Study Tips or Students-
Nowadays, it becomes quite challenging for parents to get their children to do homework, prepare for tests and exams, or get them ready for school. Because children are not ready to do this. When their studies are not going well, parents are often worried about what their children’s careers will be like in the future. Because of this, they often say such things to children which should not be said.
“Why don’t you study? All your friends are so good at studying, they will surpass you. What will you do in the future? What will your future be like?”
Parents are unaware that children do not understand about their future or career at this stage. They just don’t seem to enjoy studying; they lack interest.
There might be some reason behind it. Maybe there’s a problem at school with teachers, or peer pressure, or perhaps children are being teased at school. Any issue including health issues that children are unable to express.
To understand this, parents can correlate it with their own lives. They face a lot of pressure in life too. Let’s say you go to your office, and one day nothing goes right; your boss insults you. Or a colleague teases you, which you don’t like, but you have to meet them every day. And when you come home, you’re blamed for household chores as well. At home, nobody understands your feelings, so it’s natural for you to get tense and react aggressively. When your family can’t understand you during a problem, you feel helpless.
Similarly, children may have things on their minds that make them lose interest in studying. Children know they have to study and get good grades to get praise from everyone. But still, they don’t feel like studying; they feel helpless. So, in such situations, parents should try to understand with love and talk to them to find out why they’re not studying, and why they lack interest. If parents understand and work on their children’s problems, Children will gain interest in studies.
It’s also very important for parents to understand that every child is different. So, it’s not like one strategy will be effective for every child. Even among your children, there can be many differences, so you deal with them differently according to the situation.
In this article, we will discuss those steps which, when followed, can motivate children to study. This will solve your problem as well, and children won’t have any kind of stress either.
Study Tips-
1 Unwanted Restriction To Freedom
Firstly, let’s talk about those children who feel controlled in their studies. They feel like their parents are restricting them, taking away their freedom. They are being sent to school, but they don’t enjoy studying there. It’s not that they aren’t intelligent or don’t like reading books, it’s just that being forced to study by someone else irritates them.
They only want to do what they desire. They want to be completely free, and when parents or teachers ask them to study a particular subject, it annoys them because they want to enjoy their freedom in studying too. This is because they don’t understand the importance of studies; they don’t have clarity about what will happen after studying. So, when you try to explain their future or career to children like these, they won’t understand it and won’t be able to relate to it.
To teach such children why studies are important, try to explain through practical examples and interesting techniques. You can also use visual aids, show related films, or create stories to teach them. If your child has a favorite cartoon character, relate it to the concept and create small stories to spark interest in studying.
There are channels on YouTube that teach such concepts very well, so you can seek help from them. When children can relate themselves to the topic, their interest in studies will increase. At this stage, don’t focus on careers or grades because children won’t be able to relate to them yet. Right now, the most important thing for children is to develop and maintain interest in their studies.
2 Summarize The Subjects Taught In School
The reason for not developing interest could also be that the child is not understanding the school studies. They might not be grasping the teacher’s teaching method. And when a concept isn’t clear, developing interest in that thing becomes impossible.
To solve this problem, you can read the lesson of any subject to the child at home before sending them to school. It might require a little effort from the parents, but if you do this, the child won’t face any problems in school, and gradually, their interest in studying will develop.
3 Getting Addicted To Computer Games
Research has shown that children under 13 years of age who spend a lot of time on screens become addicted to computers and video games, which also reduces their interest in studying. Therefore, if your children spend too much time on screens and get overly involved in these games, parents should take immediate action on this.
It’s not that you can eliminate this habit, but try to gradually divert their interest away from computer games towards real games. Encourage them to go to parks, and inspire them to play outside with friends.
Try to gradually eliminate this interest because while these games are very interesting, it’s hard to realize how much time is being wasted on them. Therefore, develop your child’s interest in real games instead of computer games so that they focus more on studying.
4 Busy Parents – Need for Tutors
Often, parents are so busy that they don’t have enough time to sit and study with their children. But you need to understand that no matter how many expensive toys or games you give them, and even if you leave them alone, you’ll see that they won’t want to play alone. The talk about computer video games is different, as they are addictive in themselves. But mostly, children don’t want to play any game alone.
They feel like someone should be with them. So, if they need a companion to play, they need to have someone with them to study too. Therefore, if parents don’t have time, they need to have a home tutor. It’s not just for studying; they might not have a problem understanding studies as much as they need a company that can sit with them and discipline them. And if there’s any concept that’s not clear, they can clarify it.
Because children need consistency. So, busy parents should also find a home tutor who can understand the child’s problems and fix them. Therefore, you should also monitor the home tutor from time to time so that if any problem is developing with the children, they can discuss it with the tutor and find a solution. If you are studying yourself but your schedule is not very regular, it’s not good for the children at all, as it ends their interest in studying. They should sit regularly, at the same time.
So if parents don’t have time for regular studies, they should hire a home tutor. Whenever you have time, you can have casual discussions with the children about how their studies are going, which subjects they like, and how they feel about the tutor.
5 Focus on making the Concept of Lessons clear
If you’re teaching on your own and finding it difficult to grasp certain subjects like history, geography, science, or math, then try to understand those concepts through Google. And present it to children in an interesting format. So that children can understand the concept. Whenever a concept becomes clear to them, they naturally develop an interest in the subject. For example, many children struggle with higher-level math. They think they won’t understand it.
So in such cases, if parents practice basic calculations with them, such as fractions or equations, it will boost their confidence a lot. When their basics become strong, and they start understanding the concepts well, they will develop an interest in subjects like math too. And if you can incorporate a month of practice, you’ll see a sudden shift in their interest in math. I had taught a subject like Sanskrit, which most children didn’t like or found very challenging, to someone for just 10 days, and after that, the concepts became so clear that the child became interested in the subject.
We see this in real life too. If someone introduces us to a new concept, we don’t want to learn it, and we don’t even feel inclined towards it. Recently, my son did a lot of nutrition research and told me about the importance of muscle building and weight lifting. For bodybuilding, many vital activities are necessary. As our age increases, our muscle strength decreases, and new muscles don’t form. So weight lifting is a solution to build new muscles.
No matter how much protein you take in your diet, if you don’t do weight lifting or strength training, that protein won’t be as beneficial for your body as it should be. So having muscles is very important. He was explaining this to us, but we weren’t willing to understand it. Then he showed us videos of scientists and explained his entire science in an interesting way, which made us interested. As a result, we also included strength training and weight lifting in our exercise plan. The point is when we understand any concept, our interest naturally develops in it, so it’s the same with children too.
6 Studies without any Purpose
If studies are done without any purpose, there will be no motivation, and children won’t understand why we are doing it. But when children are at that stage where they can’t understand their future life and career, then for you, the objective should be to develop an interest in every subject. Your goal should not be at all what your career will be.
Right now, your goal is to motivate children in such a way that their inclination towards studies increases. So, this is only possible when you explain it to them in an interesting way. Show them the practical uses of studies that are relatable to daily life. For example, take children shopping and let them do calculations there, and then tell them that you can calculate because you studied math. With such practical uses, you can make the purpose of their studies clear to them.
7 Heavy Workload Causing Burnout
Parents should keep in mind to also check whether the workload on their children is too much. It’s not that parents want their children to excel in everything.
They want their children to not only excel in studies but also be very good in every extracurricular activity, like learning music and excelling in martial arts.
When we start expecting so much, the workload on children increases significantly. They feel tired and if they can’t cope in the end, they give up. They feel like nothing is working out for them, and then motivating them becomes very difficult. This way, they lose interest in studying too.
Suggested Readings:
How to motivate children to study
10 ways to motivate children to study
Creating a Supportive Study Environment for exams
8 Avoid Comparing Children with Others
Parents often compare their children with their friends, cousins, and even siblings. This is very painful for children, they don’t even understand how to react to it. They simply get demotivated. Their self-esteem also takes a hit, and sometimes it bothers them for life. Children should not be compared to others in any way. Try applying this to yourself for understanding. Imagine how you would feel if you were compared to your siblings, friends, or colleagues.
The comparison doesn’t feel good to anyone. Everyone wants to be accepted for who they are, with their potential. So when we think like this, understand that children also think the same way. Therefore, don’t compare children with anyone else. Everyone has their limitations. Every child can excel in something, but not everyone can excel in everything. Or maybe if they don’t excel in something, that’s okay too. That’s their limit.
So accept them as they are, it’s good for you too, and it’s very important for the growth of children. So always remember not to try to compare children with anyone else, accept them as they are. And the day you do this, you’ll see that children are performing well. When we compare or expect too much from them, children are unable to explore their potential openly. So free children from expectations and let their performance grow naturally.
9 Create a Study-Friendly Home Environment
You can make your home atmosphere conducive to studying by ensuring that the study space is very comfortable, and airy, has a cozy spot, proper lighting, good setup, and some nice things in the room like posters of their favorite stars or of their favorite cartoons. The room should be colorful because children like colorful things. Also, maintain a cordial atmosphere at home. If there’s any discussion among you and your partner that children shouldn’t hear, do it separately. It’s not necessary to sort things out at home; you can go outside if needed. If the home atmosphere is good and cheerful, it also helps in getting children interested in studying.
10 Support Your Child’s Hobbies and Acknowledge Their Efforts
It’s important to praise whatever hobbies or activities your children are engaged in. Praising children serves as a great motivator. It’s not necessary to wait for good grades to praise them; if they’ve understood a lesson well or read something effectively, you should praise them. By doing so, you inspire them to excel in various activities, and you’ll notice that they become more dedicated to their studies as well.
Therefore, pay attention to what interests them. It could be anything, such as enjoying watching planets, liking animals, appreciating nature, or enjoying listening to stories. So, praise them for their choices too.
11 Bonus Tip: Answer Your Child’s Questions
Try to understand where your child’s curiosity is leading and how you can connect it to their studies. Many times, you’ll notice that while you’re teaching a subject, children start asking questions that seem unrelated to the topic at hand. Often, you may not fully address their curiosity at that moment. You might say, “Focus on your studies, what are you asking about? We’ll talk about this later.” But don’t do that.
Whatever the child’s query is, answer it. Then, refocus on studying. Don’t ignore children’s curiosity; instead, answer their questions. Sometimes, you may not know the answer, so Google it and respond. This not only strengthens children’s curiosity and their ability to ask the right questions but also makes them feel connected to you. Establishing a connection with parents is crucial for improving children’s studies and developing their minds.
Curious children are often very intelligent and may also be extroverted. If a child lacks curiosity, make an effort to awaken it within them. Ask them questions so that they develop a mindset where they want to understand things, want to comprehend matters.
Conclusion:
Remember, children pay attention to anything or any activity only when parents pay full attention to them. Parenting is like taking baby steps; we learn and improve gradually.
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