Little kids love to emulate their older siblings. It’s just a fact of nature that when a little person sees a big person do something, they want to do it too. They pick up on mannerisms and vocabulary words from their older siblings, they learn how to perform certain basic skills by watching and observing, and this natural tendency to copy-cat can come in handy in your homeschool.
When two-year-old Timmy sees eight-year-old Jimmy reading, he’ll want to do it too. He’ll want to write his name, he’ll want to learn to count, and as he gets older, Jimmy will become one of his main teachers simply through the power of example.
Older children can also be teachers in more concrete ways as well. When my two oldest were still small, my daughter would often sit and read to her little brother and explain the story to him. And three years ago, I got the shock of my life when I discovered that my toddler could read—his older brother had been teaching him, and I didn’t even know it. We were driving down the road one day and my three-year-old started reading road signs as we passed. My older son was exceedingly smug. He said he wanted it to be a surprise—well, it certainly was! Because my younger son admired my older son so much, he was willing to sit, learn, and absorb, and he’s now an exceptionally good reader.
It can also be a tremendous self-esteem booster for an older sibling to have a hand in teaching the younger ones. When my son looks at his little brother and sees him reading, he feels good about himself, knowing that he did that.
Rather than waiting for this natural monkey-see, monkey-do phenomenon to take place in your family, you can encourage it along. You can assign your older children to mentor the younger ones, making it part of their regular school day or putting it on their chore list. They can work on reading skills, play matching games, count, sing the ABC’s – whatever your little guy needs. And the best part? Not only are they helping out and making education a foundation for the things they do throughout the day, but they are building relationships within the family, creating bonds of unity and trust, and this will help reduce rivalry in the home. It’s a win-win all the way around.
Related Blogs:
Teaching Teens about Cooperation
Siblings Can Teach Social Skills
Speech and Debate in Homeschool?