Bring Up Two Sons

This is an article from Parents.com (America’s family magazine). It reminds me about some simple strategies to nurture the kind of kid who love to learn. I totally agree all of the points the author (Ginny Graves) made in the article. Here I extract some of the points for sharing and for my future reviewing. Read this article in Parents.com.

1. Share Your Passion: Talk to your child about interesting things you’ve learned. Explain in simple terms what happened and why you found it so interesting.
2. Surround Her with Books. Consistent access to books can increase a child’s motivation to raed.
3. Build on Your Child’s Natural Interests
4. Know When To Back Off. Those who have the most motivated children didn’t micromanage or pressure their kids. They let their children figure things out for themselves, while still showing their support.
5. Ask the Right Questions. If you want your child to stay excited about learning, it’s much better to engage him in an active inquiry than to ask him to spit out routine knowledge.
6. Avoid Rewards. Offering kids a prize for doing something can actually undermine their pleasure in the activity.
7. Focus on the Process, Not the Outcome.

The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting by Laurence Steinberg

I brought and read the Chinese translation version of this book when I was in Taiwan this July. After scanning the book around one hour in a bookshop, I found the ten principles of good parenting convincing, so I decided to buy it and read the whole book. Here are the 10 basic principles.

1. What you do matters.
2. You cannot be too loving.
3. Be involved in your child’s life.
4. Adapt your parenting to fit your child.
5. Establish and set rules.
6. Foster your child’s independence.
7. Be consistent.
8. Avoid harsh discipline.
9. Explain your rules and decisions.
10. Treat your child with respect.

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