Schooling years should teach your child:
• Social skills
• How to develop their unique intelligence
• To learn languages
• To ask questions and keep looking for the right answers.
• How well your child copes with school will depend on his/her health, personality traits and what’s happening at home.
Health:
Children don’t enjoy school if they’re always sick. When a child has a known illness, this should be discussed with the teacher at the start of every new school year. Children’s eyesight, hearing, teeth and diet should be checked regularly. In an ideal world every school has a school nurse to do this. In the absence of school nurses, parents need to be vigilant and take action when they think there is a problem. Teachers also need to be on the look-out.
Sometimes simple things like worms, hunger or sugar overload can affect a child’s concentration. Additives, colourants and food preservatives can make some children agitated and hyperactive.
• Family meals should be balanced: fruit and vegetables, proteins and carbohydrates in proportion to age and activity
• Outdoor play-time should override indoor TV time to boost exercise and fun in the sun
• Children need at least 12 hours undisturbed sleep every night.
Personality:
Studies in the 1950’s by a group of New York doctors, Chess, Thomas and Birch identified nine personality traits in children.
School classrooms are filled with children who learn very differently. Teachers don’t have the time or the capacity to focus on every child’s personality. Children have to learn to conform to the system and parents need to help them do this.
1. Activity level: Even before they’re born, some children are hyperactive in the womb, summersaulting and using the umbilical cord as a jump rope. These children thrive on testing boundaries. Other children who are naturally docile, prefer to watch, wait and see
2. Predictable: Some babies seem to follow instructions from baby books and magazines! They thrive on routine. But other children get bored and even agitated with the same-old, same-old and need creative outlets to keep them motivated
3. Children respond differently to new situations or events, even tastes, sights or experiences. While some are keen to try something new, others are cautious, hesitant or even afraid
4. Adaptability: While some children struggle when circumstances change, others adapt with ease
5. Environment: Some children may be sun / noise / cold sensitive and this can affect their mood or behaviour
6. Every child’s response intensity varies – e.g. either they cry, object, protest very loudly or simply sulk, withdraw or cry
7. Children are born with a unique personality. While some are optimistically cheerful, others are serious and gloomy. Most are a little bit of both!
8. Focus and concentration: Some children quickly engage and become engrossed in an activity. Others quickly lose interest
9. Intensity of concentration: This depends on whether the child is easily distracted or not.
Circumstances at home:
Children need the security of a happy home where they feel safe and loved. They need to feel part of the family. When parents are disorganized, children feel insecure. They do well at school if:
• They’re encouraged to be creative. TV, computer games and i-pad time should be limited
• The family spends outdoor time together
• When parents pay attention to their child e.g. when he finds something unusually exciting or has a problem to work through
• The family can turn everyday circumstances into a game
• When parents take the time to listen and talk to their child
It’s also important to develop self-esteem and confidence in children:
• Love teaches children trust and confidence
• Listen to your child and show a genuine interest when he has a problem
• Treat your child with respect
• Have realistic expectations.
