By now, you’ll have made your way through parts 1 and 2 of our study skills suggestions, and hopefully you’ve found some useful nuggets that will help you to support your child, but we’re not done just yet. If you can believe it, we still have a few more pointers we’d like to draw your attention to, and then we’ll leave you and your little one to get on with some school work and enjoy doing it!

So, how else can you help your child study efficiently at home and get the most out of all of their homework?

How can I help my child’s study skills at home?

Praise their work and efforts. It’s really important for your child’s continued motivation that you praise their work and their efforts. Stick their projects up on the fridge for them to see and feel proud of, and share their achievements with family and friends!

Encourage positive thinking. A positive mindset towards studying can really make all the difference, so keep things light and encourage them to turn any negative statements around. Let’s say they’re struggling with a certain maths problem, so much so that they eventually cry out, “I’ll never be good at maths.” It’s up to you to help them shift their mindset, letting them know that while this question might be a little harder than the others, “If we keep practising, I know you’ll understand it eventually!” You could also choose to give homework a less negative sounding name, and replace it with ‘desk time’ or ‘afternoon learning’.

Combat negative behaviour. If we’re very honest with ourselves, we can all admit that school wasn’t always fun, but we want to try and quash any negative feelings towards school and homework unless there’s real cause for concern. And there are a few ways you can do this:

Show them that you’re passionate about their learning experience, so study time can also be spent bonding. Although it’s up to your child to do the work, support them through it and offer guidance so they know you want to get involved.

Keep home-learning entertaining and relaxed. Lessons in the classroom can sometimes feel quite serious, so make sure your child feels comfortable and relaxed at home.

Remove distractions until the work is done. If the Xbox or PlayStation is in sight, it’ll be hard for your little one to concentrate and enjoy their homework, so remove them or any other distractions until the work is complete.

Keep weekends free of work and full of fun. Everyone needs to experience a healthy work-and-play balance, but kids, in particular, will need more play. So keep their weekends as fun and playful as possible!

But don’t ignore your child’s school and work concerns. Having said all of this, school can sometimes be a really difficult place for a child, so don’t just shrug your child's worries or concerns off. Listen, assess, and then decide if anything needs to be done.

Teach active reading. It’s all too easy for kids (and adults) to skim-read books and textbooks, so encourage your child to write out or tell you about the main points covered in a chapter to make sure they’ve really learnt something. And take things one step further by suggesting that they look up any words they don’t yet know or understand.

Review strategies for tests. When they’re 5 to 7 years old, it’s unlikely your child will come across many tests of consequence, but if they do come up, they can be rather stressful. The following strategies should help to make tests a little easier to handle:

Make sure they’re prepared.

Remind them to read the questions and instructions carefully.

Don’t put too much stock into tests at this stage and cause unnecessary pressure.

Do a few relaxed practice tests at home.

Use educational sites. In this day and age, parents have to accept that technology is going to be a big part of their child's life, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. With access to an electronic device and the internet, your child has opened the doors to a whole new world of learning, including educational sites that offer games and tests to improve academic skills. My Maths and BBC Bitesize are just two examples of interactive, educational platforms.

Make sure your child is safe online. All that being said, if you introduce technology to your child’s study time, you’ll need to make sure they’re safe online, with all parental guidance settings turned on. And remember to get them outside, playing and running through grassy fields, not just spending all of their free time staring blankly at a bright screen.

How to help your child's study skills at home (Part 3)

Studying is simpler with Unii’s strategies.