By Guest Blogger Leon Collier

Helping your child become wisely informed is quite important in today’s era. Children get their information from multiple sources, so they should know how to distinguish the accuracy of the data available to them. If they’re not taught how to select what they believe in, kids can be easily misinformed. It’s therefore crucial to teach your children to become independent learners. When they are properly taught where to look up the right information and how to select it based on logic, things get clearer. Kids become more intelligent and therefore, wiser.

In any case, teaching children how to grow as independent learners can be challenging. The efforts are, of course, worth the outcome, as long as you are prepared for the teaching process. As a parent, your job might not be as easy as you think. You might want to point them in the desired direction, but they might not want to listen. You might want to show them ‘how it’s done,’ but they might not care. The key point is repetition. The more you repeat, the more they learn, even if it’s at a subconscious level.

Teach them why independent learning is important

The first step is helping them understand the big why. Giving them adequate, strong reasons for why they should believe you is important. It is indeed part of the process – you are encouraging them to question everything, so questioning their parents’ claims should be the first thing they learn. Once you teach them that:

• Learning how to learn will help them learn faster and save precious time
• Internal satisfaction comes from knowledge
• Knowledge is power and independent thinking is the way to get there
• Curiosity is a must to live an exciting life,

You’re good to follow the next step of the process. In the meantime, answer any questions they might have.

For ideas on how to help students enjoy studying, check out this infographic by James Corbyn | writer and blogger at IvyPanda

Trust your child

Teaching without trusting is paradoxical – it cannot truly happen. I’m sure all professional essay writers would agree with this statement. You must develop confidence in your child to teach them how to freely explore the intellectual world. Give them the opportunity to explore and find out what they like for themselves. Don’t place their minds into small boxes. Let them think outside the box and encourage that. Trust them along the way. Children need reassurance that they’re making the right steps at the right time- unless they cross the line, offer them the support that they need. Trust is an important requirement in this process.

Encourage curiosity

Kids are naturally curious about everything – adulthood changes that. If you manage to encourage curiosity from a young age and keep it going, your child will become a curious adult. This is probably one of the best things you could accomplish as a parent since most adults don’t grow up to become curious learners. Discovering new, cool things and exploring new opportunities should be super exciting for them. This is an important milestone in teaching them how to become independent learners.

Encourage creativity

Creativity is an essential quality, especially when referring to problem-solving. Once your kid learns how to explore and create new worlds of his/her own, they’ll find quick solutions more easily. You could encourage creativity by teaching them how to craft, draw, knit, dance, sing, etc. The more creative activities they immerse in the more opportunities to develop a broad mindset. The broader their mindset, the smarter and sharper they become. Having worked as an essay papers editor for students, I know that their minds can be influenced from a young age. For students whose parents taught them how to think independently, their essay grades would always be higher. This process is interesting to observe and track throughout the years, as research now shows us.

Carefully listen to them

Kids speak out their minds – and when they don’t, their behavior clearly does. So, make sure you listen to your kid carefully. Give them the opportunity to challenge your teaching methods and accommodate their needs. If they don’t enjoy learning about a certain topic, find out why. Keep an open communication window between you and your child to understand where they are coming from. Disregarding their thoughts hurts the independent learning process in many ways. To learn how to think independently, they must be heard and listen to accordingly. Make sure you’re giving them the opportunity to do so.

Teach them how to self-evaluate

For your kid to be able to learn how to learn, they must first learn how to evaluate their work. Your feedback is always helpful, but the evaluation should not stop there. You should teach them how to evaluate themselves properly. Let them discover how well or poorly they did and make them understand why. Don’t punish them for doing worse than they thought they could. Teach them that keeping themselves to a certain standard is good as long as they are not hurting their self-worth. Let them know that self-evaluation is key in progressing quickly throughout life. Help them recognize their success, as well as their failures. Teach them how to learn from failure and not be beaten down by it.

Set future goals constantly

Some tasks or assignments might be useful to your child but more boring than anything. If they cannot focus on the task at hand, that’s because they don’t understand the reason behind it. So, teach them instead of punishing them – that’s part of teaching open communication. Make sure they understand how this slower part of the process will add to the bigger picture. Setting future goals is a great way to do this. Show them how the skills they are acquiring now will play an important role in future endeavors, and show them how much easier they could get to their desired goals by learning the skill at hand.

Check with the teacher

Last but not least, don’t forget to check with the teacher constantly. Your kid might become a truly independent learner, but that does not mean that they should be excluded from school assignments, let alone be considered a rebel. Let the teacher know your teaching method and work out a plan that fits both schedules.

Wrapping Up

Teaching your kid how to become an independent learner is an essential part of their growing up process. Make sure you note all the ideas above and add your own personal touch to the matter. Keep your children growing smart and sharp, will you? Good luck!

Author Bio: Leon Collier is a dissertation help instructor from the UK, who offers the best professional essay writers services. He loves writing college essay papers on every topic, from pop-culture, history, travel, and self-development, to education, and marketing. When not writing, you can find him behind a book or playing tabletop games with his friends. Follow him on Twitter @LeonCollier12

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash