Developing Great Study Habits

Here are a few tips to help your student create great study skills.

1. Plan ahead. Planning isn’t just great for vacations; it is essential to make the most of study time. Learning to schedule work and play helps young children and teens learn the value of planning and applying this skill to daily life. Imagine that your teen wants to hang out with friends, but he has a huge project due. If your son learns how to plan ahead, both can be accomplished. Once the work is done, let the social fun begin!
   
   To help your children learn to plan ahead, schedule school and study time. A calendar or calendar app can help your child learn the value of scheduling, prevent missing important events and double-booking, and prepare them to function in a busy world. Calendars can also help children learn the importance of planning ahead so desired activities can happen.
   
   Breaks in work should also be planned. Having an agreed upon study/break/study schedule can help refresh and restart the learning process. Some research recommends younger children study for 25 minutes and break for 5 minutes, while older children and teens may be able to study for 50 and break for 10. What should you do during the break? Get up and move. Don’t play on the phone, but get up and stretch, walk around, or even do jumping jacks. This movement will get the blood flowing, burn a little energy, and increase focus time.
   
   Remember in your planning that the best-laid plans must sometimes change. Try not to become too rigid in your planning, which can create inflexibility and stress. All members of the family need to learn that sometimes plans change. While constantly changing plans can create anxiety and stress, being too rigid with plans can create the same stress when an emergency occurs. Learning to “roll with the punches” of life is important for your children to learn while you are there to guide them.
   

   “If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail” — Benjamin Franklin

2. Location is everything.Have a designated workspace. A consistent workplace saves time, creates consistent behaviors, and encourages comfort in working. It can decrease chaos and confusion as well.
   
   Also, remember that distractions are all around us. The dog barking. The mailman knocking. The TV or radio blaring. The mobile phone beeping. When preparing a study location, consider how to eliminate distractions by decreasing noise or giving easily distracted learners noise-cancelling headphones. Some kids may need white noise to help them block out the distractions. Consider using a fan or even classical music to help. Also, put cell phones away during schooltime. Visual distractions can also be challenging to overcome. Consider working with your child to limit visual distracts if this is a problem.
   
   
3. Engage in self-care.We realize now, more than ever before, the importance of taking care of ourselves. We need to teach and model this for our children during our homeschool journey. Learning to create moments of self-care is healthy, so long as we do not step into self-worship.
   
   Perhaps the most important method of self-care is to take a Sabbath. Time with God is essential to our success in discovering His purpose for our lives. Children who learn the importance of resting in God’s presence and spending time with Him become adults who seek His face. God even took a rest after a week of work (Genesis 2:2-3). As His creation, He requires us to take a Sabbath as well.
   
   Rest, sleep, and good nutrition are also keys to studying well. Don’t overlook the need for a good night’s sleep. When children learn the value of sleep (Though let’s admit, what child thinks sleep is fun?!?), they see improved energy, ability to think clearly, and better regulation of their emotions. Sleeping needs vary by age and physical needs, so take time to discover what’s best for them and yourself. Rest is different than sleeping. Rest is downtime and relaxation, a chance for us to decompress, unwind, and relax. Sleep has regenerative effects on our physical and mental health. Good food does, too. Eat well. Nutrition plays a large role in our physical and mental health. Eating well allows the mind to work more quickly and function better, and nutrition can improve memory. Learn together what health nutrition could look like for your family.
   
   Self-care is also spending time together. Caring for yourself and your family can be as simple as learning a new skill, completing a project, or spending time outside. Find something the whole family enjoys and do it … together! One way to spend time together is to get up and move. Physical activity is a great way to burn off extra energy and yet still create fun energy. Taking time to go outside for a walk or a run can boost mental heath too. Seeing the sun, feeling the wind, and experiencing nature is a great way to see God’s creation!
   
   Encourage your children’s creativity. We are made in the image of God, the Creator, so part of our character is to be creative. Whether your creativity is seen in art, music, or any other form, you and your children will enjoy a time of family creativeness.
   
   Another part of self-care is personal improvement. Completing assignments and studying can be challenging. But working through the challenges creates persistence and builds self-confidence. To encourage your children, offer frequent praise for jobs well done. Honesty is essential when offering praise. Point out what was done really well and ask them what accomplishment they are most proud of and where they can improve. None of us is perfect (I think I have looked at my phone 10 times while writing this. Can we say distraction?), so give them a safe place to fail and pick themselves up.
   

   “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” – Exodus 20:8

4. Encourage your children all along their homeschool journey.You know your children well. What is the best way to encourage their success? Each child is different. Some want words of affirmation, and others may need a reward system until they learn the value of learning. While you learn together, teach your children to laugh. Build in time for humor. Part of building confidence and persistence is taking time to laugh – even at yourself. Share a funny story about a time you failed and how you stepped up again. Success builds confidence, which builds persistence, which builds resilience.
   

   “Believe you can and you're halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt

5. Change it up. We all learn in a variety of ways. Though some of us have preferences, many times children don’t yet know how they prefer to learn. Sometimes, they find courses a bit boring. So be creative and try new things. CJA helps you use technology to support learning. From our online site offering more than 150 engaging course for K-12 to learning tools like Kahoot!, students have ability to learn through play. Playing is a huge motivator for children and even teens. Another way to add variety is to use audio along with visuals to encourage greater retention of information. Some learn to read better through listening to an audiobook while reading. Consider also how you can engage your student in learning through movement or touch. Some of us need to feel the grass on our feet to understand the variations of softness. While ice down your child’s shirt may create a few screams, they will understand cold in a whole new way (and remember humor is good for learning!). Building with play dough, blocks, or straws sparks creativity while also teaching about physics and gravity.
   

   “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

6. Finally, love learning together. Learning is lifelong, and children need to understand that learning never stops. While they are doing their schoolwork, what can you be learning? Sit with them and read a non-fiction book or read articles online. If you work from home, work while they work. Show them what you do, and model how you get it done. Learning together is a great way to show your child that you are learning too, and it reinforces that study is important, satisfying, and can even be fun. And when we are finished studying for the day, we can relax with free play.

“Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long”. – Psalm 25:5

Whether you are new to homeschooling or a veteran needing to take a new path on your homeschool journey, you can set the stage for success by helping your children learn great study habits that will follow them throughout life.