This post is sponsored by SUPERPRETZEL and SHE Media. Back to school season means it’s time to rethink good study habits for our children. Whether they are excellent students or struggle with academics, a good routine for studying and managing homework is essential. I am sharing some great ideas for encouraging good study habits in teens that will help make this school year easier for your child, and ultimately for you as a parent.
Good Study Habits in Teens
Why are study habits so important? Teaching responsibility is a huge part of parenting. When it comes to education, it’s important to help your child or teen understand that there are good habits and bad habits involved with completing a task. Working with them to learn responsibility also includes teaching them how to manage their day to day items like completing their assignments from their teachers. Teaching good or better habits regarding accomplishing these kinds of tasks is a must.
Figure out your teen’s educational needs
Before you can begin teaching your child about better study habits, you need to understand how they learn best. As a parent of teens with high functioning autism, I respect the need to tailor education to the specific child. What works for one child will not necessarily work for another child. Provide each child with tips and space that suits their education style.
By the time you have reached the teenage years, you will likely understand more about how your student learns best. If they are very structured, then the study habits will be different than a student who seems to thrive in a less structured environment. Keep those things in mind when encouraging better study habits. Trying to force your child into a mold put in place by someone else rarely succeeds.
Snacks + food are important
After our boys get home from a long day at school, having a snack is the first thing they do when they come into the house. Allowing your kids to have a little bit of downtime from a hard day of learning, as well as providing a snack, is essential when it comes to studying.
One of our go-to foods for a quick + easy snack is SUPERPRETZEL® Soft Pretzels. I started buying these for our boys when they were younger, and they enjoy the variety of styles and flavors like their Cheddar Cheese Filled Softstix and Soft Pretzel Bites.
Ready in seconds, this frozen snack is not only great for after school snacks but also as appetizers, party treats, and more. SUPERPRETZEL® Soft Pretzels are microwavable, or you can heat them up in the oven. As a mom, I always think about the quality of foods I am feeding my family, and I know SUPERPRETZEL® products have the best flavor and quality. You can grab a FREE coupon here!
Having a quick snack to refuel is important for creating good study habits. As America’s #1 Soft Pretzel brand, I know my kids can have a fun, good quality snack that is ready in seconds.
Create a study space that fits their needs
There are thousands of great study space suggestions online that are cute, fun and unique. While they are excellent in many situations, they aren’t “one size fits all.” Just like you need to understand your child’s unique educational needs, it’s important to provide a space that works best for them.
With three teenagers in the house now, I see so many different aspects of their personalities shine through in how they dress, speak, react, and tackle issues in their lives. Why would I try to put them all into a box when it comes to study spaces? It makes no sense to force a child to study in a certain chair or at a specific table just because it looks pretty or is what works for other children.
It all depends on personality – while one of our sons may prefer a desk in a quiet corner of the house and studying wearing noise-canceling headphones, another son might work better lounging on the couch with his favorite music playing or even a movie on in the background. A child’s ideal study space should be as unique as they are.
Make study a requirement
For some teenagers, learning new things comes naturally, and they may not need to study as much as their siblings to remember certain information. However, an easy subject right now may not be as easy for them later on down the road, so it’s important that a child still dedicates a set amount of time to studying and develops those good habits.
Teach them the basics of structured study
Do your teens know how to study for a test properly? While there are many ways to accomplish the same thing, they must understand there are steps involved. Help them out by giving them guidance on how to manage their study time best.
- Teach them a basic setup for taking notes. Keeping detailed and organized notes will help them create note cards and outlines, and allow them to review and quiz themselves when it’s time to study.
- Give them the tools for taking notes in a way that helps them visualize the information. A laptop or Chromebook with a word processor option, highlighters, note cards, or just a special spiral notebook for each subject are all great options.
- Explain how each subject should be kept separate for easy access to notes. Provide separate notebooks, folders, or color-coding systems for different subjects.
Hold your children accountable for their study habits
Even if they have a learning disability or struggle with studying, education should not be optional. In our family, it is a mandatory part of life while our children are of school age and living in our home. College may be different depending on each unique child, but basic education is a must. Holding my sons accountable for their study habits is a part of that process.
Depending on your child and household, holding children accountable for studying may mean doing a quick check of homework each night, or it could mean that you take disciplinary actions if they choose not to study and then fail a test. There are endless ways of dealing with how to hold your child accountable, just make sure there is some process in place to make sure they follow through with their educational promise to study for better grades.
Accept that grades are just a small part of measuring their academic success
As I have mentioned numerous times already, no two children are the same academically. You can do everything correctly and have the ideal study habits in place, and see your child still struggle with learning. If you know this is a part of a learning disability or that they do not do well with stressful testing situations, then you know the grade on that paper does not reflect their level of intelligence. What’s important is making sure they have put the effort in.
Always look at your children with love and grace. Understand that each child will receive different grades for different reasons. Set your level of expectations accordingly for each child instead of having one single expectation that may not take into account their individual needs.
As the new school year starts, create those good study habits now. Be sure to stop by your grocery store to pick up a few boxes of SUPERPRETZEL Soft Pretzels.
Available products:
SUPERPRETZEL Original 6 ct. (Frozen): Soft Pretzels are the classic baked snacks that fit any occasion. Ready in Seconds! Salt pack included.
SUPERPRETZEL Softstix Cheddar Cheese Filled Soft Pretzel Sticks, 9oz (Frozen): The signature Soft Pretzels packed with delicious, creamy cheddar cheese. With the dip now inside, your favorite simple snack just got simpler.
SUPERPRETZEL Soft Pretzel Bites: The classic SUPERPRETZEL Soft Pretzel untwisted and shrunk down to bite-size. They’re the simple, dippable, dunkable snack to please any crowd.
Get a $.50 SUPERPRETZEL Soft Pretzels’ printable coupon here!
What SUPREPRETZEL snack will you be trying?
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