In brief
Parents and carers don't need to become teachers at home. Instead, think about the skills, interests and qualities you want your child to develop, then intentionally give them experiences through which they can develop them.
Responsibility can come from household jobs. Resilience can develop through sport and competition. Money skills can come from managing a real budget. Confidence can grow through performing or speaking to adults. A love of music can be nurtured through lessons, instruments and live performances.
You don't need to personally teach everything your child needs. Your role can simply be to notice, encourage and create opportunities, working alongside their school and the other people who become part of their childhood.
A closer look
Education Is a Team Effort
Children spend a considerable amount of their childhood at school, but some of their most important learning will inevitably happen elsewhere.
At The Mount, this is one reason we deliberately build strong relationships between our staff and parents and carers. We know that raising and educating children is a team effort, and we've seen how children can flourish when the adults around them are intentionally working together.
That doesn't mean coming home from school and starting another lesson. Often, parents can contribute most by giving children experiences, responsibilities and opportunities that complement what they're learning at school.
Give Them Responsibilities That Grow With Them
Responsibility is difficult to learn without actually being responsible for something.
A younger child might put their toys away, carry their own belongings or help set the table. As they grow, they could empty the dishwasher, vacuum and dust their bedroom, change their bedding or help prepare a meal.
Eventually, give them responsibility for something more complicated.
A birthday party is a brilliant example. An older child could decide who they'd like to invite, research venues around Huddersfield, compare prices, work within a budget, help prepare invitations and organise party bags.
Without sitting through a single formal lesson, they've practised research, budgeting, decision-making, organisation, communication and time management.
The principle is simple. As their capability increases, increase their responsibility.
Let Them Experience Challenge
You can't really teach resilience by explaining what resilience means. Children need opportunities to experience setbacks and discover that they can respond to them.
Individual sports can be particularly valuable. In a tennis tournament, for example, there could be 30 competitors and only one winner. Your child has to manage their own performance, recover after losing a point and potentially experience defeat at the end.
Learning to congratulate the winner, understand what they could improve, practise and enter again can teach far more about resilience than simply being told to keep trying.
Team sports offer something different. Children learn that other people depend upon them and that they depend upon others. They learn to contribute their strengths, recognise other people's strengths and become increasingly interdependent as well as independent.
Help Them Discover What They Love
Parents don't need to share their child's talents to help develop them.
If your child becomes fascinated by music but you can't play an instrument, expose them to music. Take them to concerts and performances. Let them experience different genres. Have instruments available to experiment with. Find a teacher who can take their interest further.
The same applies elsewhere. A child fascinated by animals can visit farms and wildlife attractions. Someone who constantly builds things can have access to materials and practical projects. A child fascinated by cooking can gradually take more responsibility in the kitchen.
Notice where their curiosity naturally takes them, then create more opportunities around it.
Let Them Experience Money, Communication and Everyday Life
Some of the most useful learning opportunities are completely ordinary.
Give children a small budget and let them make decisions with it. Encourage them to save towards something rather than immediately buying it for them. When they're old enough, let them compare prices and work out whether something represents good value.
When you're in a café or restaurant, let them order for themselves. In a shop, encourage them to ask the assistant where something is. When planning a family day out, involve them in working out where you're going, what you'll need and how much it will cost.
The objective isn't to artificially turn everyday life into a lesson. It's simply to stop automatically doing everything for them when they're increasingly capable of doing some of it themselves.
Teach Them to Use Technology and AI Well
Children are growing up surrounded by technology, so they need opportunities to learn how to use it productively as well as safely.
Show them that technology can be used to research, create, calculate, communicate and solve problems, rather than simply consume entertainment. As they begin using AI, help them understand that it can be incredibly useful while also producing information that is incomplete or wrong.
Learning to ask good questions, check information and form their own judgement will become increasingly important.
Where Can Children Develop These Skills Around Huddersfield?
One of the advantages of living around Huddersfield is the variety of experiences available within the town and surrounding countryside.
Freeklime can give children the experience of physical challenge, problem-solving and persistence through climbing. Local tennis, football, rugby, cricket and other sports clubs provide opportunities to experience competition, teamwork, commitment, winning and losing.
For children interested in performance, Lawrence Batley Theatre and local drama and performing-arts groups can expose them to theatre, music and performance. Music lessons and live concerts can help a child explore an emerging musical interest even when nobody at home plays an instrument.
Huddersfield Leisure Centre provides swimming and other sports, while places such as Digley Reservoir, Marsden Moor, Castle Hill and the wider Holme Valley give families opportunities for walking, navigation, nature and physical challenge.
Further afield, Eureka! in Halifax offers hands-on discovery, while Cannon Hall Farm combines animals, food, nature and outdoor experiences.
Even ordinary trips into Huddersfield can become useful. Give an older child some responsibility for the budget, let them make a purchase themselves, order their own lunch or help navigate the journey.
Think of the place you live as part of your child's education.
How We Think About This at The Mount
Our purpose at The Mount is to make childhood unforgettable, and we want our children to experience an extraordinary childhood filled with opportunities to discover what they're capable of and what they love.
School plays an important part in creating those opportunities, through academic learning alongside sport, art, music, technology, creativity, friendships and experiences beyond the traditional classroom.
But no school can provide everything.
Parents and carers see sides of their children that teachers never will. Teachers see children learning, collaborating and developing among their peers in ways parents don't always get to see. Coaches, music teachers, family members and other adults can then bring completely different skills and experiences into their lives.
That's why the relationship between school and home matters so much. An extraordinary childhood is something we create together.
Key takeaway
You don't need to teach your child everything yourself.
Instead, be intentional about the childhood you're helping them experience. Give them real responsibilities. Let them handle money. Allow them to solve problems. Expose them to music, art, sport, technology, nature and practical experiences. Let them compete, occasionally lose, work alongside others and discover things they're genuinely excited about.
Then, when you spot an interest or ability that you can't develop yourself, find the person, place or opportunity that can.
Combined with what children experience at school, those opportunities can help them develop the confidence, capability, interests, relationships and memories that make for an extraordinary childhood.
Related reading
Learning & Development
How Can I Help My Child Learn Outside of School?
Rethinking Education
Is School Teaching My Child What They Need for the Future?
Moving to Huddersfield
What Are the Best Things to Do with Children in Huddersfield?
Rethinking Education
How Can I Help My Child Learn More Than They Do at School?
