Holiday time: How you can drive your teen’s academic success
We may only be half way through the calendar year, but we’re much further along than that in the school year.Term 2’s done, Term 3 is only 10 weeks long, and Term 4 is a write off for senior students.The vast majority of students will have finished going over new coursework by the end of Term 3, and Term 4 is normally just revising and tying up loose ends.
So really, your teen is two thirds of the way through their school year.
They may think exams in November are miles away, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.Knowing this, it is highly recommended that your teen makes use of the few weeks they now have off school. These holidays are a great time for your teen to do some preparatory work they probably won’t have time to do come study time in October/November.Don’t let them confuse this holiday with the summer holiday when they’re allowed to not have a care in the world.Right now they need to care.These holidays can serve your teen a number of purposes...
Ideas for your teen & how you can help
1. Start preparing flash cards
Flash cards are an amazing study tool. They can help improve your teen’s recall of absolutely any subject, and can be much more appealing than reading a boring old text book.The only downside is that they take a little bit of time to prepare. But this preparation time will help reinforce to your teen’s learning.Plus, now is the perfect time to make them: there isn’t too much pressure, and your teen will have a lot more spare time than they will in a few months. Then when exams really are right around the corner, your teen will have their flash cards ready to go!
2. Timetable for success
Having a timetable will increase the likelihood of your teen actually doing the study they need a million-fold.How much study your teen should do depends on how they’re going at school. If they’re way behind, a couple of hours every day would probably be extremely wise... If they’re more or less on top of things, then maybe a couple of hours every two or three days would be fine.The Exam Survival Kit contains a timetable template, essay plan template, and other important study documents that will help your teen prepare for their upcoming exams.
3. Rewards for hard work
If your teen comes to the party and does put in some quality study time these holidays, it would be great if they could be rewarded in some way.A reward for hard work could give them the boost they need to give the rest of the year 100%. But whatever it is depends on what’s right for your family of course. If your teen’s motivationally-challenged, a couple of small incentives may be just the thing to get the ball rolling.Just remember: reward the effort and time put in, rather than the marks they get.
4. Nothing like a family outing
Your teen may associate museums with bearded socks-and-sandals-wearing scientists and sinfully boring experiences, but museums actually provide an unmatched interactive experience for young people.They bring world history and science to life, in such a way that you’re never exposed to anywhere else. Who knows, it might actually get your teen interested in what they’re learning at school.Wouldn’t that be something?!
5. R&R
Your teen has just had a long term, and even though we’re saying they really ought to make use of their time off, their brain and body probably need a bit of R & R too.Recharge the batteries.
From personal experience, we can recall how grateful we were to ourselves that we’d done a bit of study earlier in the year.Believe us, your teen really doesn’t want to start their October study break entirely from square one. It’s horribly daunting have an entire years worth of work to go over in a short amount of time.But by putting in a few hours of study these holidays, they’ll be doing their future selves an enormous favour!
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