How to help your child continue learning outside the classroom

 

As a teacher, many parents would ask me, how do I help my child learn at home? Here are some easy ways for busy parents to help their children advance in English.

Sentence patterns

“What can you see? I can see a cat” – This is a great game to play throughout the day. If you are walking through a park, ask your child this question – What can you see? This teaches a child to be observant, use any vocabulary they know and learn new words. You can also mix it up by changing the sentence pattern. Here are some examples; 

“What is this? This is an… “ – 

“What colour is the sky? The sky is…” 

“How many flowers can you see? I can see…flowers”

“What do you like? I like ice-cream!

This is also great because they are able to learn the question with the response

English songs

In my class I would play one new song on repeat for the week. By the end of the children would be singing every-word! Introduce 1 or 2 songs per week and play them consistently at different times throughout the day

Reading with finger tracing

Find some books appropriate for your child’s age group. Get your child to finger trace each word as they or you are saying it. That way they can actually link the sound of the word to the spelling of the word.

Play with them!

This sounds like an obvious one, but it’s so important. Your child has their own thinking and own mindset, they already want to follow their own lead. Instead of changing what your child is doing, see what your child wants to do then use it as a chance to practice English. Here is an example;

Colouring/Drawing: Oh what colour do you want to use? You want blue, wow, blue is so nice! What colour is next? Look I have a red crayon! Do you want the red crayon?