Seven Rules

Posted by Joyce Olson, 8/29/03 at 10:02:11 PM. Several years ago, a very talented, retired first grade teacher, Julia Brady Ratcliff, from Tulsa, Oklahoma wrote an early literacy news column for the Albion News. Even though Julia is no longer in the classroom, she now concentrates her teaching on the first steps of life when parents and grandparents are the primary teachers. Julia's writings can be found at the First Step Internet link. Julia's Seven Rules for Parents follows:

Teach naturally in the course of everyday life. Your child sits up, crawls, and walks with your loving help and encouragement and will speak, read and become a good person the same way.

Be ever ready for adventure, for the teachable moment. An adventure is something you plan for your child like sharing milk and cookies, like a new pet or a new book from the library. An adventure can also come upon your child unaware, a beautiful sunset, a chickadee at the bird feeder or the first flower of spring.

Know what you want your child to know. To teach reading, you have to understand how to speak correctly and how Enlgish spelling works. To teach numbers, you have to know how to count and how to add and subtract. To teach your child to be a good person, you have to understand goodness and you have to live your understanding.

Keep lessons short and sweet. Stop before your child wants to stop. Be positive and loving. Your child will want to learn if you make it pleasurable, if success is experienced. So teach, then teach again another day. If there is trouble, try something else.

Repeat and repeat. Learning is assured with enough repetition. The key to good teaching is to vary the repetition and bring all the senses into play.

Teach your child with your touch and your voice. Your child must have food and touch and must experience them in the midst of the rhythms of everyday life. You must make eye contact with your child as you teach. Learning must be mental, physical and spiritual.

Give your child time alone with toys and books. Your child needs to be able to try, try, and try again. Your child needs to have time to fail, fail, fail and then succeed. Your touch and your voice are powerful rewards. Success after failure is equally powerful.