How to Help Your Child Develop Good Study Habits

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Most kids are not inherently drawn to the prospect of study. Their developing minds and bodies seem to harbor a constant need for entertainment, so you can see how sitting down to study by themselves might be a little bit undesirable as activities go. Your children would probably much rather run around outside, play games with friends, or even help you make dinner rather than cloistering themselves with a mound of homework. And while you may sympathize with their plight, you certainly aren’t going to let them off the hook when it comes to their academic studies. Of course, there are all kinds of ways that you can help your kids to change the way they view this activity in order to ensure that they develop good study habits that will stick with them for life. Here are just a few strategies you may want to employ if your children’s attitude toward schoolwork is less than enthusiastic.

The best place to start is by participating in the process. Although your kids essentially have to do homework on their own, you don’t necessarily have to leave them alone to do it. When children are struggling with their studies, it could be for any number of reasons. Perhaps they are having trouble following classroom instruction, certain subjects are more difficult for them to grasp than others, or they simply don’t like being alone. Whatever issues they’re dealing with, you won’t be able to suss them out unless you are present.

You’ll always have housework to do, errands to run, phone calls and emails to answer, and so on. These tasks aren’t going anywhere. So set them aside for a little while and pay attention to your kids. Even if you’re just paying bills, going over work documents, or attending to other matters while they study, being present physically can help your kids to focus on the task at hand. And of course, you’ll be able to answer questions and check their work, which is a great way to correct and reinforce study habits.

Another trick you can implement is creating a specific study time and environment. Kids are drawn to the comfort of routine. Although most children like to try new things (and they should be encouraged to do so), there are certain things that you should try to keep as constant as possible, including study. So you might start by allowing your kids to take a 1-hour break when they get home from school. They can use this time to get a snack, run outdoors, play a game, or otherwise unwind after the school day. After that they must sit down to study.

Make a habit of going over each piece of homework with them to read instructions and figure out what needs to be completed. Then it’s time to get to work. Create an area that is free of distractions for each child to study and consider playing some soft, instrumental background music, which research and social work with children has proven as an effective means of helping them to focus. When an activity becomes routine, it’s a lot easier for kids to shift into the proper mindset, so use this technique to help your kids develop good study habits.

This is a guest post written specifically for this site. Opinions expressed are of the author.

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