Reading books together with parents seems to have significant benefits in the development of children’s ability to learn. In such a process, parents and children read together while the parent poses questions during reading and encourages the child to respond or comment. For his part, the child himself is guided to ask questions and express concerns.

The pictures, drawings and performances depicted on the pages of the book enhance this shared experience and the interaction of the family members effectively “builds” a very conducive learning environment that develops the child’s potential and learning development.

“By reading books together we do not mean reading a book in the bedtime routine, but an active reading with open questions, in which the child is asked to fill in something in the story. All this has been found to help a lot in the formation of a natural family learning environment”, explains Thanasis Grigoriadis, the professor of the Preschool Education and Science Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, speaking to APE – MPE. According to him, it is essentially a teaching opportunity, one of the five total pillars for the creation of a family learning environment, which he describes as well as Maria Evangelou – Tsitiridou and Aikaterini Krousorati in their book “Family learning environment. Theoretical approaches, quality measurement and good practices”.

Every moment an opportunity to learn

“It is also very important to provide the family environment with a developmental continuum, which means that everyone can take advantage of any moment and experience from which the child can gain useful knowledge. For example, it can help to arrange the products when the parent returns home from schoolohnia, she can take the responsibility of feeding him dog or to arranges his room. Also on a route, family members can comment on them plates that they encounter in front of them or while brushing their teeth can start a conversation about personal hygiene” adds Mr. Grigoriadis.

The game and the leisure activitiess is the third pillar that facilitates the cultivation of the learning environment.

As the professor of the Department of Preschool Education and Education says, “the game can have any form, be dramatic or public, contain dance, songs or representation of a grocery store. All this encourages creativity, expression, imagination and strengthens the degree of learning.”

On the other hand, in the pillar of digital activities or screen time activities must be set limits as a child cannot be indefinitely in front of one tabletone computer or the TV. At the same time, it is legitimate for the parent to be present at the same time in order to ascertain at any time what is being shown and what information is being presented.

The family learning environment is complemented by outdoor activities (a visit to a museum, a theater performance, visits to the swimming pool or even a walk in the woods and a hike).

Emphasis on the quality of interactions

“All of the above build the framework of the learning framework which is in fact strengthened by the quality of family interactions. This means that parents must be patient, encourage children, not focus on failure but give importance to effort, so that children also have a positive learning experience that they want to return to later. In the opposite case, a behavior of strictness and impatience on the part of the parents can reduce the children’s desire to come back,” he adds.

He also comments that educators perceive “children who are more or less worked at home” and, as he says, this is not only related to learning results but mainly to the child’s emotional self-regulation. “It is not only important who the parents are and what they do with their children, but also how they do it,” says Mr. Grigoriadis.

Lack of time is the biggest problem of parents

When asked what the difficulties are that most parents face, he answers “mainly the lack of time” while clarifying that the point is not to offer more activities to his child but to be involved in activities with him. “If parents realize this, they can get a lot of ideas, as long as they spend more meaningful time with their children during the day. Even half an hour quality time in the family can bring about a great gain in children’s development, compared to spending the same amount of time in front of a screen» he emphasizes.

It underlines, at the same time, that the benefits can be very important for children who come from vulnerable family environments as educators, for their part, can support the family and propose actions and materials that will create a multitude of stimuli necessary for learning and children’s development. “Today’s parents are different from the parents of the past who didn’t know much about this subject. The new generations show more interest in the processes of learning and development. The educational level is higher and parents are more involved,” he adds.