What things do you do to support your child's education?

[BigFishontheTelly]

I wasn't well supported at home, growing up.

I am determined to help my child in any way I can. We read everyday, talk about current affairs, do a bit of maths and spellings. Dh is showing him how to play the piano.

I am quite interested in education (as a lay person. I don't have any expertise!). I just wondered how other people support their child's learning.

Nursery rhymes and daily reading from birth
Social activities from birth including music, baby/toddler gym and French club.
Encouraging learning through structured play - colours, numbers, patterns, letters, sounds, behaviours, life skills such as cleaning and cooking, money etc.
Theatre trips to children’s shows, library story time, lots of outdoor activities like woodland walks, swimming, fell walking.
Chose a fairly academic nursery from 2.5 years approx. Reading encouraged, musical instruments from 4, French club every week, church attendance, swimming lessons. Taught to ride bicycles, to hike reasonable distances, to read music, to be interested and to question through visits to museums, to art galleries, on holidays.
Opportunity to mix with children with a range of special needs, from diverse backgrounds and living different lives.
Supporting school. Prioritising achievement. A structured routine of extracurricular activities. Setting clear expectations and rewarding efforts and achievements. Ensuring they learnt to fail in small ways, to know they could cope with challenge.
Building a work ethic and intrinsic sense of pride early so there weren’t many teenage battles around school work.
Moving to ensure good school options. Encouragement for activities that provided excitement, measured risk taking, commitment, service to others and appropriate peers with similar family values and aspirations.
Taking active interest in school and getting to know staff well. Getting to know other parents at secondary. Welcoming friends to house for work and safe socialising such as tennis or swimming.
Maintaining boundaries and allowing them to remain children throughout childhood.
Refusing to bow to peer pressure for things like television in bedrooms, hanging around in parks, going to beach in large groups, driving in other children’s cars.
Arranging good work experience opportunities and allowing them to have an ambition that they were supported to achieve in every way possible.
Trusting them with things like international travel for work experience or volunteering.
Maintaining the fun in learning and bringing school projects/ learning to life. Things like two days exploring the River Tamar for a Rivers project, going to the Globe to see Shakespeare, Driving around Moss side and Altrincham for geography GCSE to consider inner cities and suburban spread, visiting France regularly from nursery and Spain from Year 7 onwards for good French and Spanish GCSE grades.

Shitloads. Too much to list here, and tbh I don't know why others have bothered writing extensive lists.

Most parents do the things mentioned here.

"Chose a fairly academic nursery from 2.5 years approx."

Nice.

Agreed.

Young children learn through play.

I have no idea whether my DD is at an academic nursery and her CM is not an academic. However both follow the EYFS framework, my CM's adult children have degrees and they both seem to be child led with their teaching.

I would say the exact opposite of this 😆

DS is home educated due to SEN so I'm solely responsible for his education (and social life, which is harder tbh).

I make sure he does some maths and some writing each day. Lately we've had a strong focus on handwriting.

He does some kind of organised activity each day: Art class, philosophy club, history club (which I organise and run), drama club, academic support sessions, ASD meet up.

Other than that he has a very strong interest in history so we watch documentaries, talk about history, visit museums I read aloud to him from popular history books. I buy him kids books about history. I run that bloody history club. I will be spending my Sunday shopping for tissue paper to make viking wedding crowns.

There was a thread on here once about home Ed and someone said "Lots of parents do that stuff anyway at evenings and weekends". This is absolutely true. He can't handle a full school day so it's like he's only doing the "extras" that another kid might manage on top of a day at school.

DD goes to school. Its Gaelic medium education and they don't do reading and writing in English yet. I make her read an English Reading book to me each morning. Then her Gaelic reading book at night. I'm not good at getting the homework done otherwise (Bad Mum!)

She does after school clubs: MMA, drama club, Brownies. In particular, I send her to academic support sessions with Into University, which is fantastic if you meet the criteria (It's aimed at families on a low income). It's really helping with the English side of things. It's also good for getting a broader education as they cover a different "University subject" each term, adapted for primary level. She's done Chemistry, ancient civilisations and Astronomy so far.

DD likes art so I make sure she has art and craft supplies, buy her how-to-draw books and books on different artists.

Tbh: It's not the specific things that are important though. It's more the sharing of an interest. Take an interest in what they're into. Share your interests with them. That's the stuff that will stick.

I'm not a parent but a teacher. 1. Praise effort, not result.

2. Resilience is key - and this is something universities and businesses say is lacking; one bad mark/comment and young people crumble.

3. You are their role models. They need to see you reading for pleasure, being proud of the effort you put into something even if you fail etc. Seeing male role models read for pleasure especially if you've a boy.

1. Critical thinking. "Why did you like/not like that book/game/film?" Not "Did you like it?" Their opinions are valid and should be encouraged. "Why do you know that info off tiktok is true?" Show them how to 'research' validity of info, especially stuff online.
2. Academic intelligence is not the be all and end all. Emotional intelligence, social intelligence etc are just as important. Make sure they know that and don't just judge themselves on school marks. Seen not being academic crush too many teenagers who are fabulous human beings that were full of potential. 6. University is not a guarantee of a happy life or better salary/job so don't treat it as such.

Does academic not allow experiential learning through play? Probably more so than your average all day from birth nursery.

It followed Reggio Emilia principles of driving curiosity in children. Lots of guided play, lots of exposure to language, science, maths. Brilliant place that also offered French through play, encouraged children who were ready to read and write, taught music but also took them crabbing, used the local rowing boat ferry for beach trips, took them swimming, did cooking and ballet.

Learning doesn't have to ge dull. Ours certainly thrived in a way that making spider pictures with a nursery assistant dipping your hand in paint for you would have allowed.

Really sad you don't know what your nursery is offering in terms of learning. There is a huge gulf between top and bottom providers of EYFS opportunities.

Honestly, in my experience, a nursery that styles itself as ‘academic’ is not going to provide the same sort of deep immersive play opportunities that a nursery that is all about play will. I have sent my kids to both, and neither was from birth - both were from age 3. Nor would either even contemplate that sort of adult led ‘art’ that you refer to.

That’s not to say that ‘academic’ nurseries can’t be wonderful places. Your kids’ nursery sounds very lovely. But ultimately if you are promising parents ballet/cooking/etc etc etc then you are going to be timetabling the kids, and that wouldn’t be my first choice for that age group, because goodness knows there will be plenty of it to come. But horses for courses really. I did find your use of the word ‘academic’ in relation to nursery a strange choice.

I'm a primary teacher and a mum (oldest is in 20s, youngest is 12).
Most importantly I made sure my DC got plenty of sleep and woke in the morning with time to get breakfast and get ready without rushing.
Daily reading, no screens in the bedroom and no phones overnight. No social media whilst in primary. DH and I made time to be around when they were doing homework and always went to parents evenings.
These things sound pretty basic, but it's amazing how many parents don't do these things.

Lovely. Thanks everyone.