Learning on vacation: the main thing is not to forget about the rest

Parents are the first and main teachers for the child. The state develops a training program, teachers set the pace for mastering knowledge, tutors help to broaden the child’s horizons and deepen knowledge in individual subjects.

But only a parent can become a real role model, because it is dad and mom who are most interested in the happiness of children and their comprehensive development.

It is important to help your child learn

Psychologists believe that the child needs to be engaged with his parents – to play, communicate, sculpt, embroider, draw. Studying can also be one of the ways for a student to spend time with their parents, especially if they are busy people. For example, reading lessons, when done correctly, perform several functions:

• become a daily bedtime ritual that gives the child confidence in the future (tomorrow my mother and I will read a book again);
• bring together the child and the parent on the physical and emotional levels;
• create a favorable psychological atmosphere;
• develop the child’s logic, thinking, imagination, curiosity and speed reading skills if the child himself reads the book.

Similarly, you can turn the study of any school subject into an exciting and rewarding activity.

Making learning fun

Changing the format of mastering knowledge will help to make classes not boring, in particular in subjects that were most difficult for the student. At the same time, summer holidays give the opportunity to show children that any science is around us. You can see and feel it, and also experience its effect on yourself. For example, it is ideal to study biology and geography in the summer, because the weather is beautiful, and nature is blooming.

Children of primary school age like to repeat math and reading with their families in a playful way during a trip to the country, walks and travels. You can, for example, count the birds that come across along the way, or make out the inscriptions on the signs.

Modern technologies also help to captivate children. Often parents are afraid of the negative impact of gadgets and forbid their children to use phones, tablets, computers. But if you use learning technologies in accordance with the recommended standards, such work will only benefit.

There are hundreds of safe programs, learning apps, and online schools to choose from that are best suited to your child’s age and needs. For example, on the educational platform Uchi.ru there are tasks in an interactive form in various subjects of the school curriculum (and outside of it too) for students of all ages.

And until July 7, you can take part in Olympiad “Dino”, which covers four subjects at once: mathematics, Russian language, entrepreneurship and the world around. Tasks train attention, logic and spatial imagination, but do not require in-depth knowledge of the school curriculum.

Saying “no” to overload

The child learns new knowledge only when the information comes gradually. Overloading his head is just as harmful as forcing a child to lift a 20-kilogram barbell. This is especially true during the summer holidays, when you don’t feel like studying at all, but you really want to play with friends, dream of the sea, go hiking and get the most out of summer joys.

In order for children to continue to look forward to and love summer, classes at this time of the year should not be burdensome. Students are not able to focus on a task for too long, they need a pause. For example, it is difficult for first grade students to concentrate on one subject for more than 15 minutes, so you need to take three 5-minute breaks per hour.

Forcing an 8-year-old child to solve the same type of tasks for an hour without interruption, parents risk reducing his performance, motivation and mood to zero. As a result, study will turn into an event from which the whole family will suffer.

Do not forget that the student has the right to a well-deserved rest – to physical activity (at least 1 hour a day), hobbies, watching cartoons and just idleness.

There are tricks that will help parents properly organize the daily routine at this time of the year.

1. Set the mode and strictly follow it. The following rules must be observed:

• the child should not sleep less than the norm recommended by pediatricians, for example, for a primary school student it is 10 hours a day, and for a teenager – at least 8 hours;
• you need to set aside time for physical activity – at least 1 hour a day;
• it is worth making sure that the room where the child is engaged is at a comfortable temperature. If it is hot during the day, we transfer the lessons to the morning or evening;
• if a child during the summer holidays is used to playing with peers in the evenings, then it is better to move classes to the morning or lunch;
• breaks between lessons should be at least 5 minutes.

2. Organize a workplace for study. It is important that the table surface is well lit at the time of the day when the child is engaged. The air temperature should be comfortable, and the table and chair should be appropriate for the height of the student in order to avoid problems with posture and vision.

3. Do not forget about the rest. Summer holidays are designed for the child to “reboot” after the school year, get stronger physically and rest. Therefore, when planning to study in the summer, parents should also think about rest for the child.

4. Fit learning into everyday life. Summer holidays give the opportunity to learn new things in an easy way. For example, children love to watch insects on the street, and parents can help to learn and remember their names. You can work with children not only at the table with textbooks, but also when you are digging a garden, walking, cooking dinner or washing dishes.

Motivation is important

Trying to engage with the child in a more entertaining way, parents show him that studying is not only 12 difficult years at school, but every minute exploration of the world and himself. And working on mistakes is more like working on the ability to accept them as part of any life process, including the process of cognition.

You need to motivate a child as often as hugging him. You can’t focus only on the negative, it’s better to talk about how great he coped with this or that task. But you should not ignore the wrong answers either.

It is better to follow a simple rule: praise first – then work on mistakes. After all, the completed task is not only what the parent sees on paper, but also what is left behind the scenes, namely, the efforts made by the child, which in themselves should be encouraged.

Often parents find themselves in situations where the child cannot independently perform even the simplest tasks. Moms and dads sit for hours after work with the child, remembering the entire school curriculum. This happens if the child lacks motivation and the skills to set goals, achieve them, make decisions independently and organize work are not sufficiently developed.

The sooner the child masters these skills, the easier it will be to cope with the more complex life tasks in the future. The best way to teach a child is to become an example for him. But special courses for children will also be a good help. For example, an online course “I can do everything” from Uchi.ru allows schoolchildren to master soft skills in a playful way and learn self-organization. Parents can help make this happen.

The school cannot do all the work for the parent. But to turn training into continuous control is not worth it. With a properly built process, the child will not get tired and retain interest.