the future. Read just about anything on the topic of the future (e.g. The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond) and what stands out is that although we don't know exactly how to be prepared for it, everyone agrees that continuous learning will be a minimum requirement to adapt and thrive. Making sure you find ways for your child to be truly motivated to learn will set them up to be continuous learners, not just learners while in class, doing homework, or pursuing a college degree.
Developing a lifelong love of learning may be one of the most important lessons you can teach your child to live a happy and successful life.
2. Focus on what your child does well and can get better at. It’s all too common to point out what students do wrong and what they need to fix or learn to do it right. You got a B. How can you get an A? We recommend that you focus on what your child does well naturally or through self-motivated effort and hard work, and help them find ways to get better at those things. In the real world, people use their strengths to get ahead, not their weaknesses. Don’t waste time trying to make your child well-balanced when you can help them develop advantages based on their strengths. As it turns out, a person’s strengths are often things they are truly motivated to learn about as well.