By Bette J. Freedson, LICSW, LCSW, CGP
You did not have to be a star student to encourage your kid to love to learn. The best way a parent can encourage their four year old to love learning is to model it. Four-year-olds are sponges. They soak up information. If you share your love of learning, your child will see it, and will follow suit.
Try these Tips:
- Read to your child every day! Choose some books you liked as a child. Choose some children’s books based on your child’s interests.
- Read children’s cookbooks with your child. Let them flip through and look at the pictures. Choose some recipes and cook them together.
- Take them to museums with children’s programs to pique their interest and keep their attention.
- Take them to gardens, and to lakes and woods. Enjoy the different sights, sounds, smells and textures around you.
- Take them on field trips to see things being made expand their curiosity about how things work.
- Teach your child to do the things you enjoy doing, like gardening, sewing or biking. Let your child experience your joy.
Your child will soak up your enthusiasm and very possibly be turned on to learning for the rest of their life. And then, lucky parent, they will teach you!
Bette J. Freedson, LICSW, LCSW, CGP, is author of the “Relax and Learn Seminars: Skills For All Seasons.” In her work she emphasizes the power of the mind/body connection to improve decision-making, increase effective coping, reduce conflict, boost morale and productivity at work, and create greater harmony in relationships.
