Are your child's grades slipping?

Your child would have started off the school year full of enthusiasm! But we are now well and truly into the second half of the year and you may be noticing that they are losing a bit of steam; their attitude might be changing to one more lethargic and 

disengaged. These signs are more common than you realise and you are not alone!

Numerous children start to fall into a bit of a slump at this time and, whilst not overtly damaging, could mean they begin to slip behind unnoticed; after all they are just kids. Their attention spans are short and it can be quite easy for them to start to lose motivation, especially if they are bored or missing a central concept in their educational foundation. A lack of engagement in their learning often signals a decline in their social life. At which point children may, for fear of embarrassment, not even ask for help and subsequently find ways to hide what's going on.

Prompt response to these signs is vital to ensure stability for the rest of the year. As parents, the last thing we would like to see is our child's grades sliding backwards. If you feel that this is happening to your child here are a few tips:

Question

Ask your child about their day at school. Allow them to speak about what they've been doing and how they feel about their work. Gently ask them how they feel about the difficulty of the material that they are being taught. Ask them how they would feel if someone helped them explain something that they didn't understand.

Routine

At the start of the year we start off with all the best intentions, our day to day routines are flawless. Everything is planned to the finest detail and your kids know your expectations of them. Repetition often begets complacency and routines may, despite best intentions, fall out of place. This time more than ever it is important that we keep up with routines in regards to homework/schoolwork. Understandably, extra curricular activity routines change and can consume most of out of school time. However, you'll start to notice a significant difference if you change the routine a little and stick to it. Depending on the age of the child and the amount of homework, a good practise is to allow the child to do their homework in a common area with little disruptions as possible. Also encourage them to do the work themselves and applaud good work that they have done on their own. This helps give them the confidence needed to re-engage.

Supplementary education

There are many after school programmes available for children of all ages and it is important to choose one that fits with your child's learning style. Tuition programmes can range from large groups to small groups as well as individual. 

It is important to remember a few key points when seeking supplementary education programmes: ensure that all programmes are aligned with the national curriculum; individual programmes should be tailor made specifically for your child's individual learning needs and modified accordingly to reflect this; ask for the tutors qualifications, there is now a formal accreditation process available for tutors and is 100% endorsed by the Australian Tutoring Association (ATA). To find out more please lick the links available on our website. 

At Intuition educational support our aim is to recognise and optimise your child's full learning potential, in an environment that is safe, friendly, engaging and designed specifically to compliment your child's specific learning needs. Whether your child needs to catch up, keep up or be enriched we can help. Contact us today for a free assessment.