For younger kids who might still need lots of help from parents, try the kitchen or dining room table. Older children might prefer to study alone at a desk in their room, so resist their requests to put a TV in their bedroom.
If you have older and younger children in the same house, ask older children to put their phones on silent and not check them when in front of younger, studying siblings.
You can also set up software to limit Internet distraction. For Macs, Self-Control is a free service that blocks a list of websites during study times. For Windows, go with Cold Turkey for a fee of $20 per month. There’s also StayFocused for Chrome browsers or LeechBlock for Firefox. [3] X Research source
For example, if your child is studying at the kitchen table, sit down next to them and work on a task of your own. Seeing you focused on your tasks is also a great way to model good behavior for your child.
If the study schedule can’t be the same from day to day, keep it constant from week to week. This way, your weekly routine is stable and recognizable for your child. Break study time up into a few blocks of 1-2 hours if necessary. One block can occur right after school, and then another right after dinner.
These lists may be online. If so, print them out and post them somewhere both you and your child see them every day. By middle and high school, teachers usually give syllabi that cover half or even the whole year. If your older child still needs guidance, ask them if they’d be willing to share those syllabi so you can help them keep track of due dates.
Filling in exciting things like winter break and the school play is as important as writing down the big science project. It’ll give your child something to be excited about when they check their calendar. Once they can write well, have your child be the one to do the writing. This will help them memorize dates as well as feel like the calendar is really theirs.
You can also use the planner to help your child remember to do daily or weekly chores. Teach them to get excited about checking things off their to-do list. You can give them stickers and markers to make writing in their planner more fun and personal.
When your child is younger, you can create flashcards with them and quiz them with the flashcards. As they get older, you can encourage your child to be more independent by coaching them as they make the flashcards and helping them find ways to study with the flashcards on their own.
Sit with them the first few times they take notes or highlight. Be sure they know not to take notes on or highlight everything they read. Emphasize key terms, big dates, and important definitions. Show your child different ways of organizing their notes. For example, they could keep one sheet for terms and definitions, another for listing dates, and one more for jotting down answers to big-picture questions like “what’s the major theme of this story?” or “what’s the global significance of the American Revolution?”
You can ask questions like: “Why do you think your teacher would assign this type of project? What do you think you’ll learn from it?” When your child gets a correct answer, ask them to explain how they came up with it.
Your child’s goals can be related to their study habits, or to doing well on a particular assignment. These goals can be things like: “Learn to take more effective notes,” “Improve my grades in Earth Science” or “Read a chapter book on my own. ”
Encourage your child and their friend to help each other out with each of their strongest subjects. One might be “in charge” of math, and the other of reading. Having a study buddy is a great way to get your child in the habit of quizzing themselves or other people to commit information to their memory. Make sure the sessions don’t turn into social hours by checking in frequently. You can do so sneakily by bringing over snacks or having the study sessions in a common area of your home.
Even if your child is panicking because they’ve totally forgotten they need to make a volcano display by 6am the next morning, don’t add to the crisis by getting angry. You should both take deep breaths and tackle the situation calmly.
