Estimated read time: 2.30 minutes
Hey
Schools and teachers have a lot on their plate and a lot to cover, and it's tough. But you know what also sucks? This means important skills get pushed off the agenda. In fact, loads of skills might not have even had a look in at the agenda yet….
Most educators I know want to teach the skills which will prepare kids for the world as it exists now and as it’s likely to be in the future. But there is just so much that they are expected to cover, not enough hours in the day, and of course SATs and Phonics tests etc. So they often have to 'teach for the test'.
BORING.
I think this is a real injustice. The kids deserve to be using their 'my-brain-is-a-sponge' years better than that.
Luckily, your kid has a parent who's invested in putting time and thought into how to help them fly. So given that you're here, let's talk about meta-learning.
Now, don't get me wrong. I do think it's important that we impart knowledge to our kids, both at home and at school. But teaching kids to think about how they learn is also incredibly important.
As they say in The LEGO Movie, ‘That’s so meta’.
This might feel a little like ‘thinking about thinking’—but that’s exactly the point.
When children understand how they approach a problem, what strategies work, and how they might adjust next time, they develop lifelong problem-solving skills—way more valuable than just memorising facts.
Next time your child gets frustrated with something tricky, you could try saying:
🔹 “What’s happening in your brain right now? Can you notice how you're thinking about this challenge?”
🔹 “If you were teaching someone else how to figure this out, what would you tell them to do next?”
🔹 “What strategy have you used before that might help here?”
These small shifts create a lifelong mindset of resilience—so they don’t just survive school, but thrive in anything they take on.
Because learning and life go far beyond the level of your assessment at the end of the year.
A great way to build meta-learning at home is through fun, hands-on problem-solving. Critical Thinking Activities for Kids is packed with simple activities to help kids ask questions, analyze situations, and think flexibly—exactly the skills they need beyond memorising facts. Worth a look!
On the theme of building skills… here's one for developing reasoning skills.
Instructions:
Put a plate on the table
Place a selection of different objects around it
Take turns to 'sort' the objects into a group and put them on to the plate. For example, I might put everything that's soft on there, or everything that has green in it.
Get the other person to guess why you've sorted the objects into that group.
You might need to zoom in to see... But can you guess how I grouped these?
Answers at the bottom! ⬇️
That's all from me this week!
Have a good one.
Becca
I’m offering 5 free spots for parents to trial my new Mindset Made Easy: Year 6 programme before it launches next week. It's designed to help children feel confident, manage pressure, and not let SATs knock their self-belief, especially before the big transition to secondary school.
If you know any Year 6 parents who would like a chance to try some simple, practical tools in real life, please forward this link:https://wkf.ms/41t5wBc 🤓
They both came from a tree
They all have yellow on them
They all have a curved edge
