Finally, whichever of speed reading methodologies you select to learn, it is likely that you'll need to learn to read large chunks of information at same time, or to skim read. As children we are taught that these practices are not good for us - we will likely miss information, or misinterpret it.

As you can see then, a willingness to accept new ideas is going to be essential if you want to learn to improve your reading speed.

3. Motivation

Although motivation may be considered similar to desire, essential difference is that not only do you need to have desire to learn, but you need to keep that desire for, potentially, a long period of time. In practice, learning proper speed reading technique only takes a very short time. But real test is in having to practice and practice everyday.

This means that a student of a speed reading course is going to need to maintain motivation to learn how to improve their reading speed over a prolonged period. Indeed, some would argue that you never stop learning to improve your reading speed.

4. Practice

The adage is "practice makes perfect", and nowhere is this adage more appropriate than in reading learning process. Anyone who wishes to improve their reading speed is going to have to practice over prolonged periods.

Conclusion

To sum it up, if you want to learn how to improve your reading speed, all you is (i) desire; (ii) willingness; (iii) motivation; and (iv) practice.

4) Understanding different kinds of history - A parent can have a tremendous influence on how children formulate their opinions on past and present. Those homes that include lively discussions of a political nature can set stage for a child to stay involved as an adult. However, a child needs to be given an opportunity to form opinions based on information from multiple sources. Taking a single news channel’s view of current events as gospel, is a dangerous thing. Children need to be encouraged to explore issues from various vantage points, and adults can even take a lesson from this. The same goes for looking at past. History is more than just a school textbook. Children need to realize that there are different kinds of historical evidence and sources - original records, historical narrative, commentary, timelines, in-depth studies, and geographical information to name a few. Don’t stifle their curiosity, and just keep encouraging them to expand their interests.

5) Home activities that are history based - There are number of hands-on activities a parent can do with a child at home that involve history but won’t seem like history. In studying other cultures and eras one of most interesting parts of that study is art. Studying and replicating some of art from a historical period can be a fun family activity. Of course, Internet is an inexpensive way to bring art into home. In addition, cooking foods together from other cultures can also be a good learning experience. It is practical, too, because you have to eat anyway.

6) School connections - Finally, find out what history or social studies curriculum is for your child’s grade level. Try to support those topics through home activities and discussions. By talking to your child’s teacher, checking school district web site, or reading state department of education curriculum frameworks, an outline of year’s goals and objectives can be obtained. This information should be useful in making parent support timely and relevant.

Get involved in fun and educational activities with your child. You will both benefit from experiences and strengthen your relationship at same time. Turn off TV at designated times and do something of real value as a family. If you make an effort to spend quality time in helping your child embrace educational activities, you’ll never again feel need to sing, “Don’t know much about history…”

See acclaimed Helping Your Child publication series of 9 booklets including Helping Your Child Learn History at: http://www.sbmag.org/Helping_Your_Child/Help_Your_Child_Index.html

No permission is needed to reproduce this story along as About The Author statement remains in tact and includes hot links. mailto:barb@sbmag.org