The Third Quarter is fast approaching. Many of us will help make all kinds of well-intentioned improvements for our children during the second half of the year. . This is also an opportunity to encourage our children to make some resolutions of their own.  

Academic resolutions can be a good start for many school-aged children.  Similar to other New Year pledges, an academic resolution is aimed at dealing with areas that need improvement.  And just like those other resolutions, now is always the best time to start.

Sylvan Learning Center of Darien  offers parents and families the following tips to kick-start a successful New Year:

Work as a family.  Develop the goals together, encourage your child to involve a trusted teacher or friend, but remember the goals are ultimately his. Talk over general ideas – an improved algebra grade, better study habits, making sports editor for the school paper – and help him set priorities, but let him make the final decisions.  Setting his own goals increases his motivation and self-sufficiency. 

Keep the goals simple, clear, and easy to understand.  For young children, short-term goals are the best because they’re, well, short and result in higher rates of achievement.   Daily goals are the best – “What shall we do today in the park?”  “What book shall we check out of the library?”  Older students in late elementary and middle school can be introduced to longer-term goals.  This teaches planning.

Set up helpful routines.  Give your children the consistency of fairly regular routines (weekends and holidays can be breaks).  Bedtime, wake-up, study, homework, play, family time–children rely on these routines, and the structure helps them to feel safe, to know what’s expected of them, and to be successful.

Help them organize.  Organized students do better in school. Help them to set up their planners (written or electronic; it doesn’t matter), to keep their notebooks and backpacks neat and orderly, to break up large assignments into smaller ones so they don’t seem overwhelming, to maintain a work space at home that’s actually workable and not a disaster area, and to stick to the goals you’ve set together.

Maintain healthy habits.  Healthy students are better learners.  Help your children by monitoring their screen-time (TV, video games, cell phones, etc.), making sure they’re getting enough sleep, insisting on their good eating habits, making sure they’re involved in regular and aerobic exercise, and sticking to those goals and routines you’ve established.

Be a good role model.  Children learn from parents.  If they see that you’re organized, focused on what’s important to you and your family, staying healthy, and being true to your values, they’ll pick up some pretty important life lessons.  Stay positive and diligent – they’ll test your patience often.  When you or your family slips a little, pick yourself up and start over with renewed determination.  That’s an important lesson in itself.

Don’t give up.  Academic resolutions are every bit as important – maybe more so – than social or personal ones.  Let your children know that you’re serious about these goals and that their school success is as critical to you as it is to them.

Get help early if you need it.  When your children show that they’re having trouble despite your best efforts, get help early.  Ask a teacher or guidance counselor for help.  Get a tutor.  Find a “study buddy” for your child.  Just get help now, before the little problem grows into a big one.

Wishing you and your child a successful academic New Year!

2012: Enter the New Year with a New Academic Plan for your Children

As we usher in the new year, it’s a great time to think about setting new academic goals and priorities for our children.  If your child struggled during the fall semester, we can help him or her overcome frustrations with homework and test-taking to meet with greater academic success during the second half of the year. Most importantly, MID-YEAR EXAMS are right around the corner, and Sylvan offers the following helpful hints for helping  students do better this year on their mid-term exams:

1.      The most important thing to do is to ASK your teacher NOW what will be covered on the exam. Find all the NOTES you took in and outside of class. If you outlined each chapter and filled in with class notes (Cornell/SQ3R format is the best) you are already organized. IMPORTANT: Make sure you find out if the test is CUMULATIVE (the entire term) or just partial (only the most recent quarter).

2.      Gather all the OTHER MATERIALS you have that relate to the topic you are going to be tested on:

• HANDOUTS
• HOMEWORK/LAB NOTES, etc.
• ALL PAST QUIZZES/TESTS

Arrange these materials, together with your notes and outlines BY DATE.

3.      Now that you have some idea where to start, begin REVIEWING IMMEDIATELY! Go back to the first chapter to be tested and look over the vocabulary and the review questions at the end of each unit. Make FLASH CARDS for vocabulary you have forgotten, and make outlines for the questions you were not able to answer without looking back.

4.      REPEAT STEP 3 for all material being tested in each class. We know it sound like a terrific amount  of work, but that is why you are starting NOW!  Use a calendar and create a daily ACTION PLAN to plot out all your individual study times over the 10 day study period.

5.      FORM A STUDY GROUP. Technical subjects that require a large amount of memorization and tedious outlining are often best studied in a small group in which each student responsible fot providing the group with specific outlines and review questions.  Group members can then quiz each other and provide support during a stressful time.

6.      6. Be sure to ask your teachers about the FORMAT of the test. Will it be primarily essay (long or short), multiple  choice or a combination?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204644504576653004073453880.html

Another tenet of this article is that billions of dollars spent on counseling adolescents are, for the most part, ineffective. Active, involved parents can help guide and provide kernels of wisdom, and they have to gain trust and be supportive. The prolonged plasticity of the late-developing frontal areas of the brain in teenagers allows for growth from mistakes and experimentation before speed transmission from the brain’s white matter slows down, and maturity sets in. A final thought – If we smartened up at a younger age, we would end up dumber.

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of
change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”  Peter Drucker

“Be observing constantly. Stay open minded. Be eager to
learn and improve.” – John Wooden

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” –
Benjamin Franklin

“Experience is the name everyone gives to his
mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde

“I don’t expect anyone to be perfect.
It’s not human nature. What I do expect is that they will take risks, correct
mistakes, and learn from both.” – Mike Armstrong

“Don’t mind criticism. If it is
untrue, disregard it; if unfair, keep from irritation; if it is ignorant,
smile; if it is justified, it is not criticism – learn from it.” – Author
unknown

“Tell me and I Forget. Show me and I
remember. Involve me and I understand.” – Chinese Proverb

Sylvan is hosting and open house for the Darien Chamber of Commerce on Thursday Sept 8 from 7:30 -9 at 14 Brook Street.  Come by and join us for coffee and bagels. Doug will be giving a short talk on “Learning and Lifelong Learning”.

Another article of note in the Wall Street Journal on June 28 A15 by Meghan Cox Gurdon called My “Reprehensible” Take on Teen Literature.  Are teens reading too many books in school that dwell on ugliness, dysfunction, barbarity  and cruelty?