The Right Way The Wrong Way And My Way - Helping Your Child Learn Their Address And Phone Number

There is a time and place for everything. I have often spent time teaching my kids important "need to know" academics. For example, every child will need to learn their address and phone number. Some kids learn this easily while others have a hard time memorizing this important information. We spent time going over this information in my car on the way to school. My drive to school was about ten minutes.

During this time we made a song with the words of our home address. We also sang our phone number to a made up tune. Since we were in the "privacy" of my car we could be as silly as we like. We laughed and sang and this task became a game. I also found that on some days I would reward my kids with gummy bears for reciting their correct address and phone number.

It didn't take long before both of my kids learned our address and phone number!

This "method" worked. I am sure that there are a number of ways to accomplish this task. Some kids will learn their address and phone number quickly while others may take quite a while.

Several years passed. I was recently taking my kids to their tennis lesson. I couldn't help but overhear another mom TRYING to teach her 2 children their address and phone number while waiting for their tennis lesson to begin.

This made me think back to the days when this was number one on my list of what my kids had to learn. There were a few differences in her approach. First, the kids were not having fun. In fact they seemed quite annoyed with the idea that Mom was trying to teach them their address and phone number in public. The teaching took place after school at the end of the day and the kids were tired from a full day of school. They were at their tennis lesson to learn tennis. The mom and kids couldn't make up a silly song because they were in public and not in the privacy of their car or at their home.

Learning doesn't have to be a chore. It needs to be fun! Kids will not only remember their address and phone number but they will remember the time they spent with Mom learning!