How to Instill a Love of Learning in Your Child

It’s a known fact that children are naturally curious beings. They’re always eager to learn, and they have an innate desire to understand everything around them. All the same, some kids lose that spark as they get older. At worst, they can even lose interest in school and the general process of learning about new things altogether. This, in turn, may keep them from expanding their minds when they reach adulthood.

Instilling a love of learning in your child early can encourage them to continue discovering new things, become more passionate about their interests, and keep their minds open to the necessary change that’s happening in the world. As a parent, here’s what you can do to help your child appreciate and maintain their love of learning.

Encourage Their Inquisitiveness at Home

Young children love to ask questions, as they remain among the most reliable ways to acquire new information. Although answering every question your child asks you can get tiring, your willingness to listen and respond to them can leave a positive impact on their self-confidence.

When you encourage your child’s natural inquisitiveness at home, they’ll be more open to sharing their thoughts and feelings on certain subjects. They’re also more likely to retain the things they’ve learned about because you’ve created a safe environment for them to ask both new and old questions without judgement.

Plus, the interactions you share at home can inspire your child to participate more actively in school discussions and activities. When you enrol them in a kindergarten Singapore parents trust, for example, your child will surely shine in class because their inquisitiveness will make them a memorable learner who’s a pleasure for both teachers and fellow students to engage.

Nurture Their Hobbies and Interests

Dancing, drawing, and playing sports are more than just typical hobbies that allow children to have fun. They’re also activities that teach kids valuable life skills and help them develop interests that can expand their knowledge on a certain subject.

Nurturing your child’s hobbies and interests will give them a reason to learn new things that can enhance their talents and build their knowledge in other fields. For example, if your child is into drawing, support them by giving them simple art materials that will build their desire to create art. Once they think that they’re ready to improve their drawing skills, they can research different art techniques and try them out for themselves. They may also end up applying their developing skills for visual and creative thinking in subjects like science and social studies as well as art class.
Find Your Child’s Learning Style and Embrace It

There’s no one way to teach a child, since children don’t all learn the same way. Some kids can retain information better when they can visualise the idea, while others prefer learning by immersing themselves in a simulated activity that helps them understand the concept.

It’s important to know what learning style your child is comfortable with, and to ultimately embrace it. Enforcing one type of style can on your child hinder them from gaining more knowledge and, in the long run, take away from their love of learning. If your child isn’t fond of the learning style you’re enforcing on them, they’ll see the experience as something negative and lose the drive to learn more. However, if you use a style your child prefers, they’ll enjoy the process of expanding their knowledge and even be more open to trying new learning styles. This is because they won’t feel forced to learn something that’ll be valuable to them in the future.

Four examples of learning styles that parents to young children can do their research on are the visual learning style, auditory learning style, kinaesthetic learning style, and reading/writing learning style. There is also multimodal learning, which combines two or more of the four predominant learning styles to improve the quality of how information is delivered to the child. By understanding how each of these styles work, you’ll be able to create a personalised learning experience that will cultivate your child’s desire to learn.

Use Different Learning Materials to Stimulate Their Mind

To keep your child curious about the world, you should also make sure that their mind is adequately stimulated. Exposing them to different learning materials will help them have a good relationship with learning, as well as activate their imagination.

Books are the best learning resources you can give to your child. Children’s books, for example, expose your child to different topics, such as history, art, science, and technology, and present them in such a way that a young mind can understand. But you can also tap into newer learning materials, like educational videos or podcasts available online. Choosing the materials and going through them together will get your child looking forward to learning, as well as strengthen the bond between the two of you.

Help Them Realise That Learning Can Be Fun

When children are having fun, not only are they enjoying the experience; they’re learning valuable lessons from it as well. Children often learn things best when they’re engaged in an activity that they find entertaining. As a parent, you can bridge the concepts of learning and fun by exposing your child to fun educational activities.

Taking them to the zoo, visiting museums, and baking cookies together, for example, will put your child in a unique environment or situation where they can learn concepts like animal biology, the history of a community, and measurement. These experiences also create lasting memories for your child, and you’ll be able to reminisce together about the lessons they learned when they get older.

Having the enthusiasm to learn things, whether it’s new information or a skill, is important to a child’s development. Being able to appreciate the process of gaining knowledge at an early age lets kids stay curious and develop hobbies, interests, and passions that make them enjoy life.
With your help, your child will attain a love of learning, and by extension, love the things that make them who they are.