From the Sidelines

Integrating exercise into your child's study routine doesn't have to be complicated. Encourage them to engage in physical activities they enjoy, such as sports or even a simple daily walk. It's important to strike a balance, ensuring they have enough time for both focused studying and physical activity.

Although energy drinks might sound like a good idea to children as a huge influx of energy right before an exam or an important study session, all they do is cause your child to have what we call an ‘energy crash’ when the effects of the drink wear off and their body begins to normalise again. If this is in the middle of, or towards the end of their exam, then this is absolutely not what your child needs.

A recent study into the link between keeping hydrated and children’s performance in school and college, found that drinking just 300ml of water can boost your child’s attention by up to 25%.

At various points throughout the year, you may often see your child grappling with stress and anxiety. While it's natural for us as parents to want our children to be calm and relaxed during their learning, it's important to understand that some signs of stress can actually be beneficial.

Think about a time when you’ve needed to get to sleep but you can’t. Lying there actively thinking about needing to get to sleep is actually one of the worst things you can probably do. Unfortunately if we’re not tired and our body is not used to going to sleep at that time of night, then there’s very little you can do.

During the night as we sleep, our body uses a lot of energy stores for growth and repair, so our breakfast is used to replenish our energy levels, helping with our focus, concentration and alertness. Therefore skipping breakfast is an absolute no no if you want your child to be a high performing student.

Our children have a tendency to stay up late trying to cram in all of that last minute information. All this does is lead to stress and tiredness, meaning they can’t focus when it comes to the tough questions an hour into their exam.

It's hard to stay motivated when there's nothing to look forward to. Have you tried scheduling little rewards and treats throughout your child's study sessions? It's time to step up to your new role: study buddy!    

It is absolutely essential to form great study habits at home, so that even when your child is not at school, they can still continue their learning and take responsibility for their own success as a student. Developing familiar routines at home for when and where they will study throughout the week is an important factor in helping to make this happen.

One of the most interesting, but least well known facts about how our brains remember information, is that as human beings we forget 90% of what we have been taught within the first 7 days, unless we go back and do something with that information to enable us to remember it.

By getting your child to make learning harder for themselves, they are creating exactly the right conditions in which to remember something. We call this a ‘desirable difficulty’.

When we recognise something as familiar, our brain makes us think that we know more about the topic than we really do. Familiarity can be the enemy of real learning… but it doesn't have to be this way!

Productivity is a loaded word, and sometimes, it might feel like we're never productive enough. But all we really need is good time management, uninterrupted focus and motivation!

Establishing new habits is hard. Habit stacking helps you bring new routines into your life by using previous habits as a cue – something as simple as brushing your teeth will do!

In this episode, we explore a technique that works in a similar way to a ‘brain dump’ or ‘blurting’, but this time it doesn’t have to be something your child learned in the past, it can be used very effectively to see how much they have just taken in and understood, from something they have just read.

The science behind how our children learn best can often be a little overwhelming, but sometimes the simplest ways are the best. Let’s take a look at one of the best and easiest ways for your child to quiz themselves on something they have already learned...

Flashcards are the easiest and most effective way to recall information so that it sticks in your long-term memory. Let’s look at how to create them, use them and organise them in the best way possible…

The more often we recall information, the easier it is to recall it in the future. Each successful retrieval lets you retrieve it at a longer delay.

The best way to ensure that your child is studying for an optimum amount of time, is to use the well known Pomodoro technique. This technique for studying splits a study period up into 25 minute segments, followed by a 5 minute break.

The last thing that anyone wants to do is to have to get up to get something when they have been deep in concentration. This results in the same situation as a distraction from a mobile phone notification - a loss in concentration, rhythm and study flow.

Making sure that your child gets adequate rest and sleep every night is essential for not only a healthy lifestyle, but it also plays a major part in the learning process. As parents, we need to start thinking about our child’s body like an athlete does in the build up to a competition or event.

Even if your child has their phone on silent, there is still the burning temptation to constantly check it for any notifications or messages if it’s within arms reach. In this episode, we dive in to the useful ways in which you can help prevent this and ultimately improve your child's study!

Children may say that they work better when they are listening to music, or have the tv on in the background, but if we want to do the very best we can on a task, then we need to give it 100% focus. We need silence if we want to think deeply.

For a student to study effectively away from the classroom, they need a designated study space at home. However, lots of students often fall into the trap of studying in places that their body is used to relaxing in. Here's a look into how you can create the best and most effective space for your child to study.