A CHILD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TRAINING

The carefree summer vacation will end pretty soon. We are ahead of stressful and anxious moments usually experienced by parents during this time of the year. Previously, we have covered the education system and all of its aspects in detail. The issue of school loads occupied a considerable space in our discussions. As it became clear, despite the introduction of the curriculum based on a concept of individual approach and classes limiting the number of children to maximum 20-25, all this is true only in a perfect world, which, unfortunately, is still far away. There are overcrowded classes taught an abundance of educational material, which not everyone is capable of digesting, difficult homework, and the physical loads. Is it possible to somehow minimize the side effects of the process of education, and the damage caused by physical loads and stresses on fragile bodies of our children?

Tight regime is the guarantee of healthy life

As doctors say, the first guarantee of the harmonious development of a child is the daily regime. It is an absolute must to stick to it in compliance with your child’s school time. But one should not forget about it during the holidays. If the child is accustomed to follow a ceratin order, then it will not be too difficult to get into a training rut. Adaptability to learn depends on the age of child. According to neurologist Marziya Mammadova, many parents leave their children at school for post-school tutoring with their teachers: “I think this is wrong. The child is very tired. Mental loads should be replaced by physical ones but proper nutrition provided in a timely manner is also important. This is the only way to achieve a harmonious development of the child. Of course, the kids like to follow the daily regime since everything must be done in due time, not when the parents have time to control the regime – that is the main problem”. Another neurologist Kerim Kerimov confirms the opinion about proper nutrition: “If your child follows a properly balanced diet, there is no need for vitamins and other things. However, the children, especially the infants, need vitamin D during this period, as a prophylactic dose. Everything else is desirable to compensate for proper nutrition. Moreover, children at school are not provided with hot meals, and many hesitate to carry really food to school instead of eating snacks. A child must eeat a normal lunch. Due to the lack of normal meals, the children eat hamburgers, potato chips, soda, chocolates, which increase the chance of developing metabolic disorders (obesity, diabetes, etc.). Moreover, potato chips, soda, and all sorts of sticks, salty crackers contain glutamates, which contribute to the development of hyperactivity syndrome - this is confirmed by many scientific studies”.

Pre-school education is necessary

Naila Amirbeyova is a teacher working in primary and high school. She believes that one of the main factors of adaptability of the child to learning process is pre-school education. “Following my conversations with experts in primary schools and pre-school education centres, it became clear that the children should go to kindergartens, and (or) pre-school classes. Then these loads will not seem prohibitive. It is mostly the parents who think that they are. We, as parents, do not even notice that we have long ago turned away from the society and our children. For example, most of the children do not have a clue about the dates and hours. Previously, you could see large wall calendars and a large ringing clocks at each house. Now, most of the clocks are designed without numbers and divisions, and the calendars are mainly in the phones of parents. How can a child learn about the calendar or time in this case? He does not even have a chance. Therefore, the only solution for me is education at kindergartens. The children at kindergartens spend the whole day without gadgets, phones, and other modern devices. They are educated following programs specifically designed for their age. I have taught in the first grade and I can assure you that a child properly educated at the kindergarten will be more keen to learn and experience less stress”, says Naila.

It is clear that the school regime is stressful for a child: no chance to play, to walk, to do what you want instead of doing what you need. It is difficult, if the child is not accustomed to such a regime. But the kindergarten is preparing your child to this. It is even more important than the skills obtained. One-hour training courses three times a week are not enough to give a notion of regime: “Our parents do not tend to follow the education regime. Do not we see parents with children walking along the boulevard or in the city at 11pm? None of them even thinks that their children must sleep at these hours. That's how the children become late sleepers. The children will be hard to wake up in the morning and will not be able to learn during the day. But nobody thinks about it. Women who do not work, they want to sleep in the morning. Well, if the baby wakes up early, the mother will have to get up with him. The parents mistakenly believe that it's better for a kid sleep late in order to get up late. Also, for some reason the housewife mothers think that there is no need for a kindergarten, if they are at home anyway. They do not realize that the kindergarten is essentially a team where the word “I want” is replaced with  word “you must”, where the gadgets are replaced with tight daily regime. Not every parent can provide such education at home. A typical parent never sees the reasons of problems in themselves and their children. They always blame teachers – they do not teaches, do not demand, do not explain. But never they think that the student fails to learn, to listen carefully to the explanations given in the class, to focus on the subject being distracted by electronic gadgets, to participate in the teamwork”.

What is good for one…

According to psychologist Umay Akhundzadeh, who has worked at school for many years, it is obvious that parents cannot change the whole system individually or determine the loads. These factors are determined at each stage of education process by a special commission and mainly designed for an average child’s development indicators. In reality, it is not always possible to have a common denominator for all the children. There is a concept of individual differences, that is, what is acceptable for one child may not be suitable for another. However, the training process must be adapted to individual needs. A school teacher can seldom consider the individual characteristics of his students but parents can adjust the learning process, says an expert. First of all, parents need to find a balance between their aspirations and the real capacities of the child. Every parent has their own expectations about the child, but it is necessary to find out whether it is the child's wishes or your own.

How to determine the abilities of a child? According to Umay, the parents must be involved in the learning process. There are general guidelines, however – the recommended daily regime providing for a guaranteed sleep time for a child. Specifying the real requirements for a child is a psychological factor. Parents should constantly ask themselves: why do I want my child to go to school? What will be his or her aspirations? It is important, however, to avoid vaccinating the child with a sense of perfectionism trying to make him or her know and do everything: “It is important to understand that not all the knowledge we receive in the course of education process will be useful in our lives”, says the psychologist.

It is also important to convince the child that the grades obtained at school are just a result of his or her work, efforts but not an evaluation of the child. If the assessment is unsatisfactory, it does not mean that the child is bad. In addition, one needs to consider the natural differences in the inclinations and abilities of children. Some children feel comfortable with precise sciences while the others are more creative in humanities. But parents can have own ideas of ​​what is important for their children. In fact, what matters is that the child can do best. “I remember a case when the parents wanted their daughter to focus more on mathematics. But the girl was not keen to learn the math. She was a very creative girl. However, the parents were not interested in her artistic success, unfortunately. They had been focused only on her failures in mathematics. As a result, the child grew anxious and self-contained”, says the psychologist.

In brief, the successful and harmonious development of any child is the communication of parents. Also, the children should not be limited to studies. The learning process must be considered in the wider context of family relationships. Otherwise, you risk to form a negative attitude of your child towards school. And the last important factor is the leisure time of the child – the parents must pay special attention to this factor. The child should walk, take part in active forms of recreation - attend sports clubs, dance classes or just go for a walk in the yard. Nowadays it is getting to be more important than the uncompleted homework.