Access the web app for less than 10 cents per day!  Test drive

Tag: Child For Success

Empowering the Young Mind: Strategies for Supporting Your Child’s Education

Posted on by addwebseo

As children grow and develop, it is crucial for them to continue learning in order to reach their full potential. Learning goes beyond the traditional classroom setting and can occur through various experiences and interactions. By keeping children engaged in learning, they develop critical thinking skills, creativity, and a lifelong love for knowledge.

While the importance of continued learning for children is widely recognized, sometimes parents face challenges in ensuring that their child is constantly learning. These challenges can range from lack of time and resources to a child’s lack of motivation. However, by implementing some simple strategies and techniques, parents can help their children keep on learning and reach their full potential.

Tips on Fostering Learning

A. Finding the Child’s Interests and Passions

One of the best ways to encourage a love of learning is to tap into a child’s individual interests and passions. By doing so, learning becomes more engaging and relevant to the child. Parents can ask their children about their favorite hobbies, books, and subjects and then use that information to guide educational experiences. For example, a child who enjoys math can practice solving equations, play math games, or participate in math competitions.

B. Creating a Positive Learning Environment

The environment in which a child learns can significantly impact their motivation and engagement. Parents can create a positive learning environment by making it fun, comfortable, and inviting. This can be achieved by incorporating colorful decorations, creating a dedicated study area, and providing ample light and space that is free from distractions.

C. Promoting a Growth Mindset

Promoting a growth mindset is crucial for encouraging a love of learning. A growth mindset is a belief that one’s abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and learning. Parents can promote this by highlighting the benefits of making mistakes and celebrating their child’s efforts and progress, rather than just the end result. This helps children view learning as a journey, rather than a destination, and encourages them to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth.

D. Encouraging Curiosity

Encouraging children to ask questions and express their curiosity can be a great way to foster independent learning. Parents can ask open-ended questions, listen to their child’s ideas and opinions, and provide opportunities for them to explore and discover new information on their own.

E. Providing Resources for Self-Directed Learning

Self-directed learning is an approach to education that empowers students to take control of their own learning process. Rather than being passively taught by a teacher or parent, children in self-directed learning environments actively seek out information and resources to build their knowledge and skills. This type of learning has been shown to be highly effective in promoting student motivation, engagement, and academic success.

F. Setting and Achieving Goals

Parents can work with their children to set realistic and achievable goals and then provide support and encouragement along the way. This not only helps children develop a sense of accomplishment and pride but also helps them understand the importance of setting and working towards goals in all areas of life.

How to develop structural learning

A. Daily Routines

Incorporating educational activities into daily routines can help support structured learning and make it a regular part of a child’s life. Parents can find creative ways to make learning a part of daily activities such as meal times, trips, or chores. For example, parents can play educational games, have discussions about current events, or work on puzzles together.

B. Classes or Programs

Research has demonstrated that participating in structured learning activities can have a number of benefits for children. For example, structured learning can provide children with opportunities to develop new skills and interests. In particular, programs that focus on the arts, such as music or art classes, can help children develop creativity and critical thinking skills. Additionally, structured learning programs that focus on physical activities, such as sports or dance, can help children develop coordination, motor skills, and overall fitness.

C. Reinforce Learning at Home

Working with a child’s teacher can be a great way to support structured learning. Parents can attend parent-teacher conferences, stay informed about what is being taught in class, and reinforce learning at home by completing homework and studying together. This helps create a consistent learning environment and supports and reinforces what is being taught in the classroom.

Managing Gadget and Screen Time for Optimal Learning

A. Limiting the Amount of Screen Time

Balancing screen time is important for a child’s overall well-being and development. While technology can be a valuable tool for learning, it is crucial to limit the amount of time a child spends in front of screens. Parents can set daily or weekly limits on screen time and encourage alternative activities such as reading, playing outside, or pursuing hobbies.

B. Providing Age-Appropriate Screen Content

When children use screens, it is important to ensure they access age-appropriate content. Parents can research and choose educational apps, games, and websites that align with their child’s interests and learning goals. Additionally, parents can also monitor their child’s screen usage and ensure they are not exposed to inappropriate or harmful content.

C. Encouraging Active Screen Time

Encouraging active screen time can also help balance screen time. This can include playing physical games, educational activities, or virtual reality experiences. These activities can be a great way to engage children and provide a unique learning experience.

How Georgia Test Prep can help Your Child Keep Learning

Georgia Test Prep can be a valuable resource in helping your child keep learning. The web app provides online resources and Georgia Milestones practice tests. These resources can help support structured learning and reinforce what your child is learning in school.

By using the practice tests, your child can become familiar with the test format, understand the types of questions that will be asked, and develop test-taking strategies.

Incorporating Georgia Test Prep into your child’s study routine can help improve their confidence and performance on standardized tests. This can provide a boost to your child’s academic success and help prepare them for future educational and career opportunities.

Overall, it is a valuable resource for parents who want to support their child’s learning and help them reach their full potential. By using the resources and practice tests available on the website, parents can provide their children with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

7 Important Learning Habits To Build In Your Child For Success

Posted on by addwebseo

Many of the habits that we carry throughout life, for better or for worse, are developed in childhood.

American philosopher William James wrote, “Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.”

But what does a child know about these matters? They can’t possibly know what they’re getting themselves into. They merely observe their environment and adapt accordingly from a very early age. In fact, research has established that many fundamental processes that have to do with thinking, reasoning, and learning are present and fully functioning at birth or develop by the time a child is 4-5 years old (Goswami, 2008).

As parents, we need to help inculcate good learning habits in our children. It’s not only about doing their homework every day, which is no doubt important, but also about how they learn. After all, homework will one day end, but learning never does, and developing a positive attitude towards learning is paramount for them to have a successful life.

Habits form early in a child

Habits form and get entrenched in the human brain automatically based on an individual’s environment unless there is a conscious effort to shape them.

Once habits set, they are very difficult to break, because repeat habits set up a dopamine release loop in the brain which creates a feeling of pleasure and strengthens the habit.

When it comes to kids, you need to catch them while they’re young—research shows that children develop habits by age 9.

But that doesn’t mean you should wait until you think they know what you’re talking about. Kids pick up on more things than we realize, and as mentioned above it starts from an early age.

While study habits can be built later in life, start with teaching your kids self-control. Research has shown that children who learn self-control at an early age are set up for more success later in life. Children who exhibit tendencies like impulsivity, aggression, and hyperactivity struggle emotionally, socially, and academically throughout life (Spira & Fischel, 2005).

However, this post is going to focus specifically on developing successful learning habits in young school-going children.

Habits take time to develop consciously

It’s a popular internet-fuelled belief that it takes 21 days to form a habit. But a study out of University College London suggests that the truth is not so simple.

While the 21-day rule may be applicable for simpler habits, like drinking a glass of water after breakfast, a more complex routine can take the better part of a year to cement itself.

As you work with your children to develop the following habits, understand that it will probably take some time for them to stick. Forming a habit isn’t easy, but once the initial inertia is overcome your child will benefit from it for the rest of their lives.

Now let’s get into the 7 essential learning habits that every child should develop.

1. Designate a study area for your child

Help your child create a study area, a place that is dedicated to school work and projects. As they become habituated to this space, it will help set the tone for concentration and productivity.

The “real” study area is, of course, in their mind. The ability to dip into and out of “focus mode” will serve them immensely later in life.

2. Keep short breaks between bursts of concentration

Sometimes referred to as the “Pomodoro technique”, this famous and well-loved productivity technique recognizes that the human brain cannot focus for too long without getting exhausted. It’s just nature.

Instead, your child can focus for a long period, typically around 25 minutes, followed by a short break of 5 minutes to allow the brain to rest and recuperate for the next burst of concentration. After 3-4 cycles like this, a longer break of usually 15 minutes follows.

Having to sit and concentrate for hours together can feel like a daunting task. This method, among other things, tricks the brain by setting a shorter time limit. 25 minutes doesn’t seem quite as long as 2 hours, so it doesn’t feel as daunting. The short break then rejuvenates the mind and makes it easy to keep going.

3. Understand how long work will take and prioritize

Encourage your child to learn how much time a particular task will take for them. They need to familiarize themselves with their working styles (while always improving simultaneously).

Then they can prioritize their tasks. Perhaps they want to do the ones that will take longer earlier in the day, and keep the shorter ones for later when they will have less energy.

We often don’t worry about these skills until we are in a professional setting, so helping your child form these habits will give them a massive head start.

Additionally, by developing learning habits that enable them to be in control of their work, you encourage them to realize what they actually enjoy more. This will help them make a more carefully considered career choice later on.

4. Let them solve things by themselves

It’s a natural tendency for parents to “come to their child’s rescue” whenever the child is faced with a problem. But doing this too much will make them over-reliant on outside help.

Instead, get them into the habit of solving things for themselves. Don’t just hand them solutions, guide them. A major part of learning—and life in general—is experimenting with solutions, figuring out what works, and even sometimes failing.

This kind of habit also can also help spark a natural curiosity in your child.

5. Build a growth mindset in your child

This mostly has to do about how you praise your child. We have covered this topic more extensively in our post on growth mindset, but here’s the gist:

  • Overly praising them for doing well can make them think that everything should come easy to them.
  • Overly praising their effort can also be damaging. 
  • Instead, focus on praising the process. It’s not so much about the result, it’s about how they achieved it.

Promoting a growth mindset produces in your child an attitude that intelligence, creativity, and personality can be cultivated through effort, makes them resilient to the specter of failure, and emboldens them to face challenges.

6. Foster creativity and curiosity

Creativity and curiosity are not always innate characteristics. Sure, kids like to explore and discover things when they are young, but some researchers believe that this is not indicative of inherent creativity.

Encourage your children to seek new forms of stimuli. Show them the thrill of discovering something new. You might even share some of your own hobbies, if only to show them how much joy it gives you.

Creativity and curiosity do occur naturally in spades in some children, but they are also habits that can be developed with constant stimuli.

7. Help them to be gritty

As an adult, you know that to succeed in life you have to invest a lot of time in what you do. This takes grit and determination. It’s very important to develop this habit in your child, especially since we live in an age of instant gratification.

Grit can be defined as “passion and perseverance for especially long-term goals.” Research from psychology Professor, Angela Duckworth found a correlation between grit and rank in the US National Spelling Bee, educational attainment, grade-point average in Ivy League undergrads, and retention of West Point cadets.

It’s easy to be interested in something initially and then quickly lose interest in it. But if your kids want to see the rewards, they have to stick with it. They’ll be naturally inclined toward certain things, so help them connect a purpose to their hard work in that area.

The best habit they can have

The habits discussed in this post are all geared towards making your child a resilient and strong learner.

It is important to build these habits in your child from an early age when their brains are still very impressionable. At that age, it’s far too easy to fall into bad habits that can stick around for a long time (possibly their entire life).

It’s paramount that parents guide their children. But we aren’t the only influences on our child’s mind. Our children’s minds are constantly bombarded with input from the media, other kids at school, their teachers, and other adults. There is no stopping this, whether we like it or not.

So the best habit you can give your child is to question everything. 

They might be influenced by something they saw on TV or something someone said at school, and they can’t possibly have the knowledge and experience to inform them of what they might be getting themselves into.

Teach them that this is OK, and in fact completely normal. Teach them that no one has all the answers, not even you, and that life is about figuring these things out bit by bit. Ensure them that when they have a question, they can rely on you to figure it out together.

After all, life is a constant game of learning. 

The habits discussed in the post, taken together, will give your child the tools they need to maintain curiosity, spark creativity, and find success in life—whatever that winds up meaning to them.