There’s something that I’m not doing right. I’m not able to get Kajal to really respond and remember things very well. Am I making the same mistake that I have often criticized? Am I ‘expecting’ too much? Should I be expecting at all…
I see her making mistakes and I try to understand the nature of her mistakes, so I can understand how she is thinking. That might give me clue as to how to teach her better… but maybe that’s the mistake I’m making in the first place? Trying to ‘teach’ her…
Reminds me of something I read in a John Holt book,
‘If we taught children to speak, they’d never learn.’ William Hull
Anyway I’m still struggling with getting her to remember basic words, their spellings and meanings. Lost in a maze of apples, ants, axes, bats, boxes, boys, cats, cakes, caps…
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2 comments:
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remember, mothers teach best! .. : ) .. maybe because they don't teach the way teachers do .. :D .. hmm .. her priorities in life might not allow her to give as much importance to studies as she wants .. or its taking her time to grasp things .. to resolve these issues, you could try teaching her words that will be useful to her first .. mother, nice woman, lovely, happy, sad, angry, hut, pot, bad man, swine, pan, fire, coal etc. are a good starting point to build her vocabulary .. this will give YOU a good idea of what all she encounters during her day and you can teach her more stuff in line with that .. once she starts relating to these daily things, she'll remember them as she moves along .. the idea is to link things to what she's familiar with .. then some sentence formation can start .. then the formal part of the education ..
Thanks so much for the little nugget. I mostly agree with you. You are right in saying that it’s much easier for mothers to teach their children, at least in the extremely important formative stages. That’s mostly because they are not really trying to ‘teach’ in the first place, it’s more like creating an atmosphere where the child is able to learn, to pick up cues from her environment and what goes on around her. And it’s that which we need to create really, learning environments, rather than rigid teaching situations.
But that is possible in a scenario where one is spending a substantial amount of time with the child, such as at home, or in school. It’s a little more difficult for me because I am only able to spare an hour a day, that too on days when I am free. This makes it so much more difficult.
Your suggestion though is a good one, and it’s been noted. I have been considering anyway, the need for our classes to operate at more levels than what we have been doing till now. Maybe I can start with what you suggest.
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