Five Easy Ways to Encourage Learning

As an involved parent, you want to make sure that your kids are learning all the time — not just when they’re in the classroom. With these five tips, you can empower your kids to become all-the-time learners who can’t wait to explore another book or discover a new nugget of knowledge.

1. Offer rewards.

Having kids who crave learning sounds great, but that doesn’t always come naturally to children. At first, your students may need some coaxing. Rewards to the rescue! Help your kids set a goal, and then provide an incentive to achieve it. When they read for a certain length of time or get through a set number of pages, you can reward them with a digital badge, a new book, or an encouraging note. They’ll develop a reading habit as they work toward their goals.

2. Use audiobooks.

Parents sometimes worry that audiobooks are “cheating.” For many kids, though, listening to audiobooks is just the thing to get them hooked on literacy. Plus, audiobooks have a variety of benefits for kids. They can help grow their vocabulary, improve their reading comprehension, and develop their imaginative skills.

3. Expect automatic feedback.

Quizzes and questions encourage kids to pay close attention and think critically as they read. Of course, as a busy parent, you don’t want to get bogged down with checking your children’s enrichment assignments. Make life easy on yourself by providing self-checking resources, such as digital books with built-in quizzes. Your kids will appreciate the immediate feedback, and you’ll appreciate not needing to be involved.

4. Make it digital.

Kids don’t want their weekend enrichment activities to feel like an extension of school. Leave pencils and paper for the classroom and use digital resources instead. Learning can come through many different formats, including child-safe video clips, digital news articles, online games, interactive maps, and more.

5. Provide freedom.

Kids appreciate independence. They may be more willing to engage in educational activities if they feel they have some control over the process. By providing access to a comprehensive online program like LightSail, you can give your kids the freedom to explore. At the same time, you can rest assured that their LightSail engagement is time well-spent.

In fact, LightSail for Home can be the perfect partner for all five of these tips. Our extensive libraries offer audiobooks, videos, encyclopedia articles, and more. The interactive quizzes provide immediate feedback for your young learners, and you can offer digital rewards to motivate your kids every step of the way.