My husband and I have been blessed with twin boys in 2015. We were both surprised in the delivery room because we merely assumed that I was only carrying one child. Before that, we asked the doctor not to reveal the gender of the baby (or in our case, babies), and she agreed, a bit too happy to do so. Little did we know that she already saw two fetuses in my womb and practiced how to say, “Here are your newborns!” for some time.
Of course, we were overjoyed because our family of two doubled in less than a year of our marriage. Before my doctor allowed me to go home, my husband already went shopping and bought two of every baby product he could find, starting from car seats to bassinets to clothes. Luckily, we decided to wait until after my childbirth because we had no idea if we would have a girl or boy.
The experience of parenting twins has mostly been a positive one. The boys were both very calm and giggly; they loved baths and lullabies. Objective speaking, I thought that they would grow up to become smart kids, considering they seemed to be memorizing everything at a young age.
Before the twins celebrated their first birthday, they had already taken their first steps and could say “Mama” and “Dada.” After letting them watch shows that taught children how to recognize letters and numbers, my husband brought home rubber mats with letters and numbers. When I showed ‘A’ to the boys, I was sure I heard them say the letter, although their pronunciation was still not clear. When I tried again and raised the number 4, they uttered the correct word again. The entire family was incredibly amazing, knowing that some children were not as advanced as our twins. Thus, we could not wait until they turned five years old and became old enough to pre-school.
As expected, my sons were supposed to start going to pre-school after the summer of 2020. My husband and I already picked a great school not too far from home last year and even fixed our schedules so that we could always collect them from pre-school together. Unfortunately, it appears now that our plans need to wait a little longer because of the coronavirus that has been lurking around everywhere.
When I spoke to the principal about it, the kind woman said we did not need to postpone the kids’ education. She uttered, “We offer online classes at every level. However, since the teachers cannot meet the students in person, the parents must step up to the plate and become the kids’ tutor until the pandemic ends.”
I relayed the information to my husband, and he was on board with the idea. Still, we had the same question: “How can parents effectively tutor young children?”
Here are a few suggestions I received.
Start With The Favorite Subjects
The first thing you should do is figure out which subjects your kids like — or will like — the most. We noticed that the boys are chirpiest in our little family when they could identify numbers and letters. They were excellent at knowing the names of different objects, too.
Once you know the kids’ favorite subjects, they should be the first ones you focus on. This way, your children will undoubtedly give the lessons their full attention.
Be Creative With Examples
When it is time to tackle the subjects that they are not interested in, you need to be creative with your examples. Otherwise, the children will try to do anything but listen to you.
Considering my twins are not tracing letters and numbers, I decided to spice things up by giving them differently colored pens. We also have a mini blackboard in the house where they can trace the dots with colorful chalks. Sometimes, I would give them green peas and beans and line them up like the traceable dots, and then I’d ask the boys to complete the letters and numbers with carrot slices. They started to feel interested in it in no time.
Study When The Kids Are In The Mood To Learn
My husband and I also made sure to tutor the kids when they seemed more curious than ever. We never tried to teach them anything when they were not in the mood to learn because it would never work.
The best window for learning in our household is typically before lunchtime. That’s when the kids have a lot of energy and want to do many things at once. So, if they want to play in the backyard, for instance, we go there and ask them to count to plants, identify the flowers’ colors, etc.
Final Thoughts
Tutoring youngsters in the family may not always be easy-peasy, but we are grateful to continue teaching our kids. Nonetheless, we hope for the pandemic to end soon so that our twin boys will meet their new classmates and experience the joys of becoming full-bloom pre-schoolers.