My name is Mary Mulqueen.....
I am a G2 teacher....and
I am a parent.

Today I want to tell you a story...

When my child was born I wanted her to have a special gift from me. But I wasn't sure what that might be. It had to be very special.
When she was an infant I realised how little I understood about how to help her to learn.

So I armed myself with the latest books on child development and psychology.
The Dr. Spocks and the Nurture Shocks!
I had a lot of reading to do.

One of those famous psychologists talked about
“the one continuous force in the education of children from birth to adulthood” ...
I wanted to be that one continuous force....

I wanted to be the one who provided her with her first experience of language, of numeracy, problem solving and social integration, all those important skills he spoke about.

I knew from my own reading that she was already adapting to her environment, making connections and forming relationships. I watched this happening everyday.

I was happy when I read that these skills would make her more ready for school.

The research also told me that well developed reading skills would be vital to her later academic achievement.

Wow, I was learning too!

She was already interacting with other caring adults who didn't realise they were teaching her the basics of language as they talked with her non-stop and corrected her mispronounced words.

She learned, without knowing it, that groups of letters made up words and that many words could make a sentence and many sentences made a story.

She learned what reading sounded like from listening to her favourite stories being read over and over again. Again, mummy, read it again....

Reading out loud with expression was new for me so I practiced it a lot. I became better at it and sometimes we came up with really silly actions and sounds for words that needed to have a big sound.

Soon she was following the sentences from top to bottom of the page and she would trace the words from left to right with her finger..

I almost didn't notice that she was growing up and now she was making connections to other stories and comparing them. She thought it was so funny that some people wrote books just to make us laugh!

Long pause...

She was five years old when she went to school...

I had never thought about how children learned language but now I know that it does not happen passively, it needs practice and correction, and more practice and more correction.

And so, I had given my child the
greatest gift we can give to our children; the love and joy of reading.

But the story does not end here...

The books I read did not say much about the fun I would have with my daughter, nor that this quality time would help me bond with her.
When a child is being read to, there are no distractions that are taking the reader's attention away. There is only the moment, the reader and the listener.
There have been many days when we decide to ditch the homework she has been given so that we can spend time together, reading to each other or doing other fun stuff. What will she remember the most; the homework or the time we spent together?

I like to tell this story at the beginning of each school year when the parents are gathered together to inquire about how they can help their child's learning.

I tell them to ditch the homework, especially if it becomes stressful, and spend time with their children instead. Go for a walk, ask them to show you their computer game or just make dinner together.
That is my wish for education.