Written by Sadiyah Zaman, Senior Content Writer at Tutor House
As children begin to grow older, education starts to become less of a straightforward path, and you begin to realise that it is more than just schoolwork. Your child will be going through puberty and wanting to stay social whilst balancing exams and coursework. In fact, there are many factors that can affect your child during these impressionable times. Whether they are in primary or secondary school, it’s important as parents, we help our children maintain a healthy balance inside and outside of the classroom. This isn’t always easy and can often leave parents feeling overwhelmed thinking about how they can make things better.
Start by reading our simple guide of essential resources and ideas to help reduce stress for your child at home and in school.
Spot the Signs
Although it may not always be obvious, there are some common behaviours and patterns that you can recognise suggesting your child is having more than an “off day”. The earlier you
recognise these, the better your chances are at helping. Look out for a sudden attitude change about school, especially a refusal to discuss it, as well as changing sleeping or eating habits and spending far too long or too little on homework. Remember that their teacher may have also noticed something, so check in with them and see if there has been a sudden change of behaviour in your child at school.
There are many reasons why they may be struggling. Perhaps they are finding it hard to make friends in class or could even be experiencing bullying. Read on, as we suggest some resources and ideas for you to help tackle these issues.
Help Them Study
Your child will be much more likely to succeed academically with support from you too. Whether that’s helping them create a study plan, working through homework together or simply encouraging them in the right direction, you’ll start to see your child flourish. It’s also important that they have a safe space to learn at home. Make sure they have a good study space with few distractions and offer support when needed. There are excellent revision resources online for you to use to help support your child, such as Study Wise, for GCSE and A-Level Students, and Teacher’s Pet for younger learners. This is a great starting point for you to get involved in what your child is studying and see where they may be struggling. Even if you are not familiar with all the material, just showing you are willing to support them can be a very positive influence on your child.
Get Them to Join a Wellbeing Workshop
If you want to encourage positive thinking for your child a good way to do that is through mental health and wellbeing workshops. OpenView Education provides workshops for schools that support mental wellbeing. Here your child gets the chance to learn that taking care of their mental health is important and a normal part of life and how to use practical mindfulness techniques. These workshops also allow students to express themselves through their interests in theatre. This is a great way for them to interact with their peers and express themselves away from traditional academic barriers. Having this highly interactive and fun learning environment is a really good way to break the long study day up and encourage students to step outside their comfort zone.
Take Time to Relax
Managing stress is important for productivity, for both you and your child. There are lots of relaxation exercises that can help with this. Mind.org provides some useful tips for when you are feeling worried or stressed with simple to use instructions. Try out their ‘relax your body’ or ‘calm circles’ technique the next time you see that things are getting overwhelming for your child. Other ways that also help with parent child bonding is to do a family activity together, that could be something that your child shows interest in i.e., painting together, family games night or reading the same book. These can all be great escapism for the mundane day to day grind and create a special family bond.
Support from a Tutor
Sometimes students need a break from learning from their teachers and their parents and may look for one-to-one support with their studies from a tutor instead. This can help boost their confidence and grades, where you can really focus on their specific needs. Tutor House is a top online learning platform that provides tuition for students of all ages and abilities. Their tutors produce personalised classes to ensure a great rapport with students and improve their
difficulties.
Create a Healthy Lifestyle
Having a healthy lifestyle is often undervalued in helping your child to succeed academically. Exercise helps with this as it helps boost endorphins and energy levels acting as a natural stress reliever. Start by encouraging your child to join a sports club near you. Not only does this get them active, but it also helps them with socialisation and competitive sports teaches them how to win and how to lose.
Not everyone is into sport however, and that’s completely fine as long as they aim to stay healthy. There are lots of other ways of doing this. Whether that’s simply going for a walk to create a positive mindset or focusing on healthy eating. Keeping a good and regular sleeping pattern is vital too. There are many health and nutrition resources such as Health for Kids that teaches children about how to stay healthy through fun and interactive games.
Final Thoughts
We can’t reiterate it enough, that this is all about balance. Make sure you are focusing on every aspect of your child’s life, from school to social, so you can help them improve. But also listen to your child, ask them; “what do you think you need?”, their answers may be more telling than you’d expect. With more and more focus on mental wellbeing your child will achieve their future goals and aims.
