Childrens's Education - Parents Have Homework Too!

Children's education is of a high priority in today's 21st century education. So much more is demanded of our students to complete a demanding curriculum on the way to college or university. When students are under the gun for higher marks, better attendance and other markers for success, then parents are also expected to be actively involved in the system.

Children's education is beginning at an earlier age when most youngsters are in school by the age of 3 and 1/2 or 4 years. It is not glorified daycare as some would deem it; education is easier when children are between the ages of 2-5 years. This is when they accomplish most of their learning and it sets the groundwork for their future in education. Parents must make sure that their children attend an accredited nursery or daycare centre, early kindergarten or other program which will ensure that their child attains the best beginning.

Once your child is older and gets involved in the higher grades, please ensure that your child attends school regularly. Other than a viral or other illness, all children should be at school every day. So many lessons are taught and programs are conducted that it is easy for children to fall behind if kept at home. Secondly, make sure that you are an active player in your children's education. Attend any Open House or Meet the Teacher events and interviews regarding your child's success in school. Both parents should attend, whether the family is intact or not, in order to stay on top of your children's education.

At home, a parent's job is to provide a quiet, well-lit area for their child to complete his or her homework and projects. It does not always work to send them to their room where they can go unnoticed for up to an hour. All of the children in the family should have a quiet homework period, without the distractions of television or video games, preferably in a room on the main floor. Parents should be in attendance to assist with reading out the assignment, clarifying any questions or problems, showing an example if necessary and then leave the child to do his own work.

Parents should never do the homework with the child in its entirety. Homework or projects need to showcase what the child knows, can perform or does not understand. Homework is only one component of a child's education and it should not be the final estimation of a final mark for the child's report card. If it becomes a problem, your child cannot complete the assignment or cannot understand a lesson, then write a short note saying that you spent considerable time and effort on this assignment but your child was unable to complete it. That does not mean that he wins the argument or problem but you have assured the teacher that you have tried.

Homework should not be a long, drawn-out crying session, with gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair. It is meant to be a review of the lesson taught at school or a book to read for a novel study. Parents cannot be expected to teach what is on the curriculum today, after work and after supper. Children's education should be a positive, happy experience with parental involvement.

Riko Kawasaki is a diet fanatic who also works in the professional fitness industry. She believes that health and fitness starts with what we put in our bodies.

Exposing Your Children To Educational Books

One cannot undermine the importance of reading in a child's education. That's why educational books are important as they help increase a child's vocabulary and awaken his interest to learn more. Reading is the first step and the basic foundation for a child to perform well in school. When a child develops love for reading, learning other things becomes a lot easier. It is, therefore, important for parents to get the children's interest to read at a very young age.

In order to capture your child's interest for educational books, develop the habit of reading aloud to them. They will find it interesting as you read to them different stories and imitate various characters. Set aside a specific time of day dedicated to reading alone. This will have the children something to look forward to every day. Once the children develop love for reading, they will also develop the initiative to read on their own as they grow old. Reading is especially good to unwind and relax that's why many parents prefer to read bedtime stories to their children.

Another good way to get your child exposed to the wonders of educational books is to take them to libraries. This will both teach them to develop appreciation for good books and learn the responsibility of returning them properly. If they're old enough to select their books and reading materials, you can encourage them to get their own library card so they can explore and borrow on their own. Show them the area in the library where children's educational books are found.

One important tip to get the attention of your children is to engage them every time you read stories. When you read with feelings and emotions and, at the same time, interact with children as you tell stories, they are challenged to use their imagination and listen intently. As you read educational books, include your children as part of the characters in the story. This will thrill them so much that they will want to participate in the story-telling until they learn to tell the story on their own. There are movies that were created based on best-selling books. It would help to buy these books and watch the movie with your kids. This will help them to relate the movie to the original story in the book. This will test their memory and understanding of what they watch and read.

Children should be able to associate reading with fun; as such, you should know how to create a good environment that's conducive to reading and learning. It's best to set up a separate area in your house or room that's dedicated to reading and studying. Provide the appropriate furniture such as study table, chair and book shelves for all the educational books that you will buy for your children. Do not force them to read when they're not in a good mood as this might make them develop negative notions about reading and studying.

There's no specific age set to introduce your child to reading; but the earlier you expose them to the beauty of books and the wonders of reading, the better it is for them.

5 Tips To Successful Children's Education

Being a modern day parent is so much different and more difficult than the past. Don't you agree? While working hard in the day and spending whatever time left with your kid, parents go through so much hardship for one of the most important reasons: to give their children a proper education which would open up avenues of success for them in the future. In a fast paced society where time is of the essence, we tend to assume that children will absorb and understand whatever we throw at them and make sure they learn as much as possible because we believe that it will be beneficial.

It is said that the brain of a child is like a sponge and it'll absorb anything, everything and this is why they tend to ask endless amount of questions and if we want our children to be well mannered and learn the right stuff, must we cater something different just for their curious minds? I believe we do.

I'm not a parent nor a child educator myself but I've been a kid once, well, in fact everyone was a kid once but as we age and mature, we lost touch with our kiddy behavior and mentality because it is not acceptable in the society and when we communicate or teach our young, we often lose our patience resulting in undesirable outcomes. Now, the below 5 tips are what I've observed, read, studied and gathered from child educators and I personally believe that if you teach yourself to have these qualities while educating your young, it will definitely lessen your burden and at the same time bring a whole lot of fun and joy to you and your kids! I understand that you're all grown up and mature now but let's all hear what the younger generation has to say, shall we?

Tip 1 - Always assess the ability of the child before proceeding to teach something new. It is important to understand the learning capabilities of the child (i.e. strengths, needs) before you begin to educate them. As every child is different and possesses different IQ levels, it is essential to find out what their pace of learning is especially for children with intellectual disabilities. Children with such disabilities will take a longer time to learn or pick up new skills as compared to a normal child. Therefore, it is very important to teach the child things that suit their cognitive level.

Tip 2 - Conducive learning areas. To enable a child to learn effectively, a child is best placed in an environment that allows them to fully concentrate on whatever they are supposed to learn. Set up areas for play and learning separately, this is also useful in letting them know that there is a different time for studying and playing.

Tip 3 - Create a safe environment for progressive learning. For instance, you can encourage inquisitiveness and allow them to make mistakes in order to learn. Allowing your children to learn from their mistakes is more effective than spoon-feeding them. Progressive learning also helps in building a solid foundation for the child and not giving too much information at one time which can result in them losing interest.

Tip 4 - Be consistent in setting your expectations. You have to expect that the child is able to learn and each time, set an expectation slightly above the child's ability so as to push them to achieve greater heights. However, this will only be effective by doing it consistently.

Tip 5 - Have care and patience towards the child. You have to be genuine in wanting the child to learn. Teach the child for the sake of his/her learning and not for the sake of teaching. One way will be to care for the child constantly, and this will gradually help you in building a bond with them, thus enable the child to respond effectively and readily to you.

Armed with the knowledge on how to deal with your child's education, you are now ready to provide them with the right amount of materials, in the right environment to achieve the results you desire! Remember that the child's learning must be consistent and always allow them to explore new stuffs through their five senses, of course with an adult's supervision. With that, I wish you all the best in educating the young.

Jerry Yang is the co-owner and managing director at Quickienomics.com where supplementary education for Introduction to Economics under the University of London programme is provided.

Saving For Children's Education

One of the most common financial goals that couples have is to save money for their children's education, whether that be at a private school or a tertiary institution. Saving for this purpose is no different than saving for any other goal in life, yet there is a common misperception that funds need to be set aside separately or even in the child's name for this purpose. That can lead to a lower rate of investment return in some cases.

If you are going to save for your children's education, then you're probably looking at saving tens of thousands of dollars and it will take a number of years to get to that target.

That means starting when the child is young - in fact, probably at the preschool age. Anybody with preschoolers most probably has a mortgage. With mortgage interest rates being so high, the best place to put your money is into your mortgage to keep the interest payments down. If, for example, you are paying say 7.0% interest on your mortgage you would need to earn at least 7.0% after tax on an investment to make it worthwhile investing and not paying your mortgage. So pay off your debt as fast as you can, and then remortgage later if your still really want to help your kids. If you have grandchildren that you wish to provide for, the situation may be a little different. You probably won't have a mortgage and you may wish to make funds available that are clearly earmarked for your grandchildren and clearly specified to be used only for education costs. A good way of achieving these objectives is to set up an education trust. This can be done through a solicitor or trustee company. There will be a fee involved to establish and maintain the trust, but there will be safeguards in place to ensure that the funds are used for the purpose you intend. An education trust can be particularly useful in certain situations, for example, where there is a relationship breakdown between parents and a parent or grandparent wishes to make funds available without the risk of the money being used for a different purpose. An education trust can also be used where funds might be at risk of a possible future claim by business creditors.

There are specialist funds available that offer educational scholarships. The idea is that you contribute a regular amount into the fund and, if your child attends a tertiary institution there is a scholarship payable. Such funds need to be looked at carefully in terms of the likelihood of your child attending a tertiary institution and, in the event they do, the value of the scholarship in relation to the funds invested.

Children's Education: On the Benefits of Games and Educational Toys

More than 93 per cent of parents want their children to have a post-secondary education. With the cost of tuition, books and living expenses rising by the month, planning years in advance for these inevitable years of school can alleviate the financial stress of leaving it to the last minute. There are many factors to consider as well when it comes to planning on these expenses, such as if your child will attend out of state, will live at home while in school or will be able to handle a part-time job while attending school. A four-year University program will certainly cost a pretty penny when factoring in the cost of books and supplies.

This cost can take many years to pay off if the fees are funded through student loans, leaving many young students in massive debt, and without a job, on graduation day. It is best to begin saving for your child's education as soon as you can.

According to Acumen Research, 60 per cent of potential University students do not discuss educational finances with their peers or parents until they are around the tenth grade. This is obviously too late to begin saving. Parents should begin by putting whatever they can away when they children are at a young age. Sean Junor, manager for the Educational Policy Institute suggests finding out what your child's interests are as they grow up. Keeping tabs on their interests can provide a bit of a guide when it comes to later schooling. If your child is interested in food, then a culinary school could be what you should be saving for.

Knowing this type of information early on allows you, as a parent, to realize if they will be more likely to attend a local college for two years or an international university studying specialized sciences for eight years, for instance. The cost from one option to the other is a staggering difference. Getting an idea of your child's academic goal will be a great start to knowing the amount of money that will be required.

If putting several hundred dollars a month into an educational account is not feasible, then put away what you can afford, when you can afford it. Junor says, "You've got to start somewhere. The key is to sit down and determine how much you have at your disposal to start saving right now."

Taking advantage of programs such as the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESPs) and the Canada Education Savings Grant early on can also have a significant impact in your end result. RESPs allow for (eventual) tax-free withdrawal. The money put into a Canada Educations Savings account by modest-income families is matched by the government and allows them to begin saving for a Canada Learning Bond. If you live in Alberta, additional programs such as the Alberta Centennial Educations Savings Plan is worth looking into.

Children's Education: On the Benefits of Games and Educational Toys

There are a lot of factors that can greatly affect the development of children. Some people might think that games and toys don't have anything to do with this but it actually has some purpose. There should always be a balance between study and play. Both should not be deprived to a child. Toys and games can be a way for kids to be developed and learn other than providing entertainment. Actually, letting kids play with the right type of toys and games can provide them with a foundation in their education. At their early age, you can give them a good start.

The values toys and games provide are almost similar with other. This is even though there are a lot of play things that are available for your child in the market. By nature many children are curious. When parents are able to provide them with the right toys to play with, the kids can keep their interest the whole day. If this is not done so, on the other hand, they may likely look for a way to amuse their self thus they may end up cluttering or even destroying some important things at home. They may even be subject to accidents, so it is always good to keep things that might cause this.

One of the best ways to keep children from doing this is to provide them with toys to play with. Educational toys are some of the items that can be given to children. Here are some of the benefits that can be acquired from it.

The common benefit is that kids can enjoy and have fun from playing. When a child enjoys a toy or a game, he will keep playing with it. As parents, you should remember that in choosing a toy for your child, the enjoyment the kid may get should be considered. Also, you might consider toys that get his interest.

Motor and cognitive skills are likely to be developed. Puzzles and number games are some of the toys that have the ability to provide this. A kid's cognitive skills can be developed because of the fact that he will find ways on how to complete a puzzle. As for the motor skills, it can be developed because the coordination of the eyes and hands will be needed in solving a jigsaw puzzle.

Kids can also develop their creativity through the right type of toys. Their reasoning and perception can likely be developed. Toys like LEGO can develop their creativity for they can be able to come up with a certain image in their mind. This is a good thing to provide kids at an early age. Because of this, they can be ready to face the common things to meet when they start to study.

Social and emotional development is also likely to be developed through toys and games. This is true especially for group games. Kids will be able to meet new people and as they interact with them, they can create new friends. When they win or lose, their emotional aspects are affected.

These are just some of the benefits that can be acquired from toys and games.