All children develop at their rate, and it’s important to accept them and help where you can. Just in the same way that you as a parent will only have so much energy you can give your children, which is why doing the best you can and not berating yourself for not being a super-mom every day is a healthy approach to take.

So, to care for our children and help their educational development, the tasks and extracurricular efforts we undertake must always be sustainable, and relatively comforting to implement.

You shouldn’t have to spend four hours a night going over every lesson from school, or trying to teach them every skill possible, as this isn’t conducive to a healthy childhood. Instead, you can share wonderful experiences, as well as the values and principles you appreciate.

Here’s what that might look like:

Nurture A Loving & Secure Environment

Many people think child development comes from parents by making their little ones do two hours of voluntary homework a night, or by making sure they test their kid’s general knowledge or any number of (frankly unnecessary) added efforts to impress more schoolwork onto them. The most important thing you could ever give them is a loving, secure, stable, and encouraging household. That should be priority one. It will help any child, regardless of ability, spread their wings a little further.

Establish Consistent Routines

Routines are everything for children. From going to bed and waking up at the same time, eating at regular times, to knowing when they should get up and brush their teeth before bed, a million little tasks throughout the years will be best predicated on routine. Your child has a much higher chance of doing homework if you schedule an hour after they come home and play a little for it. Little techniques like this provide the first benefit we discussed – stability, and stability is all.

Learning Through Play

Children, for the most part, learn through a variety of methods. This might include audiovisual learning at school, kinetic learning (a hands-on approach), or it could be simply listening to a teacher telling them about a subject at the front of the room. But one method that nearly all children learn through is play.

That’s why they play with dolls – it’s not because Barbie or the dolls-house can do a thousand things at once, it’s because they serve as a conduit for them to play and experiment with social relationships and scenarios in a totally free environment.

So, incorporating play into how you help them with their academic necessities can be a great boon, be that through letter sound games, heading to fun museums designed for kids, heading on trips out, or having fun with arts and crafts. This also serves as a wonderful bonding opportunity for parent and child, so it will surely benefit you, also.

With this advice, you’re certain to help your child develop through the healthiest means possible. Just because a practice is easy doesn’t mean it’s lesser, in fact, it often implies reliability.