Hello there. In this short education post, I want to focus on working with young students. The motivation for this post is based on my Mathnasium work where there are times when it is tougher to work with the younger kids from grades 1 to 3 than the high school mathematics students. Helping out the older math students is tough as the material is more algebraic and complex along with trying to remember things from a while back. Working with the young students can be difficult as they can get silly or distracted. They may prefer play over learning.
Young Kids Are Still Growing
Young kids are in the early stages of development and learning. It is best not to expect perfect work habits, attitude, behaviour and skills from the young ones. Patience is very important as it may take a lot of trial and error for kids to produce correct answers. Do praise effort, good behaviour and correct answers from children.
Some Of Them May Not Understand The Value Of Education
Parents and guardians who are willing to invest money into their children's learning and development understand the value of education. Education can be viewed as a seed for the child's mind and character. Unfortunately, some children do not see this nor care about education and their own future. Learning in the eyes of children might be viewed as a chore instead of something as fun as games. Some may not need see the point of learning certain topics. They would ask questions such as: "What is this used for?" and "Why do I have to learn this?". In an effort to keep students interested in learning, I do recommend educational games and motivating examples with real life applications.
The Balance Between Being Strict & Friendly
I do think that there is a balance between being strict with the young students and being friendly. You do not want the kids to do nothing during a paid session but you also have to be friendly so you do not look like a bad guy to the student and parents. The balance between being strict and friendly is not always clear as different kids have different personalities and work ethics. Some parents are okay with teachers being strict with their child when the end goal is for the child to learn. Other parents may prefer a low-stress learning environment with less strict teachers. Adjustments may need to be made for different students.
Excellent post, I think one of the factors is also the confidence that the child can feel with the teacher, if they feel a friendly environment they learn more easily or dare to ask if they do not understand something
I do agree on the friendly environment part. A friendly environment is not just limited to schools. It also applies to workplaces, friendships, martial arts schools, fitness classes, online communities, etc.