Managing you Child's Studies

I am in that phase of life where I have not yet stopped being a child, but am a fully grown adult. I have all the recollections of all the emotions I went through as a child but can see things from an adult’s perspective now. Possessing this unique vantage I thought I would jot down a few points here that might help all the loving mothers of IL manage their child’s studies! I wanted to do this before I lose sight of the child me and become an adult me!

1) Don’t say study study all the time. Once in a while say, enough of studying today is a sunny day why don’t you go out and play for a while or hey your favourite show is on TV why don’t you watch that.
Or if your unruly child is already watching TV just try to join him in it and have fun. Don’t burden your child with guilt when he does so. When you let him do things he loves, he will feel obliged to do things to make you happy as well.

2) Is he studying or spending time with the book. I used to spend up to 8 hours with my books on any given day . But was I really studying? No!! Its not important how many hours your child sits in front of the book. If you feel your child is just idling away time with the book, please ensure that you tell him to stop . the minute he feels he does not have interest , he should take a break other wise this will become a bad habit. Hours and hours would be spent in lose-lose situation.

3) Picture this. This was my time table on a typical Saturday .Wake up at 5:00 AM . Sit with books. Doze off with books. Sleep on the desk. Get a wack from mom. Have breakfast, Have lunch Sit with books go to sleep.

This was my best friends time table. Wake up at 7:00 AM. Study a little bit. Take a nice long shower. Go back to sleep till 11:00 AM. Study . Watch TV. Study.

I scored 66.6 and she scored 92 percent. End of story.

Every person has their own timings of productivity. Just because some one said Brahma Muhurtham is the best time to study, its not necessary that your child feels his productive best at 3:45 AM in the morning! Waking up early in the morning was so unnatural to me that my whole day would be dreary because of it.

4) Tuitions! It’s a great thing that you are spending so much of money on tuitions. However, unfortunately the returns you get from these tuitions are not directly proportional to the money spent on it.
Do a periodic review of the number of hours your child spends on tuitions , which includes his travelling time to and from the classes as well. Talk to him/her find out which are the ones he is really benefitting from and which ones he goes too just because all his friends are going there. If he wants to discontinue any class, find out the reason and allow him to discontinue.

If his marks are not showing the effects of additional help, do not hesitate to intervene.

5) Be involved. Paying for tuitions and just chanting study study is sometimes not enough . Try and be more involved , set mock question papers for him ( so many books are available with question and answer keys) . Time the test. If your child scores well reward him. Your child might take the escapist route and assure you that he/she has studied well. However, these tests help you learn the reality of the situation. Conduct small quizzes from time to time.

6) Please do not judge your child by the amount of marks he scores. On the evening that you have planned a family outing, if your child comes home with a 50 on 100 , do not by any means drop the plan. Drive on and have fun. Choose another time to talk to him about it your child will appreiate you forever. !

 

Thanks ladies for the appreciation

 

Thank you Lilipad!Even I feel for such people especially when the beauty of a child is in her flaws.
When children pronounce a word wrong when they are learning to speak
It is a big joke for us
We laugh
But the minute he grows slightly older any mistake he does amounts to punisheable!
Just because ,as parents say ,'You know better now'
But do we ever really know any better?