Effective Study Habits: 7 Tips for Parents
One of the main roles of a parent is to be supportive of their child’s dreams and aspirations. In order to make those dreams a reality, a child needs to develop certain sets of skills, as well as to excel academically. Therefore, if you want to truly support your child in becoming whatever they set their mind on, you should help them develop good study habits, so that they can do well at school with the least amount of stress. Here are some tips for those parents who want to help their child develop strong study habits.
1 Create a perfect study space
Find a place in your home where you can put a desk for your child, with all their study materials, so that they have everything at hand once they start studying. The place should ideally have a lot of natural light, and a lamp for when it gets dark. Also, it should be in a room without a television, so if your child’s desk is in their room, don’t allow them to have a TV in there as well. Their study space should be a quiet and a peaceful one, but also the one that you can observe, so that you’re sure that your child actually is studying.
2 Dealing with distractions
If your child has a problem with studying when there’s noise around them, you should help them minimise the distractions. Taking away your child’s phone while they’re studying might help, as well as turning off music, TV, or anything else that could create noise and break your child’s concentration. Since it’s sometimes impossible to simply switch off the distractions, especially in big cities like Sydney, where outside traffic noise can cause problems, maybe you can get noise-cancelling headphones for your child to wear. One distraction you can’t get rid of is the computer since it’s often necessary for research and doing homework online. It’s crucial that you check on your child often so that you’re sure they aren’t spending time on social networks or playing online games when they should be studying.
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3 Provide help when necessary
Your child needs to know that it’s ok to ask for help when they can’t do something on their own. Finding a study buddy might help, but help your child choose well so that they don’t spend their time playing or chatting instead of studying. If you don’t think that peer help is enough, you can offer to help them yourself, but getting professional private tutoring might be the best option, since that way you can make sure your child gets help from the people who know what they’re doing and how to inspire your child to do their best at subjects like maths or English.
4 Set a study schedule
Teaching your child to study at the same time every day would be ideal. That way, they create their own routine and by following that routine, they make a habit out of studying. If studying for too long is too difficult for your child, they can break their study time into two parts. One can be after school, and the other before or after dinner, but they should always be set at the same time. Your child can even include a snack or a short play period into their routine, as long as they spend enough time studying and working on their school assignments.
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5 Teach your child to make flashcards
Flashcards are a great way to memorise things like maths or physics formulas, new vocabulary, important dates, capital cities or biology definitions. Whatever the subject they need to study, flashcards can help them prepare for tests and quizzes. If your child is still too young, you can make their flashcards, but if they can do it themselves, provide them with blank cards and markers and encourage them to make the flashcards on their own, which can also make them more independent. They can then quiz themselves, their friends, or have one of their siblings quiz them, which can be observed as a game and make studying more pleasurable.
6 Teach them to take good notes
Taking notes or highlighting pieces of text while studying can help your child immerse themselves in their study materials and also learn how to pick up the most important information, like key terms, significant dates or basic definitions. Show your child how to organise their notes in more than one way, so that they can decide which way suits them best. Once they learn this, studying will become easier and more effective.
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7 Help your child avoid unnecessary stress
You should always do whatever you can to make your child keep a positive attitude towards school, studying and homework. Even when they have problems with a certain subject, tell them that the grade isn’t what’s important, but that they’re doing the best they can and that they can always count on your help. They should know that they’re studying to gain knowledge, not to get a grade. This way your child won’t panic and get stressed when they get a bad grade and they won’t hesitate to tell you and let you know they might need help.
It will take time and patience to teach your child good studying habits. However, there’s nothing more important for you to invest yourself in, than your child’s future, so help them develop intellectually and emotionally through creating these habits.
