Christmas is right around the corner, and with it comes a lot of excitement from children and adults alike. While everyone is getting ready for some much-needed time off, the upcoming exam preparations and their challenges are still ever present. However, if managed well, the Christmas holidays can be a great chance for your child to get extra study time.
Here are some tips to help keep your child motivated during the festive period.
Make a plan
Creating a rough plan for your child’s studies is a great way to get them into a routine during the holidays. It doesn’t need to be a strict schedule and can be as simple as dedicating a certain time of day for them to do their work. For example, if your child works better in the morning, you can agree that this is when they’ll study. This way your child can get into a new routine and focus more on their work before jumping into their free time. It also helps you keep track of what and when your child is studying and how it fits into your schedule.
Little and often
While some children might be able to study for long periods, for most, this is unrealistic and can lead to burnout. It’s much easier for your child to stay focused and maximise their study sessions by doing little and often.
Atom Home's bite-sized lessons are designed to keep your child engaged while studying. The short lessons also make it easy to have a flexible schedule. Your child can study, come back to it the next day, and simply pick up where they left off. This approach maximises your child's time studying and, matched with the tailor-made lessons, makes exam prep easy but effective.
Take the stress out of exam prep
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Make it Christmassy
During December, it’s impossible to avoid anything Christmas-related, so why not incorporate it into your child's learning? Using festive worksheets can be an excellent way of bringing some fun to your child’s study sessions. Combining Christmas with their lessons means that children can get their work done whilst also getting in the festive mood. Need something to get you started? Check out Atom’s festive worksheets.
You can also use Christmas as an incentive. Perhaps your child wants to watch their favourite Christmas movie or play in the snow, using a fun activity as a reward will make them excited and more motivated to finish their studying.
Set goals and celebrate small victories
Setting goals is a great way to track your child’s progress. When preparing for exams, it’s important to know which subjects your child is struggling with. This lets you know where they need more practice. Once this is clear, you can use this to set targets for your child each week and give them something to strive towards.
Of course, this alone might not be enough to keep your child motivated which is why celebrating the small things also makes a huge difference. When they hit a milestone, no matter how big or small it might be, celebrate their achievement. Overcoming an obstacle or challenge, for a child, is a huge deal and a reward or even just acknowledging what they have achieved makes a big impact. Knowing they’re doing well and heading in the right direction will keep them motivated.
Learn together
Taking part in group activities is another way to incorporate learning with your children. If you’re a family who loves to play board games, you could practice their English skills with Scrabble and Articulate, or they can hone their problem-solving skills with Chess and Backgammon.
Baking is the perfect way to practice maths skills, as it requires using measurements and scales. Get your children in the kitchen and make some Christmas cookies and then have fun decorating them, they won’t even realise they are learning.
Reading is also a great way to study. While this might not be a whole family affair, reading is an important part of exam preparation and helps to improve your child’s English skills and overall academic performance. Why not find a festive or Christmas-themed book you can read together? Using books that are related to Christmas will keep them excited about the winter season.