Helping Your Child Study at Home
Updated: Aug 24, 2021
As a parent, you want to ensure you are giving your child the best opportunity to succeed in school. Part of this is helping your child study at home. Parents often ask us ‘What is the best way we can help our child learn and study at home?’, so we’ve compiled some tips to help set up effective study in your home.
Study focused environments
Help create a study-focused environment at home that is a designated area for homework and schoolwork.
Firstly, this space should be in an area that eliminates as much distraction as possible and has good lighting for reading and writing.
Secondly, this space should offer all the materials needed for effective study. This includes a comfortable chair, an organised and good-sized desk space and an area for general stationery supplies.
Help them write a study timetable
Consistency is key when it comes to effective study, so sitting down and helping your child write a study timetable is a great way to help your child learn at home.
Start by blocking out regular dinner times, sport times, family events etc. and look at the realistic time left in the day for study. This ensures that the family schedule is not upset by your child’s study and that your child is still free for key family time over dinner and the weekend.
It also ensures that your child gets into a good routine of study each day. For an effective study block, we recommend 30-45 minute study periods with 10-minute breaks in between.
Encourage goal setting
Ask your child what goals they want to achieve in school this term / semester / year and check in on how they are going. It also helps to display these goals in their study environment so they can remain focused and motivated to achieve their goals each day.
See our blog post on how to set SMART goals here.
Sleep, sleep and more sleep
Sleep is a vital part of ensuring effective study and is a fundamental part memory development. A great way to help promote effective study at home is to try and encourage your child to get the recommended eight hours sleep each night.
Duke-NUS Medical School in the USA conducted a study on the effectiveness of sleep to exam results, and determined that a good nights rest before an exam is more effective in achieving better results than staying up late cramming!