If teaching your child appeals to you, then go ahead and plunge in. Take your phone off th hook and put a sign on your front door that reads ” Silence – Professional Mother At Work – Do Not Disturb.”

If you want to become a professional mother, you will be joining the oldest and most venerable profession in the world. If you believe it is a privilege to teach your child, you should avail yourself of that privilege.

If you do not like the idea of teaching your child, indeed, if there is anything about it that feels like a duty, please don’t do it.

It will not work. You won’t like it . Your child won’t like it.

This isn’t for everyone.

Learning is the greatest adventure of life

Learning is the greatest adventure of life. Learning is desirable, vital, unavoidable and, above all, life’s greatest and most stimulating game. The child believes this and will always belive this – unless we persuade him that it isn’t true.

The primary rule is that both parent and child must joyously approach learning as the superb game that it is.

Those educators and psychologists who say that we must not teach tiny children lest we steal their precious childhood by inflicting learning upon them tell us nothing about a child’s attitude toward learning – but they certainly tell us a great deal about what they them selves feel about learning.

The parent must never forget that learning is life’s most exciting game – it is not work.

Learning is a reward; it is not a punishment.

Learning is a pleasure; it is not a chore.

Learning is a privilege; it is not denial.

The parent must always remember this and must never do anything to destroy this natural attitude in the child.

Child’s teacher must relax enough

There is a fail-safe law you must never forget. It is this: If you aren’t having a wonderful time and your child isn’t having a wonderful time – stop! You are doing something wrong.

Relax and enjoy yourself. This is the greatest game there is. The fact that it results in important changes in your child should not make it “serious”  for you. You and your child have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

As your child’s teacher, you should make sure that you eat and sleep enough to be relaxed and enjoy yourself. Being tense is usually a result of fatigue, disorganization, or of not having a complete understanding of why you are doing what you are doing.

All of these things are easily remedied and should be if you are not enjoying yourself.

For your child’s sake you may have to become a bit more conscientious about your own well-being than you might have been before. (to be continue…)

- Glenn Doman