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FAMILY INVOLVEMENT

Sometimes parents have difficulty managing their children’s endless energy, curiosity and insistence to monopolize their attention. Engaging one’s children creatively is more intense with the first- born child who has only the grown ups for company. Our suggestion gives answers on how to engage our children’s endless energy. The children will be pleasantly introduced to the English language and the parents will have created experiences with them.

 

The material suggested here is very simple so parents should not be deterred by thoughts of the type “what and how do we do it?” The videos are about words, objects, daily habits, animals and universally loved tales. When we play the 3 little pigs story, the little ones hear and repeat the words “pigs”, familiarize themselves with the sounds of English and sense the magic of stories. When using images, repetition, movement and melody, parents introduce learning and help children become aware of themselves, their limits and boundaries, the world around them, real or not. Such pedagogic frameworks help children strengthen their speech, their inventiveness and life skills.

 

Transform a corner of your child’s room to a workshop of English play. Introduce a routine in which you play, listen, watch, read English to your kids or bring tales to life by engaging them in relevant activities. The kids will adore the material which we are suggesting because the plot is given through rhythm and music. Children are encouraged to repeat or copy what they see and use their whole body in doing so. This does not only entertain the kids but help them develop at an emotional, spiritual, social, cognitive and kinaesthetic level. Move with your children, play roles with them, repeat phrases from the videos and the illustrated tales and they will do the same.

 

Research shows that kids learn more things in the first years of their lives. We all know that the experiences which the family environment provides precede formal education and are irreplaceable. The informal learning can easily be extended from the end of the second year of the child to the area of “English” provided certain basic principles are followed.

 

Reading books to children at home greatly facilitates learning between three to eight years. Research has proven that the reading of stories in young ages is a necessary element of the learning environment and a defining factor for the good performance within the school reality later. (Bus et al, 1995), (Faires et al, 2000; Hara & Burke, 1998) and (Kreider, 2002; Marcon, 1999), (Bus et al, 1995). The BABY STEPS IN ENGLISH suggestion is based on the current available data which suggest that the child can effortlessly learn a foreign language in preschool years.

 

Everything starts with a story. It has been known for centuries, that societies handed down their culture through stories which they passed on orally because they did not have illustrated books then. So, let us recognize the fact and let us value the act of the parent or nanny who sits with the child to tell a story. And remind all that this potent tool is even more effective if the narration involves theatrical delivery with colorful voice, movements and facial expressions. The idea is that parents keep company to their children during screen time, that they pause, repeat what they see and hear, play with the kids on this material. It is not coincidental that some libraries create “telling” events to instill love of reading. Do something similar. Think of language as a table which supports itself on four legs. The speech, the hearing, the reading and the writing legs. Undoubtedly all four are necessary and support each other. But one starts with the hearing leg, moves to the speech leg, continues with the reading and ends with the writing leg and in so doing benefits the kids.

 

According to American genetician David Seng, author of the book “The genius in all of us”, talent is genetic, a present from nature which cannot be taught. However, he also comments that mediocrity is not an irrevocable condemnation; many skills are learnable or acquired and we can surpass the limits which we think nature has placed upon us with the help of the proper environment. Robert Sigler, professor of cognitive psychology has proved that children coming from upper class outdo in knowledge children from poor backgrounds because their parents devote more time to them well before they start kindergarten. Those who talk more to their kids, use wider vocabulary, read more books, discuss topics, play table games certainly give their kid an upper hand. The child’s genetic predisposition, that is his genes, are the raw material which can be mulled with the proper material. The material is his learning environment and the care he receives from members of his family.

 

Parents are the first and foremost teachers when they use their body language, objects, props, gestures to animate what they want to get across to the child. Parents need a bit of training on how to use drama, to personalize knowledge through roles, characters and situations. When parents dramatize the tale and ask the child to do the same, to repeat, to fill in or complete, they use tested creative and experiential practices. These parent transform the electronic cards to sources of vocabulary, the tales to sources of emotions and values, the songs to sources of active listening, merriment, and build strong ties bonds with their children. In doing the above, these parents have assisted the development of the child’s neurons and therefore the cognitive, social, emotional and learning procedure of the child along with other aspects of the maturing process.

 

The child has practiced the English sounds, distinguished the quickly alternating pitch, has developed musical skills and named things in English effortlessly. This child has interacted with the character s/he is impersonating during “play” time something which further strengthens his/her self-confidence, character and vocabulary. And later when the child hears the sounds and phrases and sentences s/he first uttered and his parents recorded, this child will feel important and confident, something which will surely facilitate his learning of English.

 

So parental involvement in cooperation with technology starts a two-way learning procedure. Of course, parents filter the pitfalls of technology but cannot ignore the fact that children’s life is digital and that technology enriches learning through educational applications and practical tools.

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Further referencing 

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