Good study habits often play an essential role in a scholar’s academic success. It’s important that children learn how to study so that they can retain important information and succeed in their courses. However, developing good study habits does not always come easily or naturally. Many children need support, guidance, and supervision to ensure that their study efforts are effective.
Parents play an important role when it comes to helping scholars develop good study habits. Children often do better when their parents are consistently involved in their academics. We encourage parents to get involved in their scholars’ academics and help them develop and implement successful study habits.
Here are six ways that parents can help their children develop good study habits:
Create a Study Area
Location can have a lot to do with a child’s ability to study successfully. It’s important that parents help their children think about where they feel most comfortable studying. Do they enjoy studying at a coffee shop? How about at the public library? Or maybe they feel most comfortable studying at home. We encourage parents to ask their children these questions to help them determine the best place to study.
Regardless of the place they choose, there are a few simple elements that children can incorporate into their study area to help them feel relaxed, focused, and ready to succeed. Parents can help their children by ensuring that their study area is clean and has easy access to a bathroom, drinking water, and fresh air and natural light through a door or a window. These elements often help scholars study successfully, retain important information, and succeed in their courses.
Eliminate Distractions
Adults and children are continually surrounded by distractions. It’s important that parents help their children learn how to eliminate those distractions during their study time so that they can stay focused. Scholars are usually most successful when they study in a private, quiet area without distractions from smartphones, television, radio, video games, social media websites and other forms of entertainment. Tablets and computers are often useful tools that can help children study, but during study time parents can guide their children to ensure that they are only used for educational purposes. We encourage parents to set a specific study time at home each day. During that time parents can ensure that the house is quiet and that everyone is partaking in some form of studying or reading. It may also be helpful for parents to remove other visual distractions like toys and magazines. Children are often able to study successfully when they are in a quiet, clean space that has the materials they need to study and no other distractions. Parents play an important role in helping children learn how to eliminate distractions and successfully study their course materials.
Create a Calendar
Parents can help their children create a study calendar so that they can stay on track, study successfully, and succeed in their courses. There are several different types of calendars that families can create depending on their personal needs. For example, some families may need to create a six-month calendar that has deadlines, notes, and tasks set for the next six months. For other families, it may be best to create a monthly calendar or a weekly calendar to plan study time in shorter increments. We believe there is no right or wrong type of calendar — it all just depends on each family’s needs. Once a family has chosen the style of calendar that works best for them, they can populate it with study times for their scholar. It’s important to keep the schedule organized and accurate so that everyone in the family can follow the plan!
Practice Effective Note-Taking
Note-taking is a critical study skill that scholars need to develop over time. We encourage parents to take the time to help their children develop thorough and accurate note-taking skills. Some scholars take notes by writing down every word their teacher says or re-writing every passage in a story. Others may not be thorough enough and choose only to write down a few words to jog their memory when it’s time to study. We believe it’s important to help scholars find a happy medium. Parents can help their children develop good note-taking skills by researching different types of strategies. For example, the high school scholars in the online program at CCS have been learning to use the Cornell Notes strategy to stay organized, retain information, and successfully prepare for in-class assessments. There are many other note-taking styles to choose from. Parents can help their children choose the note-taking strategy that they find most effective.
Encourage Active Listening
It’s important that scholars learn how to focus when a teacher is speaking and presenting important information in class. Active listening is a strategy that encourages scholars to listen attentively during class and retain the main points of a lesson or a class discussion. Parents can help their children develop this skill by encouraging them to share a summary of what they learned in class, during a field trip, or at any other presentations that they attend. We encourage parents to help their children listen for keywords from their teacher during class like “this is important” or “everyone, please write this down.”Those are often clues from the teacher that the information is important and may be part of an upcoming assessment. Active listening is an effective way to help scholars succeed inside and outside of the classroom.
Set Study Goals
Children are often very motivated to achieve goals. Parents can consider helping their children create study goals to encourage their scholars to spend time reviewing the information from their courses. Setting goals can help scholars separate large projects into smaller tasks. The goals can also encourage them to study on a regular basis. Families with younger children could challenge them to complete at least one piece of homework each night, or maybe spend time attentively reading one book each night. Families with older children could create study goals that are slightly more challenging. For example, parents could challenge their scholars to write a summary about one course each day so that they can explain and review what they’re learning in that class. There are a wide variety of study goals that families can create to help their children develop and implement successful study habits!
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Compass Charter Schools (CCS) is a WASC-accredited virtual charter school that serves families throughout California. Interested in learning more about CCS’ flexible academic programs? Visit our website, or contact our enrollment team at enrollment@compasscharters.org or (877) 506-8631.