I received several comments on my post yesterday about teaching English to a 6-year-old. Most of what I learned actually reinforces my previous belief that getting parents heavily involved is crucial.
My observations from some of my friends' children strongly support this. Those children graduated from a local Chinese school after dedicating one whole Sunday afternoon to the school for many years, but still cannot carry on a daily conversation in Chinese. In the end, their Chinese-speaking parents struggle to communicate with them in English.
On the other hand, my children did not go to Chinese school, yet they can speak like natives, not an easy trick for ABCs, mainly because we carried out daily conversations at home in Chinese.
By the way, if you do a survey on parental involvement in children's education, I bet the neighborhood that registers the lowest involvement see the highest high school dropout rate.
When consulting professionals here on this topic, the emphasis is always on teaching techniques. I’m sure those teaching in Chinese schools are well-versed in these methods, but without adequate and sincere parental involvement, the expected outcomes are often not achieved.
Parental involvement includes the followings:
- Keeping children motivated: Encouraging children consistently to maintain their interest in learning.
- Supervising homework: Making sure that the kids complete their assignments, especially if they are not yet well-disciplined.
- Providing positive feedback: Reinforcing children's efforts and achievements. Key to boost their confidence.
- Also very important is: parents need to learn how to have constructive conversations with their children.
- Lead by example. Children are unlikely to focus on their studies if they see their parents constantly distracted by their cell phones.
Finally, while teaching techniques and methods are helpful, they are far from enough on their own. The active and genuine involvement of parents in their child's education is the only key that makes everything work. Ultimately, the effective teamwork between teachers and parents, school and family, is what makes children thrive in their learning journey.