in what areas would you like your child to improve

What children bring to the classroom matters every fleck as much and in some ways more than what they are taught at school. We live in a earth of high expectations. A earth where five proficient GCSEs are a minimum requirement and giving your child the border is key.

The practiced news is that your kid'south potential can be hands adult and success can stalk from simple everyday attitudes and examples. Don't worry, we are not suggesting you brush up on your Avant-garde Algebra just even so. The learning attitude that your child arrives at the schoolhouse gates with each day can directly meliorate performance.

Nature can be nurtured. These common traits are either already naturally at your disposal or a small shift in awareness can chop-chop put them in reach.

one. Teach your kid that failure is a stepping-stone to success

Any skill requires a period of incompetence in gild to go competent. In brusque: to get good at something you take to start out being bad.

What's more, encouraging your child to increase their failure rate ('If at first you don't succeed, try, endeavor over again…') is the all-time fashion to increase their learning and develop their success in any field.

To exercise this children need to have ii primal traits: piffling fearfulness of failure and the resilience to push through when they fail the first few times and become to the point where they get proficient.

What can you practise to develop these key traits in your child?

• Teach them Chess
  Chess has often been described as the perfect teaching tool considering of all the positive effects it has on children's logic, problem solving and strategic planning. It also requires bailiwick and concentration and these are excellent transferable skills in the classroom. Many lath games involve a level of chance; not chess. Information technology's completely dependent on the skill and patience of the player.

  The innovative Yes two Chess entrada is a free online schools' chess community that has seen fantastic results in improving children's educational and social development through connecting junior players and international tournaments. Retentivity, maths, imagination and creatvity all go a boost during a game of chess and any school tin can sign up via a short application form to take function.

• Tell them of your ain failures and how you lot overcame them
  We may take information technology for granted that success requires hard work and overcoming of obstacles but this is not necessarily obvious to children. If yous accept time to explain your experience of a learning curve it will help them connect difficult work with futurity rewards.
  
• Don't over praise
  Explain early on in life that anybody has different talents and that not everyone tin can get a trophy. Mod parents tend to over praise, which can pb to problems when children realise that they are not equally 'vivid' or 'amazing' as they thought they were. There is power in setting positive only realistic expectations.

2. Make learning an activity your kid loves

Learning is a hundred times harder if information technology is seen as a chore. Many of us had a mental block about maths at school and much of this was down to the fact that we told ourselves we didn't like maths.

Enquiry psychologists accept proven time and time once more that a proficient mood makes you smarter, more than engaged, more artistic and more willing to persist at a difficult task. Then if you can encourage a child to relish learning, then the residuum is easy... or easier. The fundamental is to set out with a positive mind-set that is pre-programmed to succeed.

iii. Let your child to follow their passion

In a earth of hyper specialisation it isn't important – or fifty-fifty possible – to be good at everything. It's more than of import to be excellent at a few things. So, if your kid shows specific interest and takes a lot of joy in a certain topic at school, they will discover 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 go on quietly with the things they dear. If English is their passion, don't be afraid to encourage and become OTT on its positive impact. Spending time with them every bit they connect and savor a subject will also give insight into ways we can help transfer that joy to a less loved topic.

The Reading World Cup, a joint project between the Literacy Trust and the Football Foundation and the Professional Footballers' Association, has helped thousands of sports-mad boys unlock a love of reading. Making reading a challenge and introducing a competitive element with specific goals is key.

Farther reading
Education.com: Hacking instruction how kids love learning past Dale Stephens.
PowerToChange: Helping your child honey learning by Dr Dave Currie.
SchoolFamily:Instill a love of learning in your child by June Allan Corrigan.
Parents: Raising kids who dear to learn by Ginny Graves.

iv. Make academic subjects feel relevant to your child

Oft it is difficult for a child to focus and truly savor a subject because they cannot run across how has any relevance for their life or will help them in the futurity. Specific subjects are branded in their heads as something they need to do to continue the adults effectually them happy.

In her book 'How to do Maths so Your Children Can As well: The essential parents' guide', leading maths teacher and author Naomi Sani encourages mums and dads to live maths equally a family, counting coins for bus fares and dividing slices of cake to bring segmentation alive. Lego bricks can exist a colourful and playful way to explore fractions. Everyday objects are mathematically sorted.

When travelling, involve your child with map reading (geography), ask them to help with finding the translation of a word on your iPad (French, Spanish… even Mandarin)! Ever tried making bootleg modelling clay or slime? This is scientific discipline in the real world. Tell them information technology is chemistry. Or dip in to biology when they bump and bruise their human knee.

You can also tell your children how maths has been useful in your jobs. ('When I was a pupil I worked in a bar and I had to acquire to do mental arithmetic very quickly. Drinks were 99p back and then and I was I glad I knew my 9 times tables.')

Further reading
How to practice maths: Maths problems winning heart and minds past Naomi Sani.
Edutopia: Science Shows Making Lessons Relevant Really Matters by Sara Bernard.
American Psychological Association: Helping students notice relevance by Robin Roberson.

5. Involve games in learning every bit much as possible

If you can plow learning into a game, children, who are hard-wired to play, will respond and learn much more than quickly. An unabridged expanse of psychology has adult to written report this field. It's chosen gameification, and the term is used to describe the action of turning something into a game in order to improve engagement.

My ain son sees a tutor to assist him with his English. Some weeks he turns up, tired and disconnected, and the idea of completing a comprehension practise is clearly a no-no. The tutor, who is besides a trained child psychotherapist, regularly pushes aside the workbooks and suggests they play Hangman or Scrabble. His love of words has come on in leaps and bounds.

Indeed, Scrabble is widely recognised every bit having benefits for literacy rates.

Only it's not all about board games and old schoolhouse parlour play. Over the final decade, at that place has been an explosion of computer games designed to make you more intelligent. Brain training games are popular only there has been fiddling evidence to prove that the games in themselves had any actual positive upshot on the player.

half dozen. Motivate children past result rather than punishment

We've all done information technology. Used the threat of taking away something our child loves in society to try and motivate them. 'If you don't start doing your homework in the next ten minutes, there volition be no iPad after dinner.'

The problem is that this does not mimic life as a grown up. Adult life is adamant by a cause and outcome, and if a child starts to acquire that the outcomes are determined by their actions, you tin nurture a strong sense of motivation which they tin can take with them right through their didactics and across.

Motivation past consequences

• Helps the child learn self-control
• Tin exist used with teenagers, who might otherwise notice ways around a ban
• Builds the child's self-esteem
• Sets a good instance of constructive ways to solve problems

Motivation by penalization

• May teach children to deceive parents
• Rarely helps teenagers to acquire valuable lessons
• Tin reduce self-esteem
• Teaches children that threats are an acceptable way to solve issues

This is a expert instance based on a real experiment designed to explore cause and effect in kid psychology:

" A Mother told her girl, in a firm and friendly phonation, that in the future she would only wash clothes that were placed in the laundry pocketbook. After v days, the girl had no clean dress to wear to school and was unhappy to have to wear dirty, crumpled clothes. After that, she remembered to place her clothes in the bag."
Valya Telep, Child Development Specialist

Further reading
Virginia Country University: Discipline and Penalty: What is the Difference? by Valya Telep.
Empowering parents: How to give kids consequences that work by James Lehman.

seven. Improve your child's depth of processing

Researchers at Sheffield University found that trying to call up something has been shown to have near no result on whether nosotros actually think it. Look at notes with your child and assist them reorganise the information in some way then they process and understand information technology. This approach, chosen depth of processing, is one of the best ways to ensure cloth gets lodged in your memory.

Depth of processing is frequently cited every bit cardinal attribute of successful revision which also includes:
• spacing out practice – analysis shows that people who leave longer gaps between practice attempts keep to score higher.
• failing occassionally is practiced – people who are most inconsistent when they showtime offset have meliorate scores later on.
• Practising the thing you'll be tested on – if the test is an essay, practice writing essays!
• Getting residuum and sleep – studies shows that a brief rest subsequently learning something can assist you lot remember it a week later.

The implication for revision is articulate: just looking at your notes won't aid you learn them. Instead, you need to reorganise the data in some style – whether by making your own notes or practising writing answers. This volition assistance to ensure that material gets lodged in your child's memory.

A popular online tool called Memrise tin also aid with improving depth of processing. It's basically a quiz that is designed to help you memorise anything. It'south a double whammy also: just past building the test you lot are improving your depth of processing then, after y'all have finished, you tin can run through the test once more to improve your recall and understanding.

Further reading:
Psychological Science: Tracing the Trajectory of Skill Learning With a Very Big Sample of Online Game Players past Tom Stafford.
EdLabs: Memrise - A Green-thumbed Arroyo to Language Learning by Stephen Pratt.
MIT Technology review: Plant a New Language in Your Mind by Kristina Bjoran.

8. Equip your child with switching off and relaxation techniques

Focus and concentration tin exist one of the biggest barriers to success in schoolhouse. Teaching your child to shut downward can be vital in improving their ability to switch on at the correct times. Active relaxation, simple animate exercises or fifty-fifty bones meditation can have a powerful impact on the ability to learn. Switching off in forepart of TV may experience relaxing for your child but information technology is far better to learn the skill to at-home your heed on its ain. Charlotta Martinus of Teen Yoga, the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland'southward specialist yoga preparation center accredited with the Yoga Alliance Uk, says developing pro-active relaxation tecnhiques helps combat stress and improves learning. She has taken yoga courses in to hundreds of United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland schools to bully educational effect. Watch a curt video virtually Teen Yoga.

Further reading:
Teaching children meditation: Parenting and education with mindfulness by Lorraine Murray.
The Independent: Meditation to stop tantrums by Rebecca Hardy.

9. Allow your child (safe) admission to the internet

Historically, academic success has been founded on an ability to remember and regurgitate facts and figures. This is irresolute in our hyper-continued mod world where the respond to pretty much any question can be plant at the click of a mouse.

The ability to research and find answers to questions is as important equally ever, if not more. The internet can exist a powerful tool in learning this key skill.

Every bit parents there is a tendency to try to limit screen fourth dimension as we often use iPads and PCs as virtual babysitters, something our children can switch on and requite u.s.a. a little space. This shouldn't stop pro-actively scheduling figurer time for educational purposes: so-called 'tech for skilful time' can exist highly beneficial.

Children with regular, education-focused internet access are at an advantage when it comes to exams according to this commodity 'Children with cyberspace access at habitation proceeds examination reward': www.theguardian.com/educational activity/2011/may/21/children-cyberspace-access-exam-reward

Follow these two easy steps:

1. Keep the computer in the living room
Past having the computer in a public room of the firm you can monitor what your children are doing and also more than easily manage fourth dimension limits.

2. Install a protection tool
It's vital that yous have child security settings installed to enable you to relax and allow your child enquiry to their heart's content without fear of them coming across inappropriate material. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Heaven or BT, provide controls to help you filter or restrict content. Yous tin install software packages, some are available for gratis, that can assist yous filter, restrict or monitor what your kid can see online.

ten. Allow them the space to larn empathy

"Unstructured play is that ready of activities that children create on their own without adult guidance. Children naturally, when left to their own devices, will accept initiative and create activities and stories in the globe around them."
Avril Swan, Parenting Expert

Children with ameliorate empathy tend to chronicle and do meliorate in the globe. Can y'all direct teach empathy? The brusque answer is no. The more y'all try to actively encourage empathy, the more you lot get in the way. The presence of a parent often goes paw-in-hand with a gear up of instructions (i.e. we tell them the right way to behave) but a easily-off approach to encouraging empathy tin exist very effective.

There are 2 key means that are you lot can encourage empathy:

one. Allow time for unstructed play
Empathy is often learnt when authority is removed and a child without a structure or parental guidance needs to brand decision by themselves. In a structured team sports game, children are organised to play with each other. However, during unstructured play, the child has to have in to consideration the deportment and feeling of the other children. If they don't, they will rapidly detect themselves playing on their own. Giving your child this space volition hateful they need to quickly learn to consider others' stance and learn to negotiate.

2. Facilitate children of different ages to play together
Children spend a great bargain of fourth dimension with their peers at school as they are taught in year groups and often socialise with other children from their common Cardinal Stage groups at playtimes. Exterior of school, our extended families oftentimes live far away so social time with cousins of different ages can exist express too. A lot is gained, however, if we facilitate children of different ages play together. This benefits both children: the older child become the opportunity to larn leadership and nurturing skills whilst the younger child is given an effective role model to emulate and extra source of intendance and back up.

"Unfortunately, many children in our club today have little opportunity for age-mixed play. More and more, complimentary neighbourhood play - which was usually age-mixed - has been replaced by developed-directed, age-segregated activities for children and by indoor solitary play. Before we move even further in this management or surrender on the thought of reversing this trend, we would exercise well to accept a firm understanding of the evolutionary functions of age-mixed play and how those functions are however relevant to children's development today."
Peter Greyness, Leading Research Psychology Professor

Cubs, Brownies, Girl Guides and Scouts can be an first-class manner for your child to mix with a range of ages of children locally.

Theatre groups such equally Mantle Up, whose motto is 'lifting the drapery on confidence', or the National Youth Theatre sees children of different ages and interim abilities work together calendar week in, week out and also nurtures a proficient sense of camaraderie. Likewise, youth music groups and orchestras can enable the mixed age experience. Effort Youth Music for groups and opportunities in your surface area of the Uk.

Further reading
Kevin Medico: Why children need more unstructured play past Avil San MD.
On Existence: Play spirit and grapheme by Stuart Brown.
Psychology Today: The Special Value of Children's Age-Mixed Play.

{Bonus tip} And finally… lead by instance

The New York Times recently ran an commodity with the headline 'If Drivers Buckle Up, Children Do.' It was based on a Us study looking in to the way children copy the behaviour of the adults around them.

And then how can we await our children to dearest reading if they don't run across us pick upwards a book?

All of the areas in this commodity that we have highlighted as beingness able to help your child do well at school lead dorsum to you. This isn't a statement to add together force per unit area or guilt about our behaviour or habits. It'south the opposite: we take all the tools in our educational armoury to show your children the way.

By doing the following, your children will follow you:

• Love to larn – no matter what age
• Evidence empathy
• Learn to relax
• Be bold and embrace failure
• Make time to mix with family and different friends with an age range of children
• Bring together them in their learning journey and share real-life and personal learning examples

hamdrutentmely.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.schoolguide.co.uk/blog/10-proven-ways-to-help-your-child-do-well-at-school-simple-steps-every-parent-can-try-at-home

Share this post