The Most Effective Way To Support Your Child’s Education (Without Helicopter Parenting)

Helicopter parenting might seem like good parenting at first glance – after all, you clearly care about your children’s well being, education, and other aspects of their lives enough to be right there whenever they may need you.

But, its important to find balance and the most effective way to support your child’s education without helicopter parenting.

You can stop them from getting hurt, you can help them do their best at school, and more.

However, helicopter parenting can actually be suffocating for your children.

It can affect their self esteem and confidence negatively, as they grow up believing that they mustn’t be capable of doing things alone.

Helicopter parenting can actually be extremely damaging for your children.

In fact, some studies have recently suggested that parental involvement in children’s schooling makes no difference at all to test scores and exam grades!

Now, there are also ways in which you can support your children, particularly in their education, without helicopter parenting.

You want to be there for them just enough so that they can succeed and do well, without doing all of the hard work for them in an effort to ‘protect’ them.

Here, we’re going to talk about the most effective ways to support your child’s education without being the parent who hovers over them all the time.

Read on if you feel this is something you need help with:

 

The Most Effective Way To Support Your Child's Education (Without Helicopter Parenting)

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Develop Your Own Healthy Mindset And Attitude Towards Learning

Having your own healthy mindset and attitude towards learning is one great big step in the right direction if you want to support your child’s education.

You should model what you want your child to imitate, and ensure you are always acting in a solution oriented manner, rather than a problem oriented manner (like most people do).

Pay special attention to what you are consuming in front of your children.

Are you scrolling Facebook or reading books?

Make sure you watch your words carefully, too.

A positive, can-do attitude will definitely rub off on your children, and mindset is everything to success.

 

Eat At Least One Meal Together Daily

Eating at least one meal together daily has been linked with both better well being and better relationships.

Doing something as simple as this each day and making it non-negotiable could have a profound effect on your children.

Children who eat at least one meal a day with their families also tend to stay away from things like smoking!

It doesn’t have to be dinner, either; you could get up earlier and eat breakfast together, or make sure you have a light supper at the table.

Make it so it suits all of you, and use it as a time to catch up and bond over food – stay away from your phones!

 

Encourage Healthy Foods And Habits

Again, this is a case of modeling what you would like for your child.

By encouraging healthy foods and other healthy habits, your kids will be more prepared for whatever the day may throw at them.

You want foods that will help to support a growing brain, such as kiwi, blueberries, and almonds.

There are literally hundreds of amazing foods that can support their learning.

As well as making sure they are getting a great diet, ensure they get some exercise, and enough sleep.

This will mean banning electronics from the bedroom, and maybe even going on walks or swimming together as a family.

You will also want to be more selective about when your kids consume junk food – don’t ban it, but make sure it is eaten in moderation rather than as a staple of their diets.

 

Protect Your Child’s Playtime

Playtime is also important for your kids.

Giving them a space to do homework when they have it is great, but make sure you protect their playtime, too.

Arranging playdates will help them to build relationships, as well as give better development of their social-emotional and self-management skills.

As a result of building better relationships with their peers, they will also learn how to develop better relationships with adults, such as their teachers.

Play for kids is just as important as the hard work, so don’t forget this!

 

The Most Effective Way To Support Your Child's Education (Without Helicopter Parenting)

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Make sure their playtime is mostly self directed.

They are told what to do all day at school, so they might come to you for ideas on playtime.

This is because they aren’t used to thinking up things to do on their own.

You can give them options, but try not to do all of the thinking for them.

They could draw, build a fort, make an obstacle course…encourage them to use their own imagination and see what they come up with.

Make sure you’re mindful of what you say to them while they do this.

If they decide to draw and they color the grass in purple, don’t tell them it’s wrong.

This can put a damper on their imaginations.

Instead, tell them it’s an interesting choice and maybe ask what led them to do it – this might be a completely different world where the grass is really purple!

 

Praise Them For Effort

There is a right way and a wrong way to praise children.

By making sure you work on your wording and praising their effort rather than the result, they will be far more resilient when they suffer setbacks.

Kids who are praised for effort are usually willing to try new things and will even dust themselves off when something hasn’t gone to plan ready to try again.

Kids who are praised on results can end up with anxiety and depression, scared to try things in case they disappoint their parents or fail.

If you praise them the right way, before you know it they will be on their way to earning their MAED degree.

The time flies while they are young, so make the most of it!

 

Help Them To Set Goals

Helping your kids to set manageable goals that you can track can potentially help them.

A good goal to set is to successfully sticking to a study plan for one month, rather than getting a specific grade in a subject.

They will be more motivated this way, and it’s far more reasonable!

 

If you liked The Most Effective Way To Support Your Child’s Education (Without Helicopter Parenting) you will enjoy; How Early Childhood Reading Helps Prepare Kids for School, 5 Tips for Afterschooling SuccessThe Best Educational Apps for Kids and Top Educational Apps for Homeschooling.

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