Maximize learning this coming school year

Want to ensure that your child gets the most out of this school year? Then follow these “Five Tips” to encourage one of the best school years ever!

1. Start with promoting and modeling healthy living. When we are treating our bodies well, our brains work optimally. I told parents that if they sent me well-fed, well-rested, well-hydrated and well-loved children, I could maximize learning for them in my classroom. Guess what? Many parents took the challenge. They fed their children “The Best Brainy Breakfasts” (lean protein + whole grain + fruit + water or 1% milk)(see www.maximizelearninginc.com’s article called “Foods that Maximize Learning” for specific examples) every morning and made sure their children were in bed by a certain time (they needed nine-10 hours of sleep at that age). We were all amazed at the results: they were ready to learn, loved learning, engaged more easily and test scores improved. Encourage and model healthy habits – it will be worth it!

2. Be intentional with setting goals to help your child with his/her growth opportunities. In order to make long-term changes, we need to be aware of what needs to change, set goals and implement strategies to help us get there. Ask your child what he/she could improve in school this coming year. Then, help him/her create a goal for the first two months. Write strategies to help them achieve this goal and check on progress regularly (this short-term checking is extremely important). Celebrate successes and keep encouraging. You might need to adjust the goal so it is more achievable. An example: Reading is foundational for success in life. The only way to improve reading, is to read, more and more! Goal: Aubrey will read a book of her choice for 30 minutes every night. She can discuss her favorite parts of the book with her mom or dad. On weekends, the family will go to the library to get more books for the week. Each night the timer is set so it’s a full 30 minutes. Remember, nagging doesn’t work well, but goal setting improves children’s intrinsic motivation!

3. Encourage and praise your child’s efforts versus his/her intelligence. Research by Malcolm Gladwell, author of “Outliers,” says that expertise requires an investment of 10,000 hours. In other words, with enough practice and effort, your child can greatly improve in any subject. If your children use the excuse that they are just not good at math because “of their genes,” you can confidently respond: “Brains change daily and with practice, time and effort, you can be good at math.”

4. Help your children find the best strategies to remember information they learn. For example, my son learns vocabulary words very quickly by seeing words in the sentence and guessing/checking the meaning. My daughter, his twin, learns vocabulary words by writing the word on flashcards, drawing a picture to represent the word and then creating her own sentence using the word. Help your child explore the best strategies for reviewing and learning content, and they will start to own the content!

5. Finally, stay connected with your child. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Journal of the American Medical Association in Sept. 10, 1997) tested 90,000 kids in grades 7-12 attending 145 different schools. They found 100 variables that would protect children from negative outcomes such as violence, suicide, extreme emotional distress, drug abuse and early sexual activity. Want to know the No. 1 variable? Feeling connectedness at home, which meant to feel “closeness,” to perceive caring and to feel understood, loved, wanted and paid attention to by mom, dad or both.

These five tips should maximize learning for your child and build a more positive relationship with your child this coming school year!

LeAnn Nickelsen, M.Ed., has been in education for 20 years, teaching and now training/coaching teachers how to maximize learning daily in their classrooms by using the most powerful, research-based strategies in all content areas. She spoke to teachers, administrators and district-level personnel at the Orange County Back-to-School Professional Development Conference on Aug. 15 at the Orange County Convention Center. You can reach her at www.maximizelearninginc.com