Your child’s hard work and determination will determine his achievements in school. This can be affected by your child’s attitude towards schooling. Beside your child’s efforts and attitude, parental support is very important in a child’s education. Children with supportive parents tend to develop good study habits leading to higher academic achievement. As a parent, you can use these researched effective strategies to help your child unleash their learning potential.
How to encourage your child to study? Parents can use different strategies to encourage their child to study. Most importantly, these strategies require that the parent be aware of their child’s study needs. These include understanding a child’s learning environment, instilling discipline habits, and being conscious of the language being used when relating with the child.
Children vary in their learning style. Be aware that some children might take more time, while others might be faster, and this can be affected by their motivation levels. With different motivations, some are independent learners, and there are those who need more encouragement in order to study. Understanding these differences, can help you implementing these 12 smart strategies below.
12 Smart Strategies To Encourage Your Child To Study
There are many elements to pay attention when encouraging your child. You will want to teach the values of studying hard and appreciation for education. Or in some instances, if your child is losing focus in school tasks, you will need to intervene. Below are 12 smart strategies that you can implement to encourage your child to study:
- Have a reading atmosphere at home
- Let your child take control of his own learning
- Model enthusiasm for learning
- Use fun activities for studying
- Affirm his learning; not just his performance
- Teach him how to organize
- Manage gadgets and television time
- Involve his significant others in encouraging him to study
- Set a specific study time
- Make your home conducive for learning
- Refrain from using threats, punishments, and even rewards
- Communicate with school personnel about your child’s performance in school
1) Have a reading atmosphere at home
A child who loves reading is a child who loves learning. When a child studies, reading is essential. Your child will need to read the information written on the book or whatever concept is shown on the screen. Reading is an essential part of learning because it allows your brain to process information. When your home promotes reading, your child will be motivated to study well. Cultivate a reading atmosphere by placing books readily available around your home. Read with your child.
Click Here to learn more about “How Does Reading Affect a Child’s Development”
2) Let your child take control of his own learning
Let your child enjoy study time. There are subject matters that your child enjoys more. If your child wishes to do homework on those subjects first, allow it. Provide your child with choices for studies, and you can just lead your child back to the study needed. Even with the scheduling of study time, you can present choices and guide your child in making the best schedule for studying.
3) Model enthusiasm for learning
They say education is life-long learning. Even if you are not in school anymore, show to your child that you are still willing to learn. Be with him when he studies and ask a few questions about what he is reviewing. When he encounters a difficult Math problem or an unfamiliar word, help him solve it. Take the opportunity to find out the meaning of a new word or concept together. One effective way to encourage your child to study is by living with the right attitude.
4) Use fun activities for studying
You have to keep track of the topics that your child has in school so you can support him at home. To support him, look for fun activities that would enhance his skill in that particular lesson. There are educational activities and applications which you can find on the internet that would supplement your child’s activities in school. In doing this, your child will surely be motivated to study.
Click here to understand about “Play” and “Playful Activities” to do with your child.
5) Affirm his learning; not just his performance.
Make your child feel that you believe in his abilities, and he is capable of succeeding. Avoid emphasizing his low performance or mistakes. Instead, highlight the realizations that he got from that experience. Even when he scores high, make him recognize the learning he got more than the high score he received. With this, he will be encouraged to study even if at times he is not getting satisfying results. Make him realize that the reason why he studies is for him to learn not to bring home medals.
6) Teach him how to organize
Organizing is an important skill that your child must learn. Help your child to be organized by asking him to put order on his study table and to clean up his bag. When everything is in place, a child would tend to be motivated and inspired to study. As a parent, you have to be consistent and patient in doing this.
7) Manage gadgets and television time
Gadgets and television also educate your child for they are good sources of information. However, he can be addicted to them so don’t let him be distracted by these things. You should manage the time he spends watching TV and using his gadgets. Set a specific number of hours for him to use these, and be consistent in implementing your own rules. In addition, managing his exposure to these objects can also improve his social life and language skills.
8) Involve his significant others in encouraging him to study
The significant others of your child can also impact his studies. Request your relatives to also encourage your child to do his best in school. It is good to inform them about his accomplishments so they could also give him affirmations that will motivate him to always give his best and study well. You can also inform them about your rules for him regarding his studies so they can support you.
9) Set a specific study time
A structure is important in encouraging your child to study. You have to be very definite and consistent in implementing his study routine. Proper time management is essential in motivating your child to open his books and notebooks. Allot a specific time in a day or in a week where he will not do anything else except to review his lessons. You have to discipline him until studying is already part of his system.
10) Make your home conducive for learning
Your home must have a positive atmosphere towards learning. In doing so, you must provide a nice place for your child to do his homework. Make the place conducive for learning by ensuring that it promotes silence, and it allows him to work with ease and comfort. Having a nice study area is a good strategy to encourage your child to study.
11) Refrain from using threats, punishments, and even rewards
Threats and punishments will not encourage your child to study well. They can even make your child withdraw from studying, and they do not promote a positive attitude toward learning. Even rewards are discouraged, because your child might always look forward to something in order to study. Instead of providing him these things, make him realize the importance of studying in his life.
12) Communicate with school personnel about your child’s performance in school
It is always recommended to have a regular conference with your child’s teachers so you are updated about his school performance. In doing this, you can better address his needs by looking for effective ways on how to deal with him. However, you can already lessen your meetings with his teachers once you have noticed that his study habits have improved.
Conclusion
A child with good study habits will most likely have higher academic achievement. Parents play a key role in making their children establish study routines that will make them independent learners. Patience, consistency, and creativity are the qualities that a parent must have to successfully guide their child to build effective study habits. Ultimately, we encourage our children to study, so as to develop in them a sense of responsibility. Through the strategies stated above, a parent can be effective in making his child a responsible learner.
Related Questions
What could be the reasons why my child is not interested in studying? Children vary because they have different learning styles, and there are other factors that contribute to the lack of enthusiasm to study. Some of the reasons include high parents’ expectations that result in loss of motivation, heavy workload that causes burn out, and children not recognizing the importance of studying.
When is the best time to study? School activities require so much energy. If a child will study at home, the right time must be considered to maximize the study time. However, there is no ‘best time’ really for a child to study. The best time depends on how the child will respond at that particular moment. As a parent, you can allow your child to have a good sleep and a healthy meal first before asking him to study.
