10 Tips to help your school children get better grades

As parents, we acknowledge the importance of the education to help our children become successful in the future. With that in mind, we invest a lot in order to provide our kids with the best education they can get. Time and again, I remind my children that we are not blessed with material wealth unlike their other friends who will soon inherit the fortune of their families, but the best legacy we can leave you them is their education. I just pass this on to my children since these are the same words that I often hear from my mom.

What exactly can we do to help them with the rigors of their academic lives? From personal experience, I believe that parents need to be involved with their children’s academic experience especially during the pre-school and grade school years. Here are 10 Tips to help your school children get better grades:

1. Create a scheduled Study Time – Build a routine for your kids. Despite the incredibly busy schedule that you have, you would be surprised to know that your child will truly benefit from having a structured schedule. Later on, they will develop this habit and can study on their own even with little or no supervision at all. At 4, both my children started pre-school already. My son really enjoyed going to school for 2 ½ hours every day. After school, right before taking his nap we would work on his home work which is usually coloring pages or doodling stuff, and in less than an hour we’re done. This has been his habit, up until now and even though I am working then he can do his homework and will just ask me to check it when I get home.

2. Study the next day’s lesson – Study time is more that doing their home work. Get your kids into the habit reading the next day’s lesson or studying in advance. Most schools provide academic reference sheets where they outline the topics that will be taken up during the semester. Take advantage of this and be prepared to assist your child in the subject matter that he is currently studying.

3. Identify a suitable study area – A place where your children can study without any interruptions is a must. You do need to build a study room – a quiet, uncluttered table will do. What is essential is that it is quiet and free from distractions like the TV and telephone. Clutter free is also important. According to studies, a clutter-free environment helps clear the mind thus making your child more productive, so tell the younger children not to play in that area and not to disturb their older brother or sister.

4. Make it FUN and exciting! – Injecting some fun activities while studying encourages your school children to be more interested in their lessons. This is especially true for younger school children. Try counting with marbles, colored popsicle sticks or jelly beans. Or keep an eye on everyday things and grab the chance to teach them about their lessons. I once taught my child to divide a pizza pie in order for her to learn fractions. Kids should have lots of fun and encouragement when they study, make them feel that studying is not a CHORE.

5. Create a family activity – Involve the whole family in studying. If your child needs to study a story, engage the family in reading the parts, assigning each one a character. Tell the family to use accents, different voices and act the part. It will be fun and will ease up the tension, making your child remember more. You can formulate a lot ways in involving the family.

6. Make mock exams – This is very helpful particularly during big exams. Collate their past test papers. On exam days, put together test papers based on their previous lessons. Although this entails some effort on your part but this will greatly enhance their learning capacity and more importantly bring about a bond between you and your child.

7. Take some REST – Never, never push your kids to study if they are not in the mood or you will just end in a brawl resulting to too much wasted time. Listen and communicate with your child, maybe he is tired and wants to rest for awhile. The important thing is that they recognize the importance of finishing their home work and making them aware of the circumstances that may arise if they don’t do so. Just make sure to let them understand at the very beginning that homework comes first before engaging in any other activities such as playtime and TV time. Call me strict, but I have established this rule even when they were in pre-school and up to now it’s still the “rule.” Admittedly, there are slip-ups once in a while but they understand that it’s the rule. Just let them take a break once in a while.

8. Boost your child’s self –esteem – Our children require a lot of love, praise and nurturing. Avoid negative criticisms instead listen to your child’s needs. Maybe he is experiencing some difficulties in a particular subject matter. Ask him why? Maybe he is just confused or was not able to grasp the instructions, there are a lot of factors that you will discover if you just keep an open communication. If he did well, no matter how small the achievement may be, be generous in giving praise. Keep in mind that the higher his level of self-confidence, the faster he will learn. When he’s more confident, he’ll take more risks hence he will be more challenged to achieve.

9. Involve your self in your children’s school life – Attend fellowships and meeting scheduled by the school. Get to know your child’s teachers personally – this will allow you to observe your child’s academic and behavioral progress.

One good thing about being an active parent is that you also get to know other parents as well. You can share notes and experience about your children’s activities. I am very fortunate to have been acquainted with wonderful moms and dads from my son’s school. One of them also established an e-group, which is very helpful during exam weeks. Each of us is assigned a subject that we will work on. We shall then share reviewer or mock exam which will be uploaded in the e-group site. This is a great way to lessen the time in doing mock exams for each and every subject. This is a lot better compare to what I have done for my daughter before where I used to write mock exams with my own hands, now technology has helped me a lot. Although it is up to you if you still want to do your own mock exams.

10. Encourage your school children to think about their future. Help them learn to set their goals. What they need to do in order to achieve the goals that they have set. Feel free to share your own experiences so they can relate easily. It should not be all about grades but about acquiring knowledge and building a good future.

I have written the above-mentioned tips to guide parents like me in dealing with their school children. There are no black and white rule in dealing with children; these are mostly based from my own experiences and a bit of research. I hope I have shared some helpful tips for parents out there.


Images are courtesy of free school clipart.