Education

While teachers play a crucial role in children’s education, parents remain their children’s primary teachers. Therefore, if you notice that your child has started struggling academically, there are things that you can do to help them improve their grades at school.

Tips to Help Your Child Improve Their Grades at School

1. Talk to Your Child

One of the factors that affect children’s academic performance is their motivation in education. If your child has lost the motivation to study, it can make studying, completing homework, and preparing for tests difficult. This can negatively affect their grades.

To determine how to effectively help your child improve their grades at school, first determine what is causing their lack of motivation to study. Talk to your child to find out that that is; however, make sure to do it in a caring and non-threatening way.

2. Focus on the Positive

Getting a bad grade can be stressful for a child. Moreover, their stress levels can increase even more if they are criticized for it when they come home.

A child who fears that their parent will punish or scold them for a bad grade may even start lying. This can cause long-term damage to the foundation of the relationship between you and your child.

Punishing a child for a bad grade can also lower their self-esteem and motivation to study.

Instead, approach your child from a more positive and constructive perspective. Ask your child what they think has caused them to get a lower grade, what they can do to improve their school grades in the future, as well as if there is anything you can do to help.

If you feel angry or disappointed, and your child feels bad about the low grade, it may be best to hold this conversation later in the day or on a different day. Emotions will have settled, and you both will have an easier time thinking clearly and objectively.

3. Review Homework and Tests Together

It can be a tedious and unpleasant task to do. Nonetheless, it can help parents identify problem areas that their child needs to address to improve their grades at school.

Sit down and talk about what your child found challenging and where they made mistakes. Then, you can find ways of providing help with those. These can be practice worksheets, online practice exercises, or the help of a tutor.

4. Monitor Screen Time

While screen time is frequently dubbed as bad, and many suggest avoiding it altogether, not all screen time is bad. In fact, it can be beneficial and can teach invaluable skills.

Yet, parents need to monitor how much time their parents spend on screens and what they are doing. Watching cartoons or playing videogames can be exciting for children. However, children can spend hours doing that if parents don’t monitor their screen time. This can negatively affect their health, sleep, and, as a result, grades at school.

Therefore, parents need to set a limit on how long children can spend on screens and adhere to it. Instead of cartoons, look into educational video games and activities that can teach new skills and knowledge. It is also beneficial for parents to spend screen time together with children. This can help them to learn how to use screens mindfully.

5. Help Establish Good Study Habits

Sadly, schools rarely teach students how to set or improve their study habits. Nonetheless, they can not only help to improve grades at school but also help with studying, completing challenging tasks, and working in the future.

Teaching study techniques such as time management, organization, prioritization of tasks can be invaluable to improve grades at school as well as succeed later in life.

6. Make Learning Fun and Applicable

Often, students have a hard time with a subject if they do not see a practical use for it. That is often the case with math and science classes, especially for girls.

Showing how what children learn at school can be fun and applicable can increase students internal motivation and help them improve their grades at school.  So, if your child is studying math functions, you can ask them to help you in the kitchen, counting or measuring ingredients.

You can also play with STEM toys and games, go to science museums and zoos, as well as do other STEM-related activities that can help raise your child’s interest in the subject that they are struggling with.

7. Establish a Healthy Reward System

A common strategy that many parents still use to motivate their children to improve their grades at school is punishment for bad grades. Nonetheless, contrary to popular belief, punishment isn’t nearly as effective as parents expect it to be. In fact, it can be harmful in many ways.

Instead, a much more effective approach is establishing a healthy and positive reward system. So, if you see that your child is struggling with a test, you can encourage them with something they can look forward to. This can be going to celebrate a good grade with ice cream, cake, or pizza from your child’s favorite eatery or buying something that they really want.

Make sure not to make it a habit, though. Rewarding every single accomplishment can lead to your child becoming dependent on external motivators and become prone to addictions.

8. Get Help

You may not be able to help with all subjects, and you may not always be available due to circumstances such as work. In such instances, seeking professional help from a qualified tutor or an extracurricular learning center could be beneficial.

Have you tried any of these tips to help your child improve their grades at school? Which one do you think is best for your child right now? Feel free to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and share it with us!

If you live in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and are looking for a tutor or STEM classes to help your child get better grades, get in touch with us.