Education is obviously absolutely central to your children’s likelihood of making the most of life, and of being able to enjoy their life too. As a parent, you are no doubt going to be keen to make sure that you are encouraging your children with their education as best as you can, and that is something that might often seem easier said than done. Nonetheless, it can be made a lot easier if you focus on a few key essentials.
In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the major cornerstones of your children’s education. We’ll also look at why these are so important. As long as you have an understanding of this, you will find it easier to encourage your children with their education in the way that you would hope. Let’s take a look at this in some detail right now.
Sciences
The sciences are some of the most vital aspects to your children’s education. With a good understanding of science, they are considerably more likely to have a grasp of how the universe seems to function when they get older – or at least, according to our best and latest theories. Generally science also tends to breed an enjoyment of and appreciation of nature too, so that is another vital reason to encourage an understanding of the sciences.
There are a few major scientific endeavors that they will learn as part of a standard education, and they are all equally important. You might find that your children are more interested in one or two of these than others, in which case it might be a good idea to try and encourage them in that field as best as you can.
That might be physics, biology, or chemistry – generally these are seen as the trinity of science when it comes to educating children. If your child has a good comprehension of these three, then they are going to be in a pretty good place in terms of being able to successfully interact with the world. As far as possible, therefore, consider encouraging enjoyment in these sciences as best as you can.
Math
What underpins all science, however, and which is therefore hugely powerful in its own right, is mathematics. Without a solid grasp of math, children’s education is going to be far more impoverished, and this is something that you can see the effects of clearly when it happens for your child. You might therefore find it a good idea to encourage your children in this area too, and you might find that it helps them to understand many other things too, especially the sciences that we outlined above.
The progression of math in education is quite simple to follow, and it tends to reflect the development of minds in general. At a young age, your children are going to start off learning some of the essential fundamentals. That includes first grade math concepts such as addition and subtraction, and fractions. Simple as all that stuff is, it is these which will be the building blocks of all future math learning in topics as complicated as geometry, IB AA HL Math or even calculus.
Not only that, but these are true, genuine life skills which your children are going to need to make use of for the rest of their lives. As such, it is vital that these skills are developed early and strongly. Anything you can do to encourage this is likely going to be a great idea for the sake of your kids’ education, and for the sake of their futures in general. As you can appreciate, math is hugely important and relevant.
English Literature
There are two kinds of English that your children are going to need to learn about, and one of them is English literature. In this subject, they are going to learn about all kinds of literature written in the English language. Of course, later on this might develop into literature in other languages too, in order to give an even fuller and better sense of literature around the world and in different cultures. But at first it will likely begin with literature in English only – unless of course you are in a non-English speaking country!
Some people fail to grasp the importance of English literature as a subject. You might even find yourself thinking that it is somewhat out of date, as people don’t read as many books anymore. But firstly, that is not true: people still read books all the time, and they are as popular as ever. And secondly, there are many kinds of literature other than books, which are worthy of study. As it turns out, in fact, studying literature of all kinds is a vital life skill that can prove useful in a lot of ways.
The more someone understands how language is used in the service of stories, the more empowered they are to grasp how stories are put together everywhere – including in the media, in their own minds, and in the culture at large. This is hugely powerful, and it enables those people to understand more fully what they need to do in order to engage better with the world as a whole. So encouraging your children in learning English literature is actually encouraging them to have a fuller and healthier response to the world as they grow up. There are few things more important or powerful than that.
English Language
As well as literature, the other major branch of English is language. This is more about how language is actually used and the theory behind it, rather than the specific items of literature which are created with that language. Having a decent understanding of language is vital if your children are going to be able to wield it well, however: and having a good grasp of language really does empower a person. It makes someone more persuasive, and more able to construct their reality as they see fit – which is no small task for many people to perfect!
If you want to encourage your children in their English language skills, the trick is to spend lots of time talking to them, from as young as possible, and keep on going. Over time their language will naturally develop and you will be able to enjoy the results taking place in front of your eyes. That is a great thing to see, and it means that you know your children are going to be much better off throughout their whole lives.
Social Skills
It’s not just the academic stuff that matters, however: there is also the matter of social skills, and these need to be developed too if you are going to ensure that your children have the best possible start in life. The better someone’s social skills are, the more likely it is that they will do well in life, and in many respects this is one of the most important things of all. If they have good social skills, more or less everything is going to be easy for them to follow and to achieve.
If you want your children to have good social skills therefore, you might want to think about what you can do to make that happen. One way is to introduce them to social settings from a young age. The more that you do this, the more practice they will have, and this will naturally mean that they find it easier to be sociable in later life as well. That is really important for everyone.
