It’s a new school year for children and, as with any new start, it’s a great time for new habits. There is always the potential to work harder and, more importantly, ways to work smarter. Why not encourage your children to implement something new into the way that they are currently working? Working smarter can help them to get the grades they want or simply help them feel that they are able to keep up with the work they are doing in class better. We don’t want our children to feel overwhelmed and should teach them the life skills needed to make the workload easier. So, what kind of things can we encourage our children to do to work smarter, so they are more of an active participant in the classroom, make it easier to keep up, or even be ahead of their work?
Ways To Work Smarter
Here are my top 10 recommendations for working smarter in school and study.
- Encourage your child to take good notes in class. It will make revision much easier later on.
- Encourage them to plan ahead for tests and projects. They can plan their timetable, what materials they’ll need, etc.
- Help them get into the habit of reviewing any new information they have learnt that day.
- Suggest they don’t multitask when they are working. They’ll complete work much faster when focused, and retain more information.
- Encourage them to take breaks between topics and subjects to refresh their mind. It’s also a good idea to move around for a short while so it feels more like a break. Just a few minutes can help energy levels when sitting for long periods.
- Recommend that they peer learn – maybe study together in a small group. Discuss what they are learning and test each other to help cement the learning.
- Encourage them to do practice exams at home under exam conditions. It will get them used to timing their answers so they feel more prepared on the day.
- Get them to look over and analyse the mistakes they made in tests and exams so they don’t make them again. After all, we learn best from our own mistakes!
- Encourage them to ask for feedback from teachers about their work, which they can then apply if necessary.
- If they take an interest in a particular subject, get them to challenge themselves. They can look for online resources and learn something that’s outside the syllabus.
Some children are very keen to learn and don’t need much encouragement to take it to the next level. These 10 ideas will help to stretch them further.
Working smarter also means making time for relaxing, fun, seeing friends, and having a work/life balance. Whilst we want our children to work hard, we don’t them to burn out! Be sure they are scheduling in some downtime too.
If you feel like your child could benefit from some useful strategies to work smarter then please call me on 07961312749.
