Do you remember the last time you learned a new skill? Maybe it was knitting or playing an instrument or writing for a blog. Do you remember how awkward it felt when you first tried it? Uncomfortable…huh. Now do you remember what you had to do to get good at that skill? Let me guess. I bet you had to practice, right?
We often gripe about having to practice something daily. We often hear our children complain when we remind them to practice something daily like math facts or piano. Yet practice is one of the essential tools of learning. Here are some why’s and how’s to practicing.
The Importance of Practice
Why Practice
Aristotle said, “it is frequent repetition that produces a natural tendency.” Even thousands of years ago, humans recognized that one perfects a skill through repetition.
Today, science has proven that repetition helps learning. It creates new neural pathways in the brain. This makes a skill seem effortless after a time. Think about the first time you tried to drive. It was difficult, right? You were probably thinking constantly about what you should or shouldn’t be doing. Now you can do it with almost no effort. Why? Because you have been doing it for years and it has become almost automatic.
Here’s something even more interesting about practice. A study by Harvard Medical School discovered that practicing a skill in your mind without actually doing it brings about learning. That’s pretty amazing.
One last thing. Practicing with the desire and intent to improve is more beneficial than simply going through the steps over and over. That’s because the mind is more actively engaged.
How Practice Can Benefit Your Homeschool
Let’s take a look at where you can use practice and repetition to help your children learn, and how you can make it more enjoyable for them.
Math
Repetition can help your child learn skip counting and math facts. You can make it more fun through activities like songs, computer games, and card games. I have some more suggestions for this here: How to Make Learning Math Facts More Fun.
Reading
Beginning readers benefit from reading the same stories more than once. It builds fluency. So feel free to let your children (of any age) reread their favorite stories as many times as they like.
Writing
I know that some kids don’t like to write. Yet doing it regularly actually helps a child to improve on this valuable skill. Now that doesn’t mean you should have your child writing a report every week. He’ll get burnt out on reports really fast. He can, however, have fun writing for a variety of projects including some that are of interest to him. If you want some ideas for projects, check out these posts.
30 Practical Writing Ideas for Everyday Use
30 Creative Writing Ideas to Inspire Your Child
20 Writing Projects for Your Homeschool Family to Do Together
Foreign Language
If you want your children to read, write, listen to, or speak any language well, they have to do it on a daily basis. Really, the easiest way to teach your children a foreign language is to have the whole family learn it and practice it together. It can be quite fun to use the new language in your daily conversations whenever you can. That doesn’t mean you have to use complete sentences. You can jump in and out of a language in midsentence. When I lived in Texas, I heard bilingual speakers do that all of the time. So feel free to throw in a palabra or two in your conversations para practicar. Before you know it, you’ll be fluent.
Art and Music
These two subjects involve not only using the mind, but the body as well. Drawing, coloring, painting, singing and playing an instrument are all kinesthetic activities. In order to get good at any of those skills, your child will have to practice them on a regular basis. How often depends on the level of skill you want your child to have and his level of interest with the subject. Typically, if it is something your child really enjoys, he’ll do it until the cows come home. If not, you may have a little struggle.
I know your kids will hate me for saying this (mine certainly do). Practice really does work for acquiring a new skill. It is one and only one of the many tools you can use for helping your kids learn.
Did you find this post about the importance of practice helpful? If you did, please share it with others who can benefit from it.
Many blessings,
