Education has become a rat race. The trend is to make every child a superachiever. As a result, parents today are probably more involved in their childrens education than ever before. Exam time is as stressful for parents as it is for children. Homework has become a family effort. If a child does not want to study, there is nothing that a parent can do. What parents can do is to develop good study habits in their children from an early age. Now this is not going to be a cakewalk. Looking back at your school days, there is no way you can pretend that studying was something you looked forward to. Studying was put off till the last minute like the way one puts off a dentists appointment. And then of course there was the tension of completing portions overnight and submitting projects on time. While you may not have had good study habits as a student, that is no reason that your child should make the same mistakes. In this articleMotivationTime managementCreating a conducive environmentSome tipsMotivation Youve won the biggest battle if you can somehow make your child actually want to study. This probably sounds impossible, but with the right approach maybe you could convince your child not to equate academics to the horrors of a dentists appointment. Some children prefer some subjects to others so they tend to concentrate on those and neglect the others. This kind of specialization is not going to work while your children are still trying to get through school. So youre going to have to sit down with your child and find out why he dislikes a particular subject. Once you have identified the problem, you will have to take steps to banish your childs mental block for mathematics, physics, or whatever the hated subject is. You can tutor him yourself. However, sometimes this is not a good idea, as your basics may be shaky or you may not have the necessary patience. In this case, you could consider hiring a tutor or buying educational aids like books that are better written than the school textbooks or CD-ROMs which are more interesting because of their interactivity. You could highlight the relevance of studying these subjects to everyday life. For instance, you can explain to them how mathematics helps you to do something as mundane as adding up the prices of items you bought at the grocery and paying the right price. Geography teaches you about the world around you. Languages help you communicate and physics teaches you how things work. Time management Help your child organize his time better so that he can get his work done and have enough free time to do non-academic activities. What you have to do is find out what tests and projects are due and when as well as how much homework he has to complete. Help him make a timetable and try to see that he sticks to it. Creating a conducive environment The first thing to do is to make a workspace for your child, even if its just a particular chair and one half of a desk. As soon as the child sits down at his workspace, he knows that its time to work so he settles down faster. Make sure that its not too comfortable a chair, the kind he can sink into and have a good nap. Preferably, his workspace should be in an area where there is not too much people traffic so that he isnt distracted. People differ on the subject of whether children can work while listening to music or not. Some children prefer to study in absolute silence, while other would prefer some noise in the background or they get bored. While this is a toss-up, what should be avoided is too warm a room, poor lighting, studying after heavy meals, and lack of fresh air. Some tips If your child is learning something new, encourage him to read through the new material first to familiarize himself with it. Its better to adopt a holistic approach rather than learning information piecemeal. It makes for better learning. If your child comes across words that he doesnt know the meaning of while studying, get him into the habit of looking up the dictionary. Teach him to write synopses of chapters or make notes of the important facts to be remembered. Help him make up mnemonics like rhymes that will help him remember. Make him say out loud what he has learned. This makes it easy to pinpoint gaps in his knowledge.
Education has become a rat race. The trend is to make every child a superachiever. As a result, parents today are probably more involved in their children's education than ever before. Exam time is as stressful for parents as it is for children. Homework has become a family effort. If a child does not want to study, there is nothing that a parent can do. What parents can do is to develop good study habits in their children from an early age.
Now this is not going to be a cakewalk. Looking back at your school days, there is no way you can pretend that studying was something you looked forward to. Studying was put off till the last minute like the way one puts off a dentist's appointment. And then of course there was the tension of completing portions overnight and submitting projects on time. While you may not have had good study habits as a student, that is no reason that your child should make the same mistakes.
Motivation
You've won the biggest battle if you can somehow make your child actually want to study. This probably sounds impossible, but with the right approach maybe you could convince your child not to equate academics to the horrors of a dentist's appointment.
Some children prefer some subjects to others so they tend to concentrate on those and neglect the others. This kind of specialization is not going to work while your children are still trying to get through school. So you're going to have to sit down with your child and find out why he dislikes a particular subject. Once you have identified the problem, you will have to take steps to banish your child's mental block for mathematics, physics, or whatever the hated subject is.
You can tutor him yourself. However, sometimes this is not a good idea, as your basics may be shaky or you may not have the necessary patience. In this case, you could consider hiring a tutor or buying educational aids like books that are better written than the school textbooks or CD-ROMs which are more interesting because of their interactivity.
You could highlight the relevance of studying these subjects to everyday life. For instance, you can explain to them how mathematics helps you to do something as mundane as adding up the prices of items you bought at the grocery and paying the right price. Geography teaches you about the world around you. Languages help you communicate and physics teaches you how things work.
Time management
Help your child organize his time better so that he can get his work done and have enough free time to do non-academic activities. What you have to do is find out what tests and projects are due and when as well as how much homework he has to complete. Help him make a timetable and try to see that he sticks to it.
Creating a conducive environment
The first thing to do is to make a workspace for your child, even if it's just a particular chair and one half of a desk. As soon as the child sits down at his workspace, he knows that it's time to work so he settles down faster. Make sure that it's not too comfortable a chair, the kind he can sink into and have a good nap. Preferably, his workspace should be in an area where there is not too much people traffic so that he isn't distracted. People differ on the subject of whether children can work while listening to music or not. Some children prefer to study in absolute silence, while other would prefer some noise in the background or they get bored. While this is a toss-up, what should be avoided is too warm a room, poor lighting, studying after heavy meals, and lack of fresh air.
Some tips
- If your child is learning something new, encourage him to read through the new material first to familiarize himself with it. It's better to adopt a holistic approach rather than learning information piecemeal. It makes for better learning.
- If your child comes across words that he doesn't know the meaning of while studying, get him into the habit of looking up the dictionary.
- Teach him to write synopses of chapters or make notes of the important facts to be remembered.
- Help him make up mnemonics like rhymes that will help him remember.
- Make him say out loud what he has learned. This makes it easy to pinpoint gaps in his knowledge.
