4 Important Tools to Successfully Teach Boys

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Welcome to Week 5 of our Raising Boys series. If you’d like to read previous posts, you can catch up at Raising Boys!

Handy Tips To Make Teaching Boys Easier

Teaching boys can be a tricky thing.. they are energetic, battle to focus sometimes, and are completely different to girls. Here are some awesome tools I’ve come across that may be helpful!

Figure out your son’s learning style

There are 7 ways that people learn via learning-styles-online.com

Visual (spatial):You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.
Aural (auditory-musical): You prefer using sound and music.
Verbal (linguistic): You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.
Physical (kinesthetic): You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.
Logical (mathematical): You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.
Social (interpersonal): You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.
Solitary (intrapersonal): You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

Spending some time with your son figuring out what his learning style is, can save you a lot of frustration and help develop a love for learning in your son.

Make learning fun

If your preschool son loves music, or doesn’t enjoy sitting at all when learning, a great site I found this week may be helpful (I plan on buying it as soon as I can, it looks so fun!): Sing Spell Read & Write

Keep learning as natural as possible

In her book Your Brain on Childhood, Gabrielle Principe gives awesome insight into how little brains develop, and how our current ‘modern’ toys and methods of teaching kids actually goes against what works ‘naturally’ – I adore this book! It’s worth every cent, in my opinion.

Establish boundaries

In his book Raising Boys, Steve Biddulph gives us a glimpse into how effective order is for boys:

“Boys feel insecure and in danger if there isn’t enough structure in a situation. If no-one is in charge, they begin jostling with each other to establish a pecking order. Their testosterone-driven make-up leads them to want to set up hierarchies, but they can’t always do so because they are all the same age. If we provide structure, then they can relax. For girls, this is not so much of a problem… Boys act tough to cover up their fear. If someone is clearly the boss, they relax. But the boss must not be erratic or punitive. If the person in charge is a bully, the boys’ stress levels rise and it’s back to the law of the jungle. If the teacher, scoutmaster or parent is kind and fair (as well as being strict), then boys will drop their ‘macho’ act and get on with learning.“

The book Boundaries With Kids : How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children may be of interest to you; I find Cloud & Townsend’s Boundaries books incredibly helpful in family dynamics!
I hope you found some of these helpful! If you have any tools that you love and find helpful in teaching your boy(s), we’d love to hear from you!