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As your child goes through school, there will be times where they sit over their workbooks or homework at the dinner table or in their room looking stumped. During this, you want to give them a hand and help them as much as possible. However, you might be reluctant to help too much as you don’t want to end up doing the work for them.
Because kids won’t learn anything that way. They need to do the work themselves if they want to understand the assignments properly and be able to complete similar exercises and essays in the classroom, where you will be absent.
Helping your kids with their school work, but not completing it for them, will help with their critical thinking skills as well as independence. It will set them up for further problem-solving experiences later in life, and allow them to approach anything with the confidence that they can do it. Showing them which way to go, but not leading the way, will help enormously as they navigate the challenging plain of education in their early years and teens.
ROUTINE
Establishing a routine for your child will help them become more comfortable with what they need to do and save them from wasting most of their time on video games or watching TV. While it is still important for them to blow off steam with friends and hobbies, it should not take precedence over their school work in their early years.
Getting used to a routine will include them studying for an hour or two after school, which will give them plenty of time to relax later on. Furthermore, this routine will soon become ingrained in their everyday activities, and so at some point, they will feel like they want and need to do it before worrying about anything else.
However, it is vital that this does not become too regimented. You want your child to have an excellent work ethic, but you also want them to have a social life. Encouraging the routine to include both work and play will help foster a healthy social life as well as ensuring the work gets completed, too.
RESOURCES
Back in the day, it used to be that if you needed information on for a history project that you had to run down to the library and pour over textbook after textbook for hours until you found what you needed. But no more.
The ever-growing digital archives online have streamlined that process so that now your child does not even have to leave their room. Everything is available to them at the click of a mouse or swipe of a screen. However, for those unfamiliar with Googling anything other than funny videos may need guidance in directing them to the resource of their choice, so explaining the basics of an educational Google search will come in handy.
Furthermore, using fraction calculators to better explain and visually demonstrate the formula for them when it comes to studying math equations. Math can be a stressful subject if you are not a natural, but using the plethora of option at your and your child’s fingertips will ease this stress and put them on the path to mathematical success.
REVISE
Revision is, to many kids, a horribly dull activity. They feel that all they are doing is reading and rereading information that they already know, and this can get frustrating. It is all too easy to read something once or twice and then be convinced that you know it because you have just read it. Because of this, revision can sometimes feel like a lot of time wasted on learning nothing.
However, if they ever want to succeed and continue to build on existing knowledge, then revision is essential for entering any exams with a head full of necessary information. This will allow them to write and write and write for however long they need without grasping at straws for points and conclusions.
Sitting down to revise and actually do it, instead of staring at a screen or playing on their phones can pay huge dividends, but once they think they know what they need, they will move on to something else. To solve this issue, practising with your child by testing them on recent topics every day by asking them questions will help them retain the information better and save their mind from going blank when they find themselves sat down in the exam.
REFOCUS
There are so many distractions around the house that it can be all too easy to absently browse their social media or play games on their phone, tablet, or console. This is not just something that affects kids, but adults too. We have all had those times where we are trying to concentrate, but everything else looks so much more appealing at that moment in time.
Finding solutions to maintaining their focus will help remove such distractions. If your child often does their work in their bedroom, surrounded by books and games of all sorts, they will be tempted to avoid their work and instead play.
Consider encouraging (but not forcing) them to find an area of the house, or even the library or somewhere quiet and local, where they can complete their work in peace. They will soon find out that what used to be a three-hour-plus study session soon reduces to much, much less and they might even have time to spare to fill in some extra work, should they want to.
RELIEF
Schoolwork at any age can be stressful and time-consuming and, much of the time, your child will feel there is literally anything else they would rather be doing (even chores). However, encouraging them to create a consistent routine of revision and further learning will make their journey through school that much more comfortable and still, hopefully, leave time for them to hang out with their friends, also.
You want your child to get through school as smoothly as possible, and while you cannot sit by them every step of the way and find all the answers for them, you can help them find solutions for increasing their knowledge and understanding. They might be reluctant now, but when graduation and later college come around, they will thank you.