Writing Rockstars Blog 

Get them while they’re young!

Solid work study habits or study skills are very important to learn, and at school, teachers often don't teach them to kids. That means if kids don't learn study skills at home, they probably won't learn them anywhere. Parents, it’s up to you to do your best to teach your kids successful study skills and instill strong work study habits. I suggest you start as early as possible and never give up.

Here’s what strong work study habits look like and some suggestions for teaching them to your children:

1) Have a strategy or “plan of attack” for completing an assignment or a project. In other words, you work with your child to put together a list of smaller tasks they need to do to complete school work. For a project that takes several days to complete, map out those tasks on a calendar too. Decide what time of day and how long they’re going to need to work on the project to get it done. Do this together and modify the schedule as needed until it becomes routine. When they’re older, they can do this independently.

2) Get work done first and play later. Do your best to stop procrastination. If they’re having trouble focusing on a particular assignment, let them work on something else to remain productive during school time. That’s not to say that taking a short break isn’t ok. We all need breaks. But once they're too tired, trying to force them to work is bad for everyone around.

3) Make them tune in and be “present” during work time. In other words, no spacing out! This can require a lot of self-discipline, and initial effort of your part, but once they’ve got it, they’re set for life. Find the times of day that your child is most awake and attentive, and make the best use of that time. Also, some foods make kids groggy, unfocused, and lead easily to meltdowns during schoolwork time, when other foods don’t. Find out what those are for your children and feed them accordingly.

Using a timer and setting up incentives for quick yet high quality completion of work is helpful too. Sometimes I sit with my own children and tap on the table as soon as they start to space out.  They find that so annoying it gives them extra incentive to get their work done quickly!

Parents, you know your children best. You know their potential, their personalities, likes, and dislikes better than anyone. Use that knowledge to set up systems and routines that will instill the work study habits they’ll need for success throughout their lives.