Making sure your children excel in school can seem tough. After all, you don’t want to put too much stress on your kids while they are young and end up becoming known as one of those parents. On the other hand, however, you understandably do want your kids to do their best – perhaps even excel! How can you do this?
Check out the following 7 that will help you to ensure your kids excel In school and see what you can take away.
#1 – Eat One Meal Together Every Day
This might seem strange, but eating one meal together every day (at least one meal, you can eat more of course) can help your children to do better at school. Studies have proven that children who eat at least one meal with their families every day do the following:
- Stay away from smoking and other bad habits
- Become more respectful
- Open up to their parents
- Retain information better
And more! Even if you can only do breakfast and not dinner, commit to eating at least one meal a day with your family!
#2 – Get Them Into The Habit Of Homework
Getting your kids into the habit of homework can be tricky. You need to get them into a good routine so that they know when they are supposed to be doing it. For instance, before or after dinner for an hour. Motivate them by ensuring they avoid things like the TV/iPad before their homework, so they don’t get stuck on them. You can then allow them an hour of TV time, or even take them to the park. Make sure they have a quiet space to do their homework and let them know you’re available if they need help (but don’t do it all for them).
#3 – Encourage Plenty Of Reading
Reading is key to smart children. It’s a great habit to get into, and will not only instill your children with a love of books; it’ll help them to improve speaking, reading, listening, and general communication skills, amongst other things!
You can even turn this into a game of role-playing: Read together by alternating senteces or speak different characters etc. I’ve recently published a whole article about the importance of reading to/with your kids. You can find it right here!
#4 – Look At Programs That Could Be Suited To Them
Take a look at programs that could be suited to your kids, such as the STEAM Program which focuses on computer programming and engineering. These could be special programs run by their school or even outside of the school. Do some research and see what your kids would like to do. They might even select an athletic program.
#5 – Know What Your Child Is Doing At School
Stay involved with what your child is doing at school and liaise with teachers. Just don’t be a helicopter parent! You have to let your child make mistakes every now and again.
#6 – Encourage Children To Do Their Best
Encourage your children to do their best, but don’t pressure them. Be aware that their best might not always be an A. As long as they understand the value of putting in the effort.
#7 – Praise Your Children
Even though you certainly do not want to raise a praise-junkie, it is important to know how to praise and reward your children every now and then.
Healthy rewards can include an hour at the park, going for a meal at their favorite restaurant or even playing a video game together with you. Focus on praise that involves the effort they put into something, and don’t talk about them being “talented” or a “genius” as these things can be detrimental! Try to focus on the deed, not on the doer and encourage them to keep working and do their best.
Conclusion
There you have it. My 7 ways to ensure your kids excel in school. Now it is your part: What are your favorite tips that help your kids to reach their goals and perform well in school? What works for you, what does not? Please let me know in the comments below. I’m looking forward to getting in touch with you!
Finally, please keep in mind: Every kid is different. Furthermore, allow your kid to live its own life. Your kid’s purpose and goals may be different than yours. That’s a hard pill to swallow for many parents. I found this encouraging video here on YouTube. It helped me to accept that fact. Maybe it helps you as well!? Relax, sit back and enjoy the show. And please, PLEASE: Let me know what you think about the message afterwards!
All the best and thanks for reading!
Josh – Contributing Author
P.S.: Did you EVER happen to yell at your child or call a timeout? Did you regret it afterwards? I certainly have, and I never felt good about it! If you want to learn how to put an end to this behavior, decode your kids and understand them so much better and become a calm parent, then make sure to read my FULL REVIEW of “Positive Parenting Solutions” HERE. This program changed our family’s life and we saw first results within just 3(!) days. And it will certainly work for you as well!
I think that these are good rules. But don’t feel bad if you don’t follow all of them. I rarely ate with my daughter when she was growing up. However, my wife did.
In fact, my wife followed all these rules except for the one about pressure. My wife put a lot of pressure on my daughter. That is the Tiger Mother way. It does make childhood tougher, but it also raises exceptional children.
The general American idea that childhood is a time primarily focused on innocence and play, is not historical or shared worldwide.
Hey Peter! Thank you so much for leaving this thoughtful comment here. You are totally right: Most parents will probably not follow ALL of those rules. I bet I break them myself every now and then. And that’s okay: These posts are more of a buffet and you as parents pick what you like best and more importanly what you feel will work for you, right!? 🙂 All the best and cheers to your wife, chris
My daughters not at school just yet but you shared some valid points, some of which we already do together. As a parent having my child do welk at school is obviously something I would prefer but if they only do the best they can and have a strong support network around them and are happy in themselves that can really give them the best start.
Hi Vaughn! Thanks for reading my article and leaving a comment on it. I couldn’t agree more with you. I believe many people have very high expectations of their kids’ performance in school, and are disappointed if their kids can’t fulfill them. I hope I will be able to appreciate my son’s effort once he starts going to school, rather than judging him by the results. It’s so good to think about all this stuff now when he is just three years old: That gives me a lot of time to practice and develop that mindset! Great that you shared your thoughts with us here! Thanks! chris
Reading and engaging conversation are probably two things that I like the most about helping kids excel in school. I know that because it helps me when I was growing up. What doesn’t work is definitely scolding and comparing with others. It hurts the self-esteem and kids who can’t manage well will be negatively affected by it.
I couldn’t agree more, Cathy! Especially with that “comparing part”. You can literally see in a kid’s eyes how self-esteem vanishes when you start comparing them with others. It’s so cruel! Thanks for pointing that out!!! chris
Great points here – I especially like the “stay connected” advice, where you keep in touch with your children’s teachers and the school in general to know what’s all going on there, as well as staying connected to your kids by sitting down to dinner together every night. Lots of great chatter going on there.
I think you definitely got the most important things, but I’d like to also add something that as a former Grade 5 teacher found to be important for kids to excel: Give them time to play. NOT video games, screen time… but rather as a parent, create time for unstructured and creative PLAY where your kids are “just kids”. It helps relieve the stress of the classroom life and lets them learn to shine in the areas they enjoy! Plus, happy children learn better.
Hi Marlaine,
Thanks for reading my article and bringing your point to the table as well! GREAT ADVICE! If you’ve read my other articles, you know that, personally and for myself, I am a big fan of video games; and every now and then I love to share that hobby with my son. But I couldn’t agree more: It is very important to me to allow my son to get as much “hands on” creative play time as possible. I think it is super important, even for kids well beyond the 5th grade: Creative play is so important for kids. And besides it being “stress relief time” for them, it’s probably the time of their day where they actually learn the most important life skills, especially when playing with other kids, right?
All the best to you and your loved ones,
chris