Tips to help your child succeed without a Tutor.
Tutors are great, after all I am one! and have the potential to make a real difference but throughout my 20+ years as a student and now a tutor I’ve been able to observe those that excel, and those that don’t and see firsthand some of the differences in approach between the two. Here is just a small selection of some tips I’ve identified and some of things you can do to help your child progress without a tutor.
1. Goals
Help your child set goals, not all children are going to naturally enjoy the academic side of school goals are a way to circumvent this as they shift the focus, it becomes easier to be motivated and to track progress when you set goals. Learning becomes a means to an end and ideally you would have a scenario that your child enjoys learning but this can be developed.
what Kinds of goals could you set? This could be anything from achieving a C grade in English by the next half term or simply completing the week’s homework by Saturday night. Goals ensure a focus and this is important.
2. Planning and organisation
Most Children under perform in exams because they have not covered the material enough times and in enough depth to be able to answer the questions to the standard required, this has nothing to do with them understanding the basic premise, or even to an extent their academic ability.
Some young people (very very few) when learning have the gift to be able to hear or see something once and have it lodged in their brain for the vast majority of us it takes some practice before we reach that stage, so a key priority as a parent or career is to incorporate regular time in the day for your child to go through school work outside of school hours, this will allow the consolidation of understanding, and highlight any gaps in knowledge.
This may mean no Xbox until school work is done, no Facebook until you’ve seen homework is completed and no social activities until learning has been completed. It’s Key to success, because the work does need to be completed.
You will almost definitely encounter resistance to this could be days weeks or even months, depending on how long your child has become accustomed to the life they are currently living but over time you will sow a seed whereby your child becomes accustomed to working before other activities, so stand firm! This also allows them time to identify how they learn and the methods that suit them the best.
Also having a work schedule helps both you and your child see Cleary what is happening, and keeps your child accountable, you can also incorporate extracurricular and social activities into it, for balance.
3. Work Space
As much as we’ve accepted the messy teenager stereotype If you’re child is going to have regular work habits you will need a clean, quiet place for your child to work, if they are fortunate enough to have their own room invest in a good sized desk, avoid working in places where they can be distracted by Television, or other people, after school clubs and libraries can also be helpful but for many tasks learning in solitude is a very good discipline to have.
4. Use of available Resources and Teachers
Your child may need some extra help that you are currently not able to provide, especially now more than ever there are many resources that can help. Online learning platforms such as the Khan Academy, Udemy, Mymaths which many schools have subscribed to have detailed tutorials that are helpful, I would also suggest the Khan Academy they have good content that both students and teachers to use. Although teachers have 29 other children to tend to, they can still help. Encourage your child to build more of a rapport with their teacher, if their stuck on a particular idea or concept and there has been a recognisable attempt to solve the problem and the teacher can see this most teachers will be more than happy to take some time out after class to provide extra assistance and even in some cases set additional work to help.
4. Confidence/ positive reinforcement
One way every Parent can help their child is by supporting them in their academic endeavours, acknowledge progress even if small, a desire to improve academically in itself should be applauded. Review their goals with them on a regular basis and discuss ways in which you can facilitate their learning, a visual way to see progress may also help, you could make a chart that displays their latest test results and monitor the trend.
5. Learning Outside the classroom
It can, be very helpful to see how what is being learnt has real world applications, it may be an idea to visit museums and exhibits, a great example is The Royal Society Annual exhibit which showcases the most cutting edge scientific discoveries from all over the country and the world and it’s absolutely free for the public, it happens every year in the first week of July see the Royal Society website here for more details.
It takes substantial work to do well and perform academically, your goal as a parent should be to get them to the stage whereby they are self sufficient, and carry out everything mentioned prior for themselves because a key thing I’ve observed is those that excel and do the best are able to successfully manage their academic, extracurricular and social lives , with Parents taking a more consultative role. They do very well and are motivated to do even more. Allowing your Child to have some ownership over their learning will set them well on their way to being an effective independent learner.
This list is in no way exhaustive I’d like to know if you have any tips that you find helpful or links to other learning platforms please leave in the comments section.
Great blog post, some really helpful tips and tricks that I think all parents and careers should take note of!