Anthony Robbins says that “what we consider possible or impossible is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.”

How can you be a teacher to your children?

You can help your children learn outside the classroom, you can therefore be a teacher to your children.

Have you said to yourself I can’t do that, or that’s just not me or that would be impossible to do? If so you have, as Robbins says, “run up against the barriers of a limited identity”.

You have confined what you are able to do within certain boundaries because you see yourself as not being able to do something, it has become what you are and it has become part of your identity.

This is fine if you are dealing with something that is bad or just plain wrong. For example if you say to yourself “I’m not a car thief, that’s just not me”.

But what happens if you believe you are not something or can’t do something which if you could, would be of benefit to you and to others. What if you believe that you cannot help your children learn,what if you believe that you cannot be a teacher to them?

In this case the world has lost something special.

And if you do believe that you as a parent are also a teacher, if you expand your boundaries, and being a teacher becomes part of your identity, what then? Well, you and your children will have gained something really special.

The habit of better questions leads to better answers, better feelings and better motivation for when they are learning.

Are questions the answer to better learning?

Do you like questions? What a question!

We are all wired to be interested and fascinated by questions.

Just think of the following successful programs on TV.

Mastermind
Eggheads
Family fortunes
The weakest link
Who wants to be a millionaire?

Why are they are so successful? What is it about these programs that make them so popular?

The answer is that they are all about ………QUESTIONS!

People love questions, our minds are programmed to be interested in questions, and of course children love questions.

In fact you and your children think by using questions. Questions are the building blocks to thinking and children are natural question machines continually asking questions and if given the opportunity they soak up knowledge like sponges.

As soon as you or your children ask a question the mind focuses on finding the answer. The very act of asking a question causes the mind to think because thinking is the process of asking and answering questions.

Think about a simple thing like making dinner this evening. What are you thinking about? I’ll bet that you are asking questions, it can’t be helped. You automatically start to ask questions that need an answer. What will we eat? At what time? How many people is the dinnner for? There could be many other questions.

So, thinking is all about posing questions and receiving answers.

When you help your children ask questions and provide answers you are helping them with their thinking skills.

And so what questions should you ask and how can you get your children thinking?

The answer is by creating the right questions.

What questions to ask?

Do you remember the film The Jungle Book made by Walt Disney? This film was based on a story by the writer and explorer Rudyard Kipling.

Kipling wrote in his poem the Elephant’s Child:

“I keep six honest serving men,
They taught me all I knew,
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who?

We like to put these questions in this order:

What, where, when, how, why, who? We think it has a certain ‘ring’ to it this way.

The questions then need to be put in a way that helps your child think and find answers.

For example why not try the following with your child or children like I did not so long ago.

Go to a historical place and ask six questions beginning with the six words. For example:

What is this place?
Where is this place?
When did people live here?
How did they live?
Why don’t they live here anymore?
Who lived here?

So, questioning is one the most important skills that you can teach and guide your child to improve their ability to think and learn.

Questions help motivation!

At The Learning Well questions are continually asked and answered and you will hear us say “better questions, better answers, better life”. This is because in addition to thinking and learning, questions can also improve your children’s motivation.

How?

Because questions can change the focus of the mind towards better answers and these better answers can change the way your children feel. Better answers and better feelings leads to better motivation.

This next point is very important!

You can be an expert!

To repeat what was said above. Children are great at asking questions and you as a parent can be the expert at giving them the bigger view by putting questions into context. Putting questions to your children is a chance for you to guide them to create the amazing habit of continuously asking better questions.

The habit of better questions leads to better answers, better feelings and as we have seen better motivation.

Phil Race said that “All knowledge is the answer to a question”

So, to go back to the original question, yes, we think that better questions are indeed the answer to greatly improving your children’s learning!

We are all motivated to do something if we enjoy doing it, if we find it pleasurable. If pleasure can be linked to learning then your children will want to learn.

It’s as simple as this:

If your children enjoy learning then they will be motivated to learn more and if they learn more they will be better able and set to achieve in school and in life.

It is therefore extremely important for your children to directly link pleasure with learning as this can then transform their lives for the better. You are in the unique position of giving this gift to your children!

Children at school, or even at home doing a piece of fun homework, can be very reluctant to start, and the belief that they will not enjoy it causes them to avoid it. However, once they have started they often become absorbed in the task and enjoy the work.

You as a parent are in a position to structure things to overcome these obstacles to learning in your children

How do we do this?

By making it fun!

This is one of the building blocks of ‘The learning Well’.

Make it fun, then you’ve won!

This Blog, our free reports, and The Learning Well Membership section will be show you practical tips and ways of structuring your children’s learning so that they do have fun and want to learn new things.

By using these techniques it is easy to create a fun environment with the relevant experiences which can positively change your child’s habits so that they want to and are motivated to learn.

And what happens then? Well, if they learn more they will be better able and set to achieve both in school and in life.

Remember – Make it fun, then you’ve won!

If you are feeling positive about a life experience, if it was enjoyable and made you happy; you will want more of it, if it was painful, laborious, or truly dull you will want less.

In addition researchers say that really positive emotions about your learning enable you to make maps in your brain, arrange this learning better, and make you better able to remember it.

So, how can you take the result of this research and translate it into action, so that you can take steps to use the techniques and activities available to help you help your children learn?

We often say “make it fun then you’ve won”, so when helping your children why not use stories, role play, singing, speaking, improvisation, and moving about, all focused on creating positive emotions that help your children learn.

One way to do this, and pull your children’s learning together in an ordered format is to use a Memory Map, one of the world’s really great learning techniques. You may be aware that Memory Mapping is a significant part of what we advocate at The Learning Well.

Creating memory maps can involve all the fun activities listed above and more, and can be the catalyst to greatly improved learning for your children.

With Mapping, learning and recall of schoolwork can be much, much easier and the same can be true for your children’s interests and hobbies outside of school.

You can download a free report on Memory Mapping on this Blog.

Have fun creating Memory Maps and help your children learn.

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A focus of the report is on the ability to’ ‘talk’ and how primary schools should address this.

This aspect of education is hugely important and of related and massive importance is the ability in later life to take this talk into the public arena.

We are now clearly in the age of presentation and communication and those that can speak in the public in whatever form lead considerably richer lives both materially and intellectually.

It is well known that adults fear speaking in public more than they fear death itself and therefore most do not do it.

So how do you deal with this potential for impoverishment in people’s education and lives? There is provision for the education and training motivated adults but first and foremost we must deal with the matter as early on in children’s lives as we can and this means when learning at the primary school age.

So the question arises; how do you enhance children’s learning experience, provide the necessary education resources to avoid the growth of the fear factor?

The answer has to be based on using a method that employs all aspects of children’s learning styles using a clear structured approach based on visual, kinaesthetic, auditory, and memory techniques. It is this that will lead to success in their education.

Organisations such ‘The Learning Well’ and ‘The Speaking Well’ and well known individuals such as Tony Buzan, who developed Mind Mapping, have a huge focus in this area providing just such learning techniques, utilising all learning styles, to all those who aspire to give the gift of public speaking to children.

For the sake of our children’s future those tasked with developing the primary education curriculum must take note of these methods and techniques including both Mind Mapping and Memory Mapping.

These activities massively boost children’s education and confidence and provide a clear structure for effective speaking, talking and learning.

The subject of the letter was primary school education and potential changes being proposed for it with respect to teaching public speaking and communication skills by Sir Jim Rose.

1^st May 2009

The Editor

Sir

Sir Jim Rose’s published report for the government on the overhaul of the primary curriculum highlights the importance of communication. A focus of the report is on the ability to’ ‘talk’. This aspect of education is hugely important and of related and massive importance is the ability in later life to take this talk into the public arena.

We are now clearly in the age of presentation and communication and those that can speak in the public in whatever form lead considerably richer lives both materially and intellectually.

It is well known that adults fear speaking in public more than they fear death itself and therefore most do not do it.

So how do you deal with this potential for impoverishment in people’s lives? There is provision for training motivated adults but first and foremost we must deal with the matter as early on in children’s lives as we can and this means at the primary school age. 

So the question arises; how do you enhance children’s learning experience and avoid the growth of the fear factor?

The answer has to be based on using a method that employs all aspects of the child’s ability to learn using a clear structured approach using visual, kinaesthetic, auditory, and memory techniques. It is this that will lead to success.

Organisations such ‘The Learning Well’ and well known individuals such as Tony Buzan have a huge focus in this area providing just such learning techniques to all those who aspire to give the gift of public speaking to children.

For the sake of our children’s future those now tasked with developing the curriculum must take note of these methods and techniques.

Yours faithfully,

Alan McMahon                  

Director

The Learning Well

When it comes to the provision of teaching communication skills in primary schools the report by Sir Jim Rose is very welcome. Such changes are sorely needed and very much need to be supported.