Education begins at home

I was very fortunate to have a dad who was involved in my education. In the third grade, I struggled with math. I had trouble with the times table. Dad was an electrical engineer and worked for the State of Iowa almost all of his career.

When I was in the third grade, teletypes were the form of communication back then and dad brought home scrap paper to write out problems for me to work on. Every night he would give me a half page of 8 ? by 11 paper which had several multiplication problems written out.

I would go through the problems and solve them. The practice helped me tremendously and math quickly become a favorite subject.

If I didn’t have that help from my dad, I don’t think I would have ever got a grasp on math.

My dad also read to us every night, reading from “The Bobbsey Twins” series. We followed the lives of Bert, Nan, Freddie and Flossie. Every night, the four of us would pile into my dad’s lap, anxiously waiting to hear what those kids were up to next.

From the experience, I developed a love of reading. As a teenager, I snuck into my closet that had a light and read for hours when I was supposed to be sleeping. The stories would develop in my mind as I read them and it was all I could do to put the book down and go to bed.

When I had children, I started reading to them when they were six months old. As they got older, we would take turns reading. I read “The BoxCar Children”, another favorite of mine, and I started reading that to them after they outgrew the toddler stage. They soon developed their own preferences and soon I was reading Roald Dahl books like “James and the Giant Peach.”

Both of my boys who are now in their 30’s love to read. They just don’t necessarily read what I read.

I now read non-fiction books as well as fiction books. Some of my favorite authors these days are C.J. Box, Craig Johnson and James Patterson.

I am currently reading “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

My husband is also an avid reader. He reads books about artists and he also enjoys C.J. Box. He reads those books before me, because he is a much faster reader than I am.

My point to all of this is - our children learn from our habits.

If we, as parents, don’t like to read it is most likely our children won’t enjoy reading.

If we don’t take interest in what our children are learning in school, would our children want to excel?

Education begins at home. It starts with making sure our kids are at school on time. Believe me I know that is a task because I had a child who hated mornings.

It is also making sure our kids are understanding what they are learning in school and being their advocate.

Noone knows a child better than a parent. If a child has homework, make sure they have a place to sit that is quiet and they can ask questions. (This is coming from a person who did her algebra homework in front of the TV.)

If we don’t take our children’s education seriously, why should they?