It can be very hard at times to get our children to focus on education. Most children would prefer to play video games or engage in reading comic books and more frequently as of late, internet cartoons. It can be very frustrating for us as parents, especially when the children in question are of school going age. We all want our children to benefit from a good education, and fortunately, there are a few hints and tips you can follow to try and give your child a nudge toward more educational forms or reading and entertainment.

 

A good way to get your child interested in furthering their education (almost unknowingly) is to choose an exciting film based on a historical event. The film “Michael Collins” springs to mind. As a child, I remember being shown “Michael Collins” in school. I can say first hand that it greatly strengthened my interest in Irish history (along with several other members of my class). After we watch the film, our teacher would bring in different books about Irish history, and, because of our having watched the film; we had a lot more interest in listening to the history of our country. This is because we had established a connection between the exciting scenes we viewed during the film and the words that our teacher was now reading to us off the pages of books we wouldn’t have dared to open previously. That was just a personal anecdote to highlight the difference the introduction of an exciting film made to my young education.

 

Now, understandably, the film “Michael Collins” might be too violent for many little eyes, but there is a wealth of interesting media available about all manner of historical events, geographical phenomena, and religious events as well as countless productions about poetry, art and every other manner of education imaginable.

 

Another great tactic to use in instilling good educational habits in your children is reading them a story at bedtime from an educational book. Every child, will sit up and listen to the stories you will read them if it ensures them another five or ten minutes before bedtime! The trick here is to choose a book of considerable length. This would mean several sittings would have to be read before the book was completed. This way, your child is learning bits and pieces every night, from a book they would probably never regard otherwise. You can be sure that upon completion of the book, your child will want you to resume the tradition of the bedtime story with another book. If your child requests this, you know you have done a good job of instilling them with better educational habits. They will enjoy the books so much that they won’t even realise they are being educated!

 

Hopefully, it will also instil an interest for certain subjects into their little minds, so that the next time they choose a book to read, it might be more suitable for their education than a comic book or internet cartoon! Although as we all know, a little of something in moderation does no harm, so it's about getting a good balance of both!