How To Make Learning An Interesting Experience For Kids

Teaching is one of the most important professions of all time. Many people enjoy teaching because it expands their horizon, and more importantly, helps them to create long-lasting impacts in many lives.

Interestingly, teaching kids brings about a whole new experience. However, it may involve a lot more stress compared to teaching adults simply because they need help and guidance to do almost everything. Their inability to express certain feelings also makes it a bit challenging.

But the fact that you’re building a solid foundation for future leaders gives you a sense of fulfilment and immeasurable joy. Because in the end, all the stress that you’ve been through won’t count anymore.

Essentially, educators should focus on making learning an interesting experience for kids. This helps them to develop an interest in exploring new things and also makes it easy for them to achieve their learning objectives.

Here are 5 valuable tips every educator should use to make this happen.

1. Understand their individual abilities

As an educator, you should appreciate the fact that kids have different abilities. Understanding their different abilities lets you identify the best approach to use for their individual development.

You should also take note of the difference in learning styles. Some kids learn better in general classes, while others can only do well when engaged one on one. The greatest undoing on the part of some educators is that they employ the same approach for every kid, forgetting that they possess unique learning abilities.

2. Encourage and motivate them

Children generally need an overdose of encouragement and motivation at their early stage of learning. They need someone to make them believe in their abilities because every kid is a champion in their own right.

There are a number of ways to do this. Write good comments on their notebooks when they get good grades. Let them know they can do better, and if possible, motivate them with gifts. Lastly, provide adequate support for every kind of challenge they might be facing. This approach works like magic.

3. Use audio-visuals

The importance of learning through visuals can never be over-emphasized. Over time, audio-visuals have been identified as one of the most effective tools for imparting knowledge. Typically, it decreases learning time, improves comprehension, enhances information retrieval, and increases memory retention.

This approach is particularly more effective for kids because what they see sticks to their memory for long. LCD projectors, TV, VCD players, virtual classrooms and multimedia are common audio-visual tools which can be used for creating lasting impact on kids. Don’t ignore them!

4. Make learning practical

Just like audio-visuals help to drive home useful points and make information less complicated, practical exercises help to retain knowledge better. In fact it remains almost impossible to forget what you’ve done with your hands.

To help kids gain practical skills, create hands-on learning opportunities for them, use physical objects to explain new concepts, provide educational games and apps.

In addition, take them on excursions and show them things they only thought occurred in their imaginations. The less abstract you make things, the better they can understand.

5. Tell lots of stories

Who doesn’t love stories? According to UNESCO, being able to tell a story in an interesting and compelling way is an important teaching skill. This is because a good story is not only entertaining but is capable of holding students’ attention while they learn important concepts, attitudes and skills.

Storytelling demystifies concepts that are believed to be difficult, and increases a child’s interest in a particular subject. If you do this often, you’ll be amazed how much fun learning can be for you and the kids.

Lastly, it goes without saying that making learning an interesting experience for kids improves their cognitive domains and helps them become wiser in future. Applying these tips will assist you to achieve just that.