It is well-known that parents play an important role in their children’s education, particularly in encouraging learning and using positive reinforcement when a child has done well. Teachers argue that ‘learning should not finish when a child leaves school’ and ‘with parents on board it is much easier to help students reach their potential.’
Research has shown that when schools and families work together to encourage a child’s education:
- Children do better
- Stay in school longer
- Are more engaged with their schoolwork
- Go to school more regularly
- Behave better
- Have better social skills.
That’s why we think family engagement, of not only parents, but siblings and grandparents - is beneficial for a child’s learning journey. Alongside this long list of acclaimed benefits for family engagement, we would add that learning as a family ensures children can become confident in their support system. Therefore, they will not hesitate to ask for help when they need it.
That’s why at Love Writing Co. we think it’s so important to make learning a family activity and to make it fun! Children can then take the positive associations they’ve garnered from learning at home into the classroom.
Not only that, studies show the importance of peers in a child’s understanding of others minds and emotions in their early development. By engaging more than just parental figures in your child’s learning journey, you are helping develop their emotional and cognitive skills and sense of social understanding.
4 Ways to Get the Family Involved in Your Child’s Learning Journey
1. Encourage your child to show family members their work
Not only could this be sticking their drawings on the fridge, but showing their grandparents what they did for their homework or a completed page in one of their workbooks. By praising the results of their learning, it will encourage your child to want to learn again to receive this positive reinforcement.
2. Make Learning a Hobby - not a chore!
Grandparents looking after your little one this weekend? Why not pack them up with their Love Writing Learning to Write Pack to keep them occupied! Filled with fun and engaging activities that encourage the correct tripod grip and better handwriting, it is bound to keep your little one entertained. Despite the educational benefits of our packs, they’re designed with children in mind to make learning as fun as possible - with a variety of fun tracing exercises and colouring pictures to add variation to their learning journey. Our reward stickers are also a hit with little ones, as they give children a greater sense of achievement. 
3. Suggest siblings learn together
It goes without saying that encouraging older siblings to get involved in a child’s learning has positive benefits for your child. Children may be able to tell their siblings things they might not want to tell their parents. Are they having trouble at school, are they struggling with a specific subject? It might be easier for them to confide this to a sibling, which will make their sibling bond stronger in the long run.
Watch sisters Elsie & Freya enjoy learning together with our Love Writing Co. packs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbqoHV5KRTY&t=31s
4. Engage in sensory play
Through engaging in sensory play with a parent, sibling or grandparent a child can have active fun whilst learning about the world around them. Some ideas for sensory play could be a toy animal washing station, making cloud dough or making an inedible ‘soup’ with what they can find in the garden. Whilst you give your child the gift of learning, they’ll be giving you wonderful memories to treasure for years to come.
Check out our Pinterest board for more Sensory Play ideas:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/lovewritingco/sensory-play/