Helping your children with their learning can help enhance their skills. Advanced skills and knowledge can help them be better decision-makers, succeed at exams, and help them grow into passionate and mature adults. Whether your children are starting school or taking A-Level exams, here are some extra learning activities that can help your children be better at school.
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Improve English skills
For those who want to learn or expand their English language skills, you can find online English tutors on Preply. There, you will be able to partake in virtual classes at your convenience. There are tutors will various skill sets and prices, which will align with your needs.
This is also beneficial for those who want to become a better writer. Not only can tutors help you with speaking, but also writing too. This can be useful for students as well as adults, as better language skills are ideal for any age.
Allow them to focus on a subject that they are passionate about
In a world of hyper-specialization it isn’t important – or even possible – to be good at everything. It’s more important to be excellent at a few things. So, if your child shows specific interest and takes a lot of joy in a certain topic at school, they will find it a lot easier to excel.
As parents, there is a natural tendency to worry about the things our children are less good at and allow them to get on quietly with the things they love. If English is their passion, don’t be afraid to encourage and go OTT on its positive impact. Spending time with them as they connect and enjoy a subject will also give insight into ways we can help transfer that joy to a less loved topic.
Extra reading
Learning to read is the most important part of a child’s education. It opens the door to a whole world of information so, the earlier your child masters this skill, the better. With preschool and young children, try to read with them every day and encourage them to read aloud to you.
Older children will probably not want to read with you. However, it’s helpful if they do continue to read by themselves – even if it’s just for pleasure. The more we read, the better at it we get. Children who don’t read much often have poor comprehension skills. When they are reading, encourage your child to make sure they understand a paragraph of text before they move on to the next.
Teach them that failures are okay
Any skill requires a period of incompetence in order to get competent. In short, to get good at something you have to start out being bad. What’s more, encouraging your child to increase their failure rate (‘If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again…’) is the best way to increase their learning and develop their success in any field.
To do this children need to have two key traits: little fear of failure and the resilience to push through when they fail the first few times and get to the point where they become skillful.
We may take it for granted that success requires hard work and overcoming of obstacles but this is not necessarily obvious to children. If you take time to explain your experience of a learning curve it will help them connect hard work with future rewards.
Encourage them to do chores
As children grow, they have to learn to make their own decisions, and this applies at school as well as at home. You want your child to be able to look after themselves, so how can you teach them responsibility? Give them tasks such as making their bed, or taking the rubbish out. Though small, these will benefit your child in the long run.
When children have responsibilities at home, it helps them take responsibility for their own learning. If they fail to complete their homework, for example, then they’ll have to face the consequences. When a child knows that it’s up to them to get things done, then it’s a step towards becoming self-reliant – and this will help them at home, at school, and in their future career.
Communication: from chit-chat to debates
Communication plays a vital role in learning so talking to your child will help them at school. Children who don’t communicate well often have problems with reading, difficulty following instructions, and short attention spans.
Talk often with your child, even if it’s just chit-chat. This will help them learn to communicate well. When they are older you can talk about school – what they like and what they don’t, for example. Praise their achievements (and their efforts) and make sure they know they can come to you with any worries or problems they may have.
Get sporty
Some students worry that participating in extracurriculars may take away too much time from their schoolwork, thus hurting their grades; however, extracurricular activities can actually improve their grades and your outlook on a school in general.
Participating in activities they are passionate about can increase their brain function, help them concentrate and manage their time better, all of which contribute to higher grades. High endurance sports, for example, will train you to focus and build stamina in the face of intense difficulty. This gives you an advantage when it comes to studying and taking exams.
The same goes for young children too. All children should be encouraged to be active to promote brain health, make them mentally and physically stronger, and build their teamwork skills.
One of the best ways to support your child at school is through expectation. This doesn’t mean you expect them to be top of the class, the star of the sports team, or even a prefect – over expectation can cause children undue stress. What it does mean is that your child should know that you expect them to try their best in everything they do.
If you expect your child to fail at school, then they probably will. Let them know that hard work, even if it doesn’t get the best grade, is still something to be proud of. The right attitude, together with supportive home life, will help your child to be the very best they can.