Busy Streets

We attended a talk entitled “Teaching Parents How to Teach: Raising Life-long Learners” at our daughter’s school months ago. The very effective and entertaining speaker was Mrs. Vicky Ozaeta-Tantoco, a mother and a teacher by profession, and who has a Masteral degree in Education.

After the talk, I approached Mrs. Tantoco and asked for her permission to post some things from her talk on the web. She agreed. I think it is best though, that you listen to her entire presentation personally but just to give you an idea of some of the things we picked up, I will be sharing some of her tips here with you (with some of my own thoughts and ideas, as well as personal experiences, thrown in for good measure):

1. Expect positive results: This is the age-old rule of positive expectations. What we expect, happens. So, in tutoring your child, expect that your child will be easy to teach, will be conscientious in doing the things that he or she is supposed to do, and that your child will successfully learn. “I believe that every child can learn and will achieve his or her fullest potential.”
2. Teach your child when you are ready: Do not jump in and tutor your child if you are not ready. If you are in bad mood, tired, or angry, your teaching will not be effective. The review session can only be disastrous. In my own personal experience, when I used to work in an office, my homework review sessions with my son would always be highly stressed. Imagine driving through an hour or so of traffic, eating dinner, and then rushing to review homework from about 8:30pm and onwards? That is truly taxing. Now that I stay at home, our sessions are more relaxed and pleasant.

3. Be interested in all subjects: Do not let your child know or do not let him get the idea that you are not interested or good in a certain subject. Chances are, you are likely to communicate your biases and perceived limitations onto your child and this will not help. In my own personal situation, I really do not understand why they need to memorize all those itty-bitty details in Araling Panlipunan or Social Studies and in the past, I have blurted that out loud in front of my son. These days, I try to limit my negative comments or misgivings so that we can review all the subjects well and so I do not give my child the wrong impression about any subject.

(To be continued.)