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by t-3
1497 days ago
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Just give them some legos, knex or similar toy which will help them intuit many things about mathematics without trying to pressure them to be a top student. Show them interesting books and documentaries about animals, plants, and insects. Parental pressure to succeed is the destroyer of passion and joy in learning. Let your kids be kids and they'll learn what they need to along the way. Are they really going to start learning any science and math to get a head start on in kindergarten anyway? |
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Bingo, bango, bongo. This is the case.
The problem is that children need structure and guidance if they're ever going to do things that aren't just mindless 'fill-time' sort of activities.
We had a hard time with our kids, because we let their interests guide their activities. The problem was - whenever they expressed an interest, external pressure and expectation is that they go ALL IN on whatever it was. Baseball? Better practice with a private coach or else they'll never make the travel team, and you'll never play for your school team at all if you don't do the travel team. Jiu jitsu? Better enroll in private lessons or else they'll never make competition, and you'll never get mat time if you don't join competition.
And it's not that the expectation was that they would immediately rise to the top and be highly competitive. It was the judgment, overt judgment and criticism from other parents when we didn't express an interest in all that nonsense.
The world for young parents is difficult, and it's easy to get sucked into the trap of 'my kid likes this so I should push them as hard as possible'. Because that's the default attitude among most people, from what I can tell.
Rant over.
To OP: If your kid expresses an interest in math/science, provide them with open-ended toys and games. If they don't and you're just doing it to raise the next Einstein, don't do it.