Who is the child, what are the feelings of the child and how the child thinks in the first years of school (2)
In the first years of school, the child widens his circle of communication, becomes more and more dexterous, knows how to write, read, calculate and learns many new things. He controls his body well, which helps him to practice different types of sports. During this period, the child is more and more interested in his peers, makes friends and gradually becomes more independent.
If you try to see things through the child's eyes, you will understand why sometimes he is full of energy and happiness, and other times he becomes bored and depressed or nervous. When you think about how much pressure a 6-7-year-old child is under, you understand that he needs constant support and encouragement. You can help him by structuring and following a daily schedule, ensuring that he eats properly, has time to rest, does enough homework and have time fto play with friends.
Every day, the child's schedule must include the time dedicated to the homework. For this activity to become a habit, you need to help him start it. That doesn't mean doing his homework. If necessary, be prepared to sit at the table with the child and help him understand what tasks he has to complete. When he cannot manage on his own, help him only after he has made a few attempts on his own and asks for your help.
Get involved in your child's school life
Regardless of his school success, when he comes home after lessons, the child needs support, understanding, appreciation and a lot of encouragement. If you meet him with, “what grades did you get today?”, he might not feel like you really care about his life. Ask what he did at school, what was the funniest thing, the scariest, interesting, sad, etc.
Being a student is not just grades and academic performance. It means many other behaviours, while the grades that children receive at school are numbers that speak only about the level of schooling success. Grades do not completely determine who the child is, his personality. His communication skills with peers, his social skills are not graded, says the psychologist Tatiana Turchină. “It is possible to have children who, from an academic point of view, have good grades, but from the perspective of social and emotional intelligence, have less developed abilities. As well, we can have children with lower grades and lower achievements, but come up with good ideas regarding some projects or solutions to some life problems, can be a good leader in the process of organizing activities”, explains Tatiana Turchina.
Cooperation between teachers and parents
In order to support the child at school, it is important to get to know the teacher. The child spends a large part of the day at school, the teachers know him well, they can see the difficulties he encounters and can give you advice on how to communicate with him. And you know the child. If you exchange ideas, teachers will also be more prepared to help the child.
Teachers are the ones who discover the child from other perspectives. Especially, the primary school teacher. He is the one who is around the child for four years and is a very important figure in discovering the child’s potential. The parent can come and tell the teacher about the child, what he is doing, how he should be approached, what can motivate him. The teacher, on the other hand, can discover other aspects that the parent does not observe at home. In the secondary schools, the key figure is the principal.
“If the parent considers that it would be good for the teacher to know some aspects, related to the child's health or early development events, he must communicate them. The principal, on the other hand, is welcome to communicate to the parentsif he notices certain fluctuations in the child's behaviour, avoiding destructive criticism and judgment. During the discussion with the parent, the principal will try to understand what made that child act like this, live those emotions, understand what needs were not met, what was in the child’s mind, what he could feel at that specific moment and how the child should be approached in the future. It is about an open collaboration in the direction of development, discovery and not in the direction of blaming the child for misbehaviour. A lot of things happen during adolescence. It could be that children have emotional outbursts that no one expected”, concludes Tatiana Turchină.
The materials in the column “My child, alone at home” are part of the project “Family in migration: protecting the rights of transnational families in Europe – Moldova”, developed by the Child Rights Information Centre with the support of Fondazione L'Albero della Vita. The opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect the point of view of the funding agency.
