As a mother, I know that grades are not everything, but it can’t be denied that they are a fundamental part of our children’s education and success in life. From elementary school all the way to high school. To even be able to get accepted in a good sport or school group, or to apply for a good scholarship, or a prestigious university, it will always come down to the grades. If you are like me and you like your children to have good grades in school and be successful in life, this article will give you 12 Study Skills Tips That Will Help Your Kids Get Straight A’s at school on the regular basis. Ready? Let’s begin.
Keep in mind that for all these tips to be much more effective, children must be nurtured and cared for. These tips also require consistency and sporadic adult supervision to get children to develop these routines.
12 Study Skills Tips That Will Help Your Kids Get Straight A’s at school on a regular basis.
1. Create for them an isolated area free of clutter and distractions to study.
Be sure that this space includes a comfortable chair, table or desk, and sufficient lighting. Make sure this area is free of distractions and free of other people disturbing them. Help them to turn off all cell phones, televisions, video games, music, or anything else that will make their mind get distracted instead of focusing on the schoolwork.
2. Help them to Find the best time to study.
Some kids tend to do their best work as soon as they get home from school while they are still in the school mode. Others need a break and don’t settle down to study until after playtime, a nap, dinner and/or family time. Just be sure to allow themselves enough time to get everything done and still get enough sleep each night.
3. Help them to be organized with their time and be consistent with it.
Help them to set aside a specific time each day to do homework and study every day, create a schedule and help them stick to that schedule at the time that works best for them. For instance, let’s say they decide to study for 45 minutes every day as a reasonable amount of time to dedicate to schoolwork. This means that even if they complete homework in the first 35 minutes, they will still stay in this area and study or review notes for the next 10 minutes until the 45 minutes is up. Make this a habit, and as a word of advice starts as soon as they starts school. The sooner the better.
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4. Reward them for being productive.
Let them decide on an activity to do once their study time is completed. Allow them to watch a television show later in the evening, or play their favorite video game for every fifteen minutes that they study. By creating a reward system you’ll keep them motivated and committed to do some school work every day.
5. Vary the topics they study every day.
For example, If they spent extra time reviewing history yesterday, tell them to spend the additional time on science tonight. Some subject areas may require more time than others. They should get a feel for this a month or so into the school year.
6. Guide them to Study the difficult subjects first and get those out of the way.
When they study the subjects that give them difficulty first they will spend more time and therefore they will be able to understand everything properly. Once they finally comprehend those difficult subjects or concepts, there is a good chance that they will feel confident and motivated to study the easier subjects.
7. Encourage taking regular study breaks.
This can also serve as a mini-reward. For instance, allow themselves to get a drink or snack or listen to a specific song after they finish re-copying your notes for science. Make the breaks short, 3-6 minutes or so, so they won’t get side-tracked or lose focus for the day.
8. Help them to find the best way to study.
There are many methods your kids can use to study. Don’t just let them re-read notes or the text. Help them to ask questions. Create flash-cards. Redo assignments. Create time-lines. Play games. Create a quiz for them to test what they’ve learned. Encourage them to find websites online that review the same material. Make up questions that you think might be on a test and give it to them. Studying should be an active process, not just time spent re-reading something.
9. Teach them fun ways to remember things.
Encourage other fun ways to study. Example, when you need to remember a group of terms use the first letter of each to create a word (acronym) or a sentence (acrostic). For instance, an easy way to remember the five Great Lakes is the word HOMES. By just remembering the word homes you can easily remember the names of the five Great Lakes . H stands for Huron, O for Ontario , M for Michigan , and so on. They can also create silly sentences to help them remember long lists of terms. For instance, remembering the sentence Martha Visits Every Monday, Just Stays Until Noon, Period, will help you remember the planets in the order they are found. M for Mercury, V for visits, E for Earth, etc.
10. Become the best listener for them.
Sit and listen to them (this would be a great review for a difficult subject), Mom or Dad, a sibling, a family friend etc. listen and let them explain their notes to you, this will be a good practice that will help them retain better what they are trying to learn.
11. Teach them that, Practice and Repetition makes perfect.
When they are preparing for a big test make sure the knowledge becomes a second nature for them. If that’s not the case, they’ll need to study for a bit longer until they grasp the concepts fluently. Help and encourage them to keep pushing through until they had fully understand the concepts for that test.
12. Encourage exercises before studying for hard tests.
Research shows that kids retain more after being physically active. Get them to soccer practice, a jog, rough-house with your dog, break a sweat first, then get them settle down and focus on the school work.
Related articles you might like to read.
Back-to-School Tips For New Parents.
How Parents Can Teach Their Children To Live a Healthy Life.
Positive parenting tips to start practicing today.
Final thoughts about 12 Tips To Instill Study Skills That Will Help Your Kids Get Straight A’s.
Having the opportunity to help my children to be successful in life is one of the tasks that although difficult because it requires perseverance, is very rewarding. For them developing good study skills and habits is a long learning process, but with the help of parents this task can become easy and even fun for them.
I hope this article was helpful and has inspire you to help your kids to succeed in life.
Zadi, xo.
