Anonymous wrote:Well, I am now in the thick of things with DD who is a little older than your DC. Her older sibling excelled academically with little to no support and guidance from us. DD’s Q3 grades so far indicate she requires much more concrete support from us. We’re now requiring a number of things we probably should’ve required sooner:
* No phone use at home until your homework is finished and submitted
* Academic agenda you must write in every day
* Take advantage of school-sponsored supports on a weekly basis (math is an issue, so this means go to math lab at lunch once a week)
* Study guides are “due” two days before your test or quiz. If your teacher has given you a study guide, you need to complete it with time to spare, and then review that completed study guide the day before the test
* Try to figure things out in your own, but once you’ve tried, you must ask your teachers if you still have questions. They want to help you and want to see you succeed.
We’ve found it helpful to talk about concrete habits versus studying. The habit of keeping an agenda, for example, requires both short-term and long-term planning, and helps facilitate prioritizing tasks (and hopefully keeps primary responsibility for academics with the student). “Studying” was too vague and seemed to include sitting in your room with your homework close by.
NP: thank you for this. I especially like the study guide idea. I am in the same boat- older child didn’t need such rules to excel but younger one (middle school) is seeming to need a lot more support/monitoring