My Teaching Philosophy

As a mother of two daughters, I believe one of my main responsibilities is to teach them about our world.  Every day is an opportunity to teach them something new.  Being so young, teaching moments in our household usually revolve around our daily routines such as cooking dinner, bath time, grocery shopping, folding laundry, or going for a walk.

Sometimes something unique happens (such as a slug crawling on the sidewalk) and it catches our attention.  With childlike curiosity we begin asking ourselves questions like “Do slugs have legs?”, “What does he do when we touch him?”, and “Where does he live?”  On our search for these answers, new questions are spawned and before we know it we are learning about other bugs and insects, insect habitats and the habitats of other animals, and on…and on…

From my experiences I believe that:

• A child is born wired to learn (although each at his own speed)
• Teaching and learning can be fun
• Learning happens best through everyday experiences
• The more avenues to the brain the better (AVK or multisensory approach)
• You should let your child lead (it’s like a dance!)

From birth, a baby is bombarded by new stimuli to his senses.  He starts to process this information and rapidly begins learning.  For example, a baby will quickly learn that by crying he will get picked up or when he pushes the button on a toy, music will be played.  I believe we all come here to learn, but it just occurs at different levels and at different paces for each of us.

I believe that a good teacher is someone who is also learning.  A perfect example is the pollywog experience with my daughter.  Before this, all I really knew was that tadpoles changed into frogs.  I didn’t know much detail about how this happened and had never watched it in person.  I would say that I learned just as much about polliwogs as my daughter from this experience, but most of all we had fun together.

“To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student.”

-Soren Kierkegaard

I’ve never sat my daughter down for a couple hours each day to do drills, flashcards, or anything of the sort.  Everything she knows has just been an extension of our everyday experiences.  For example, I had foam alphabet letters in the bath tub and she learned the alphabet and sounds each letter makes while splashing in the tub.  She learned colors while playing with play dough or painting; learned fruits and vegetables while shopping at the grocery store; learned matching from pairing socks while I folded laundry; learned measurements while helping me cook dinner or bake cookies; and learned basic telling-time skills because we feed our dog at 6 o’clock and her favorite show “Wheel of Fortune” comes on at 7 o’clock.  These are just a few examples, but all serve to show you that it has been through our daily routine that she has learned the foundation of numerous concepts.

I also believe a multisensory approach (also known as AVK) to learning greatly increases a person’s ability to remember information.  People usually have one or two modes of learning that are their strength and especially with young children it is difficult to know what mode of learning is their strength.  By using a multisensory approach, you are covering all bases.  To do this I incorporate sign language, music, and art as much as possible into our daily lives.

Lastly, you should let your child lead.  It truly is like a dance in that I see what my daughter’s interests are as a starting point, and we go from there.  By finding your child’s particular interest you can then incorporate other subjects such as science, math, reading, and history all while it remains fun.  Also, by letting your child lead you are allowing him to learn at his own pace rather than going at your pace.  This is important because you don’t want your child to feel pressured to learn, rather that learning is fun and something he wants to do.  If learning is child-driven then it will be a natural process stemming from a child’s curiosity about the world, and by feeding that desire, you will create a child who develops a love for learning.