Mar
30
Parents often turn to tutors for advice about how to help their child at home. A tutor will come across as more professional and knowledgeable if he or she has immediate ideas that can be either verbally explained or even presented to the parent in writing.
Feel free to offer the following tips to parents inquiring about supporting their child at home.
1. Build and Stick to A Routine: Help your child organize his day. He should know when he is expected to complete homework, do chores, exercise, play, eat, bathe, and relax. Make sure that he is not over-scheduled and that you have included a little down time for him each day.
2. Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices: Teach your child that many factors impact how well they learn and how well they do in school and that these are not all academic in nature.
a. Exercise: Encourage regular exercise. It will increase blood flow throughout the body and make it easier for your child to learn. You might find that tackling homework after a child runs around and plays for a little while might be easier than starting homework immediately after a child gets home from school.
b. Sleep: Establish a bedtime that will give your child enough sleep so he or she will feel well rested and not groggy during the school day.
c. Diet: Be sure that your child eats a healthy breakfast each morning. Model this for your child and share a few minutes of together time as you share a meal in the morning. Teach your child about healthy and unhealthy food choices and help them understand that diets high in fat and sugar will not only lead to health problems and obesity but also difficulties in the classroom.
d. Avoiding Distractions: Hours spent watching TV, playing video games, talking on the phone, and listening to music can add up and detract from time spent studying, exercising, or with family. Work with your child to establish reasonable limits on these activities.
3. Organize Areas: Nothing is more frustrating early in the morning than a child searching for his homework, shoes, lunchbox, hats and gloves, etc. minutes before the bus arrives. Establish a space in your home where your child is expected to put all of his