Deb­bie Ja­cob

As our chil­dren get ready to head back to school, I thought I would take this op­por­tu­ni­ty to point out the ob­vi­ous: learn­ing needs to be fun–not nec­es­sar­i­ly en­ter­tain­ing, but fun. I am a firm be­liev­er that chil­dren do need to work on their lis­ten­ing skills and mem­o­rise some things–like their times ta­bles–but even those dif­fi­cult tasks need to end up feel­ing like a re­ward for learn­ing.One of the best ways to make learn­ing fun is to make it a nat­ur­al part of chil­dren's lives.

Re­late every­thing to life in some way so that maths means mak­ing a bud­get to spend your al­lowance or fig­ur­ing out how many snacks $20 can buy in a gro­cery store.Read­ing needs to be that va­ca­tion you get to take every day when school is over.Re­vi­sions need to be a game–and speak­ing of games, sports and games should not stop just be­cause school is back in ses­sion. All chil­dren need to par­tic­i­pate in sports and games–not just ath­letes.

It baf­fles me every time I see par­ents who make school a grind. Once va­ca­tion is over, sports or dance get shelved be­cause stu­dents need to study non­stop or go to lessons.That is drudgery–not learn­ing. Too much of life seems to get put on hold when school comes back in­to ses­sion.

Those lit­tle breaks that we take–the hour for danc­ing or kick­ing around a foot­ball–help to build in­valu­able so­cial skills that are nec­es­sary for life. They teach shar­ing and car­ing, dili­gence, sports­man­ship, em­pa­thy and con­fi­dence. They get chil­dren's minds off of end­less school work and the threat of all of those dread­ed tests.

Chil­dren need to so­cialise more–and I don't mean via so­cial me­dia. They need to have study groups with lots of live­ly con­ver­sa­tion, good, home-cooked meals and pop­corn. They need to feel like we're all in this to­geth­er � par­ents and friends.I will say this ad nau­se­am, but all chil­dren need to be en­gaged in leisure read­ing half-hour a day be­cause read­ing is the foun­da­tion of all their learn­ing. School books don't count for this. Chil­dren al­so need down time, which read­ing fa­cil­i­tates.

Chil­dren need a par­ent read­ing to them so they can build their lis­ten­ing skills as well as their high­er-lev­el think­ing skills. A par­ent can read a book to a child that is on a high­er lev­el than a child can read him­self.Teens al­so need qui­et time. These days, chil­dren–es­pe­cial­ly teenagers–are grow­ing up with a set of buzzing and noise all around them: cell phones ring­ing, e-mails ping­ing.Switch off all these de­vices for a few hours every evening.

A well-lit, qui­et space is im­por­tant for study­ing. Be­ware of chil­dren who con­vince you that their high-tech rooms are the best place to study in the house.Don't for­get that chil­dren al­so thrive with rou­tines. It's good to have a well-bal­anced meal at a giv­en time of day, a pro­grammed study pe­ri­od, a time set aside for breaks and play­ing; a set time for read­ing and go­ing to sleep. A con­fi­dent child is a hap­py, suc­cess­ful child and much of this con­fi­dence and suc­cess comes from a sched­ule that helps a child keep on top of all the work.

Chil­dren need to be taught what a short-term, medi­um-term and long-term school as­sign­ment means. They need to know how to bud­get for dif­fer­ent as­sign­ments; how much time to spend on home­work and how much time to de­vote to re­vi­sions. It's im­por­tant to work re­vi­sions in­to a rou­tine sched­ule. Cram­ming for tests puts in­for­ma­tion in­to your short-term mem­o­ry.

Suc­cess­ful stu­dents are or­gan­ised stu­dents, and there are ways that par­ents can help to build these or­gan­i­sa­tion­al skills. A check-list from the home­work note­book en­sures all home­work is com­plet­ed. Pack­ing the home­work bag at night means noth­ing gets left be­hind in the morn­ing rush.

Chil­dren al­so need re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in their lives to feel good about them­selves. Nor­mal chores or re­spon­si­bil­i­ties should be wo­ven in­to every evening. It gives chil­dren a break from study­ing and a pur­pose in life oth­er than school. Chil­dren can help to set the ta­ble or do the dish­es; feed the dog or straight­en their room. This too should be worked in­to a sched­ule. Of course you don't want to give a child hours worth of chores at night, but the world re­al­ly doesn't stop be­cause school is in ses­sion.

Too many chil­dren look back on school as a drudgery. They live in fear of ex­ams. They live in fear of fail­ure. It's up to par­ents to present school as a fun-filled chal­lenge. That doesn't mean every school as­sign­ment will be fun or every sub­ject will be a joy, but it does mean that a stu­dent gets a sense of sat­is­fac­tion from per­se­ver­ing and com­plet­ing a task or course.So, that's my ad­vice in a nut­shell. Have a great year at school. En­joy!