Month: December 2014

To get the best results from the children’s studying, the most important thing is the follow-up at home. The second most important thing is to keep personal contact with our child’s teacher and to be able to speak with them about the learning and professional and emotional aspects that could affect our child. The goal is for parents to know what’s going on in class, and for the teacher to know what’s going on at home. The first meetings with the teacher are especially important because they help you get to know the teacher, the other families, to solve doubts, etc.

When a student hasn’t acquired a study habit from his early years, things get complicated. The same thing happens if they are not motivated in school: his experience will be similar at home, and this starts creating tension between parents and students when it comes to studying. The most important thing to consider with these students is motivation. Try not to make them do boring or repetitive activities, try to have their activities relate to subjects of interest to them (animals, sports), and try to get the teacher’s help. For students who get bad results, a big part of the problem comes from children working almost exclusively when they have tests. Instead, they must work out a weekly studying schedule to get a short term look at the results of their effort. This system works if it’s not excessive, and for the most difficult cases there must be a customized plan between the teacher and the parents.

Family must control the learning process. If there’s no monitoring and no studying guidelines for children, then there’s chaos. Supervision during studying doesn’t mean that the parents have to solve every single doubt the children have; we shouldn’t do our children’s job, but rather ask them how they think a problem can be solved. We must guide them, help them find out what’s causing difficulties, and then have them give a positive comment so they can see they’re capable of doing it and they get motivated. In other words, we must help them think.

How to motivate our child? The first thing to do is to help the child feel that there’s a meaning to what he’s doing. If he doesn’t believe it, when something is not coming out right, he’ll leave it for another day. This is why supervision is necessary. We need to ask him questions, see if he summarized the job, if he’s properly following procedures, and we must correct his spelling mistakes, dedicate time to him, and overall, just be interested in it.

Usually, performance during studying starts by being regular (so it’s best not to start with the most difficult subjects), then after a while, the performance is better, and during the final minutes it’s usually lower (this is the ideal time for simple or automatic tasks). The most advisable thing to avoid distractions is to have the child dive straight into studying. Among the basic rules that can be followed when studying, this is suggested:

 

• Do a first exploratory reading of the book or note’s subject to be studied, but without underlining.
• Do a second reading, this time deeper and underlining. It’s all about prioritizing ideas and marking them differently according to their importance.
• Draw a graph with the main ideas or write a summary.
• Learn by reading several times, and even repeating aloud, the graph or summary.
• Organize a study plan for the exam. If, for example, the exam is in eight weeks, review the summaries and graphs periodically.
• Read everything again to make sure the graph or summary is well-organized and nothing important has been left out.
• Don’t continue studying with the original material (book or notes), but rather the material that’s already been written.

Children must have their own work table in their room, with all the school material at hand. Even if it’s ideal that the child works alone, it really depends on the child, because some children work well when sharing the space with older siblings, provided that they’re working too. This is because some children feel motivated when they see others study. They must work in an environment that favors work, that’s comfortable, has good lighting, a nice chair and a clean and organized table.

Study time must be organized, and rules have to be established, but this time must be flexible. It doesn’t have to be left to improvisation, children have to study without interruptions, and they must rest every hour at most. As a reference, you could use the rule that, as a minimum, the child must study 10 minutes a day per grade and day. So, children in the first grade should study 10 minutes, and children in the fourth grade should study for 40 minutes. If they’re in the eighth grade, they study for 80 minutes, if they are in the ninth grade, they study for 90 minutes, and if they’re in the tenth grade, they study for 100 minutes. This is more of a guide of minimum time, and it shouldn’t be used as a rule. The idea is for it to guide you. Of course, this time is not enough if children are failing their classes or if they have a hard time studying or focusing. We also can’t expect our child to start studying for 100 minutes a day if he or she is only studying for 30 minutes a day now. We could set the 100 minutes as a goal to be accomplished throughout the school year.

Once again, the important thing is for our child to see we care about him and his studies, that we keep an eye on their improvement and that we think it’s important.

Just because a child has been a student for years doesn’t mean he or she has developed good studying habits. Many times, when our children start studying more complex content, they start slacking off, getting worse grades or even failing.

Psychologists say that the main problems for children include taking too long to start studying, or only doing the assigned homework without studying regularly at home. One of the main problems is definitely that they don’t study on a steady basis. How to achieve this? With a goal. Who sets it? Teachers assign homework, but parents are the ones who have to make sure the child works at home, it’s their job to make sure that the child studies at home what he’s learned at school, instead of just doing homework. We can do this by asking what he did in class today, and by showing we want him to learn things and not just write them. Parents must encourage their children to continue the learning process at home.

We propose the following breakfast elements:

 

• Energetic: It must provide at least 25% of the total daily caloric intake, thanks to the consumption of carbohydrates, sugars, needed in the functioning of the brain and muscles.
• Sustaining: it must include protein and calcium, essential for growth.
• Balancing: It must contain vitamins, mineral and fibers, mainly provided by the consumption of fruits.
• Assorted: It should look and taste good, with rich and balanced flavor.

Most expert in nutrition and pediatrics reached the conclusion that the ideal breakfast exists and it should be composed of three groups of foods. The first is dairy, and must be complemented with fruits or juice, preferably fresh, and also cereals. Dr. Pich explained that milk is an important element in a child’s growth, but not essential. “There are other dairy derived products, for instance a perfect alternative is yoghurt. Therefore, milk isn’t the only drink, any other dairy product may supply the same amount of vitamins, calcium, nutrient, etc…”

“Breakfast must include dairy, cereal, toasts with butter or jam. If a child wants to eat pastry, he may eat a croissant or cupcake, but preferably made at home”, added Carlos Marina.

Both experts reject the idea of giving children industrial made pastries for breakfast. Pich continued by saying that pastry made at home is a far better option to give the child, especially if it is made with organic products. “These are great along with a glass of milk; these are very nutritious, as opposed to the ones sold at supermarkets, which are filled with fats and unhealthy additives. It could easily cause dependency. Most products are made with fat derived from pigs or other animals, which in turn could lead to obesity; these products do not provide fibers or any nutritional elements”.

 

In short, if you follow these suggestions, the child will receive a balanced meal thanks to:

 

-Milk and other dairy derived products, providing calcium.

 

-Fruits and fresh juices, great source of fibers and vitamins.

 

-Cereals, providing carbohydrates and proteins.

 

“The ideal breakfast must include a drink, to satisfy the need for fluids in the body, cereals to cover the high energy demand, and milk or dairy product in order to supplement the body with sufficient calcium. You may also add fruits, a wonderful source of vitamins, along with foods rich in protein for growth and repair of tissues”, concluded both experts.

 

In regards to this, The Spanish Agency for Food Safety (AESA) recommends children to drink at least half a liter of milk per day, unless otherwise stated by their family doctor or pediatrician. However, there is a multitude of dairy products that can be consumed instead of milk, such as: yoghurt, cheese, cream, and desserts… They also suggest children to eat plenty of fruits and drink fresh juices; they must avoid processed and junk foods and drinks. Lastly, sugar derived products must be consumed ”in moderation”, as the current consumption of sugars is reaching excessive levels and causing health concerns

“A child who doesn’t eat breakfast or eats poorly, is more likely to lose focus during the first hours of class; he may suffer from hypoglycemic episodes or low blood sugar. He will perform poorly in class, especially in math, and may fall asleep”, explained professor Carlos Marina at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the European University of Madrid. Furthermore, Dr. Pich added that children who do not eat their morning meal are less likely to control their behavior, tend to have a bad attitude, to be defocused and have trouble learning. “If they did eat a good breakfast, they would undoubtedly have normal blood sugar levels and perform better at school”.

The “EnKind” study which references the “nutritional habits of the Spanish child and youth populations”, points out that 8% of Spanish children go to school without a proper breakfast, 32% eats a poor breakfast, and only 26% eats a full meal. According to Marina, children that attend school after barely or no eating in the morning, seem to be more nervous and restless. Parents in this case, should wake them up earlier and serve them a proper breakfast, while having enough time to calm them down before school. “Children must wake up earlier so that they can eat breakfast with their parents; children tend to mimic what adults do, if an adult skips a meal, so will they. In addition, some children don’t eat because they aren’t hungry. Perhaps dinner last night was too heavy. In this case, it is best to prepare them a healthy snack for the break or serve them a lighter dinner, as digestion tends to be slower at night”, suggested Dr. Pich, mentioning that eating excessively at dinner, and skipping breakfast in the morning could, “alter insulin levels”, (which lessens their attention span). Another alternative is to divide the morning meal into two, one in the morning and another at mid-morning, “this is perfect for those children who lack appetite during early mornings; they will eat less quantities but more spread out meals at different times”. This is an opinion shared by Carlos Marina, although this method should be consulted with a pediatrician or nutritionist, “as schools might have strict schedules regarding meals, and a second breakfast might collide with an early lunch, causing the child to be at risk of overeating”.

At the same time, having a better meal means drinking more fluids, essential for the body. A glass of milk or juice is indispensable before heading to school; this will give the child the necessary fluids, vitamins, minerals and fibers needed in the body.