Labella Schools

Motivate learning with Love languages - Touch

Different children respond to different stimuli. For those who like to be touched, its quite a challenge in the classroom (even before COVID). Such children like hugs, they light up when you pat their back or squeeze their shoulders. One of the ways to encourage such children is with special hand shakes. We once used a series of coded hi-5s in my school. We had - low 5, baby 5, hi 5, smashing 5 and mushy 5. That was the safest regular contact i could device and You should see the 'touchers' light up. Special handshake routine or elbow jabs could also be used now.

Parents are in the best position to maximise this excellent motivator. A big hug or a loud shout could be deciding factor on how quickly your child masters that tricky conversion problem. While most schools rule against teachers touching teenagers especially, a parent can easily give a tender back rub or hair tussle. Little things like this build up your childs genius. In todays sexualized world, teachers need to be cautious but parents can jump in and make so much difference with the right touch.

La Bella parents are great parents

Loving learning

This home work discussions brings to mind for me another issue - DISTANCE. That is - distance between home and school

I keep seeing posts about children who come home late with too much homework. I think parents need to consider distance when choosing schools especially in a place like Lagos where traffic can be really bad. I remember a 7 year old girl brought for Summer classes years back. The parents lived in an estate between Ibafo and redemption camp while she attended a school around Agege. The school bus would pick her around 6.10 a.m and average drop off time was like 6.30 p.m. she was first and the bus and last to get off. Her parents were amazed at the improved performance within 2 weeks of summer classes. I had to tell them to reconsider the choice. How do you expect a child who closes from school by 6.30 (in a child's mind, school is not over till she is home and out of school uniform) to have energy or even zeal for any homework or study. The family later moved to Yaba close their business office and enrolled her in a nearby school. She became a high performer over night

I think it's high time we start taking a 360 degrees view of our decisions regarding education and life style.

Mid-term break is over. Back to the grind