Parent, the Non-stop Teacher!

Parenting Technique 54 – Think “learning” all the time and remember that you are your child’s first and most important teacher.”

Your task is to help your child learn about the complicated world out there. As the main teacher, continue to make order out of it in one way or another. Explain and teach as many concepts as you can. Use this well-known advice as your guide: People remember 10 percent of what they hear, 50 percent of what they see, and 90 percent of what they experience!

For the next set of tips, I will describe development to you at different ages and stages. This will be your background information for tailoring your own teaching plan. If you have a new baby, here’s the scoop. If you know someone who does, please feel free to pass on the information. If you have an older child, keep checking each week for information about the next age group. The posts will go all the way up to age five.

Birth to Six Months

Learning is extremely rapid at this time. You will notice something new every day. Your newborn will respond to input through all five senses and will grow through those responses. Sight is centered on focusing. Reacting to different tones develops sound. Taste is limited to breast milk or formula. Touch is introduced by texture. Smell is tuned by a variety of environments. By providing these kinds of educational yet loving and nurturing experiences, you will be helping your baby fit him or herself into the new world in a positive way. You will be guiding your baby through this dynamic transition from the womb to the outside world.

— excerpted from Constructive Parenting by Sally Goldberg, p. 43

Parenting Insight…

What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.

—Aristotle

Fighting Violence!

Learning is not a real problem for young children. Teaching is. If you are not out there guiding and supporting your little one and instilling your values, someone else will be… and that may not be very good!

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