Tag Archives: Teaching elementary children

Children’s Books Should be Chosen Wisely

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by Pat Lamb (Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and my website, www.patlambchristianauthor.com)

Train up a child…

Children’s Books Should be Chosen Wisely

         It is so important that children have good books to read, and that children have good books read to them by parents, teachers, grandparents or others.  There is value in reading almost any book in that a child will improve reading skills.  However, there can be much more value obtained than just improving reading skills if careful selection of those books is made.

         What makes a book especially good for a child?  There are some things to consider in making a wise choice of a book.  Whether a child is to read the book for self or an adult is to read the book to the child, content should be considered.  If the child is to read the book, a book should be selected that is easy enough for the child to read to be enjoyed. Also, illustrations in books are more important than one might think.

         Every day thousands of books come from publishers.  There is a great amount of competition in the marketplace.  Quite often children’s books are written to sell rather than written for the real benefit of the child.  Publishers do not want to go to the expense of publishing a book unless they think it will sell.  This results in book content that is popular and may not do very much to help the child’s character or knowledge.  Personally, I like books that do more than simply improve reading skills.  Why not “kill two birds with one stone” and teach valuable lessons while entertaining the child and developing reading skills.  Some of the older stories in books in school did just that.  I was in one school library that had four copies of The Boxcar Children.  The covers were almost off and the books were ragged because they had been checked out so much.  The Boxcar Children teaches resourcefulness and lets the child’s mind wander into the area of “what if I had to take care of myself?”  It stimulates a great deal of thinking. 

         To choose a book for a child to read, a good rule of thumb is to have the child read one page in the book.  If the child misses five words, the book is too difficult for that child.  It is better to choose books easy enough for a child to enjoy than to try to force the child to learn too many new words all at once.  The more a child reads, the more fluent s/he becomes in reading, and new words will be picked up a few at a time.

         Illustrations in books can greatly affect the concepts children get from the reading.  I am appalled at some of the illustrations in Bible story books that I have seen.  Some of those illustrations border on being ridiculous and give children warped ideas of what Bible characters were really like.  It seems that in an effort to make the books interesting, outlandish illustrations are created.  In my opinion, those illustrations affect the child’s learning of the truth of the Bible.

         Children’s books are very expensive.  Some are worth the money, but many are not.  Going to the library is a good alternative to spending the money, but sometimes a child will cherish a book as a personal treasure and want to own it.  At any rate, whether a book is purchased or checked out from the library, we need to be sure it is worth the time, money or effort involved.

Note:  Next Saturday, Feb. 1, I will have my books at the Meet the Author Festival at Kimberling Library from 9:30 AM until 2 PM.  My latest book, “My Thinking Book”, is a children’s devotional book that children on third grade reading level or above can read for self.  It is also good for parents to read and discuss with a child.

Children Build on Successes

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by Pat Lamb (www.patlambhristianauthor.com) Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book

Train up a child…

Children Build on Successes

         What parent or teacher does not want to teach in such a way as to produce the optimum learning in a child?  Through the ages, much research and experimentation has been done to determine how a child learns best.  All of this research and experimentation along with plain common sense tells us that children learn best when they build on little successes.

         Keeping this fact in mind, we need to ask ourselves the following questions: “How does a child define success?”  “How can a teacher or parent make sure that a child succeeds as that child determines success? How can a teacher or parent keep children progressing at a pace to keep up with expectations of society?

         Children most often define success according to the amount of praise received for a task accomplished.  If the child receives a little praise, the child feels that he/she has done alright.  If a child receives a great deal of praise, that child feels especially good about what has been accomplished and feels success.  Immediately, the child wants to repeat the action to receive more praise.  Success gives a child hope and confidence in ability to achieve.  The child will automatically select activities similar to those for which praise was received.  Conversely, a child will avoid activities where success was not experienced. This demonstrates the need for praising children rather than scolding them. However, the praise should never be false praise. 

Praise needs to be focused on the achievement rather than the child.  Too much praise for the child leads to a child having a feeling of superiority.  We don’t want children growing up feeling they are better than others.  However, we do want them to have confidence in their ability to do a good job.

         It is important that tasks be delegated commensurate with a child’s ability to succeed.  If tasks are too difficult, the child cannot experience satisfaction. There is a value in “instant success”.  When we introduce something new that a child needs to learn, it would be well to take a small portion that is easy to learn and start with that.  When the child succeeds in one little thing, he/she is encouraged to tackle more.  The child has instantly felt success and is eager to experience more success.

         “Chunk learning” is a phrase commonly used in education circles.  It simply means that it is better to take a chunk at a time rather than throw the whole thing at a child all at once.  “Chunk learning” allows a student to feel more success and avoids much confusion in processing information in the brain.  When too much is presented at one time, the child becomes confused and bewildered with information and is often not able to sort through it all and classify it to “file it away” in the mind for future use.  

         It takes understanding on the part of the parent or teacher to know how much to expect children to grasp at one time and still feel successful.  New teachers have been told, “Don’t try to teach them all you know on the first day!”  We need to give information in doses that can be processed in a manner for the child to feel successful.  It is difficult to do this when we think of how very much a child needs to know to survive in our culture.  When teachers are expected to cover a certain amount of material in a certain amount of time, it becomes tempting to speed up to get through the lessons.  It is counterproductive to do so.  It is as if children start “putting on the brakes” when pressure rather than success is felt. No matter what society demands of a person, forcing a child to learn when that child is not ready is like trying to force a flower to bloom.

         Some parents and teachers can readily sense when a child is feeling successful and others seem to go blindly along never knowing when a child is feeling good or bad about something.  Love is the quality that gives understanding.  We need to love the ones with whom we are working.  When we really care, we will want children to succeed and make efforts to teach accordingly.   

Questions Stimulate Thinking

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by Pat Lamb (www.patlambchristianauthor.com) Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book

Train up a child…..

Questions Stimulate Thinking

       Telling is not teaching.  Many people seem to feel that if they have told a child something, the child has learned it.  Not true! When a child is told something, or for that matter when any of us are told something, our first response may be, “Well, maybe that is true and maybe it is not true”.  There may even be resistance to being told something, especially if there is even a hint of animosity toward the one doing the telling.

         A much better way to get ideas across is to ask questions.  Any time someone is asked a question, thought processes are required for the person to answer.  The person being asked must weigh in his/her own mind the pros and cons of the point being addressed.  This requires the consideration of many facets of a topic and eventually the person comes up with a conclusion on his/her own.  It is only when we genuinely believe something that we act upon it.  The belief has to become a part of us before it truly affects behavior.  Otherwise, a child being told something may act on it temporarily out of fear or respect for parents or those doing the telling.  When they later are no longer under the control of that person, they may not continue the required behavior. When children become teenagers, if they have already concluded certain things, they will not stop acting accordingly.  Those teenagers who have simply been told to act a certain way and have not come to the conclusion on their own, may completely throw away those principles.

         How do we go about asking questions or what kind of questions do we ask?

         Children need to be asked many “why” questions.  Very young children need to be asked simple questions such as “Why do we wear a coat on cold days?”  Their answers may include things such as to keep from feeling cold, to keep from being sick, to do what others are doing, etc.  Other follow-up questions might be: “What happens to us if we don’t wear coats when it is cold?” “Remember when you were sick last year? Did you forget to wear your coat before that and you got really cold? “With these questions, the child begins to see the connection between keeping warm and getting sick. If he/she has come to that conclusion, in the future the child is more likely to wear a coat without being told.

         In elementary school, questions need to be asked such as, “What happens to people when they use illegal drugs?  Do they affect the mind?  Why do you think those drugs are illegal?  Do many people end up in prison because of drug usage?  What is happening in places where many people use drugs? As children ponder these questions, they begin to conclude that it is going to be harmful to them to use drugs.

         Other questions that can be used over and over are: “Why did you do what you did? How do you think that would make you feel? How do you think the other person feels?” The more probing the questions, the more thinking there is involved.

         True learning has not taken place until a person acts out automatically the principle being taught. Until that happens, we need to keep teaching that principle.

Patience: A Characteristic of Love

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Train up a child…

Patience:  A Characteristic of Love

         If asked, “Do you love your children?” most parents without hesitation would reply, “Yes, I love my children!”  Most parents probably do think that they love their children.  However, when we examine the true definition of love, we might find ourselves falling short in this area.  

         If we examine definitions of love, we find that the 13thchapter of I Corinthians in the Bible lists the qualities present when there is love.  One of those qualities listed is patience.

         Do we have patience with our children?  In the hurry and scurry of everyday living, we can easily expect too much too soon from those around us.  It is not easy to wait for children to develop skills and make decisions at their own pace.  We sometimes forget that we cannot force a flower to bloom.  With plants, we water, nourish, and prune but the growth comes from within the plant.  So it is with children.  We nourish, and prune (discipline) and provide experiences and advice, but we cannot force the child to grow.  That growth comes from within the child.

         Unfortunately, some parents have a fixed image in mind of what they want the child to be when he/she grows up.  We have all heard of the football player who wants a son to be a football star, etc. In such a situation, the parent may be very impatient and take out his own disappointment on the child.  We need to realize that certain traits are inherent in children at birth.  Again, using gardening as an example, we cannot change a carrot to a radish; we can only try to develop a better carrot or radish.  With children, we need to cultivate those good tendencies or skills that came with them at birth.  We waste time and cause much frustration when we try to force children to be something other than what they are capable of.  We need to be patient as we help them develop into what their Creator designed them for.  

         It is important in the matter of discipline to be able to discern the difference between a mistake and intentional belligerence.  We would be naïve to think that children are born with only good intentions. Intentional belligerence requires immediate discipline.  Mistakes of a child, on the other hand, require our patience and teaching. Probably every child needs admonition at one time or another.  When our children are intentionally naughty, even though we must discipline them, we need to be patient in understanding that they are no different from other kids in that respect.  We should never make a child feel that there is no hope for improvement. I’ve known some parents who seem to really just grind their children down until the child feels there is no hope. Our patience with them gives hope. Without hope, children may either give up or become rebellious.  

         We can’t expect children to be as accomplished as we are.  We have several years of learning ahead of them.  When they seem awkward and break things, it may be because they are growing longer arms and legs and haven’t learned to adjust to the extra size yet.  When they don’t make the right decisions, it may be because they haven’t acquired all the facts and understanding they need to make those decisions.

         Patience is more than a virtue.  Patience is an indication of real love.

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