Advice for Parents – Helping your child to ‘Achieve’

Helpful information on how to encourage your child to achieve.

Learning at home is about providing learning opportunities as part of everyday life. Remember that you are not expected to be a teacher or create a school environment at home but instead to enjoy learning together with your child.

Routine and structure to the day – Some structure and routine can be beneficial for children.  It can help them understand what is coming up next, removing uncertainty  reducing anxiety. It can also help to separate weekdays from weekends; mornings and afternoons from evenings etc. If your child is reluctant or refuses to engage with activities, this can be a sign of anxiety or worry. Give your child choices if they are able to make the choice. Help your child to share what may be worrying them by giving examples of words to describe what they may be feeling or wondering out loud of what you think maybe bothering them. Remember to have plenty of breaks for playing and relaxing together.

Learning together – Freedom to choose their own activities and having adults join in their play is often a great motivator for children.  Encourage them to teach you how to play their favourite games,  toys or computer game, watch their favourite film/TV programme  together (e.g. with subtitles) or read their favourite book. Think about having conversations about different scenes, characters and themes.  Following your child’s interest and making the learning fun can help them feel comfortable and give them a sense of security. Offering praise for effort and hard work can build their motivation to enjoy more learning activities.

Play based learning – Learning through play is a major way in which children develop essential knowledge and skills;  social, problem solving, language, motor skills etc. Also, play can allow children to practise skills they have already learned in a fun way.  You may wish to organise a “play date” for your younger children through a video call e.g. your child and another child may play “hide and seek” in their own homes with the help of parents in the ‘seek’. Joining in with their role play eg dressing up, construction, drawing, puzzles, board games, arts and crafts, etc. are just some ways to support your child’s learning. Please visit the Play Scotland – Messy Play website for more ideas.

Environment and choice – Setting up space, a quiet area for learning where learning materials are kept, can help your child focus on more specific school work tasks or similar activities. Good examples can be found on BBC Bitesize  and Sumdog. Help your child to explore what they’re interested in and offer them choice in these learning activities e.g. what activity, what order or what time of day they would want to do something. If your child is losing attention; try something else and the original activity can maybe be returned to later.