How to Help Lazy Kids Improve Their Grades Remarkably

All parents with school-going children will face the same concern of how their child performs in school. Such concerns will give the parents headaches if they are told by the teacher that their child has the potential to achieve better grades at school but is apparently too lazy to put in sufficient effort. It is important that the parents should start to analyze the situation carefully and consider how to really help the lazy kids to improve their grades. This article will offer tips on how to motivate your child to become interested in learning and thereby making a marked improvement in his grades.

For many parents, the moment they see that their child has attained poor grades, the emergency signal will go off in their heads and they will start a frantic search for expensive tutors. This may result in every minute of the child’s time being fully utilized into attending extra tuition classes, even to the point of exhaustion and much frustration. A sad consequence would be that the child did not make any improvement in grades, but worse, it may even lead to a breakdown in the parent-child relationship. This can be prevented if parents take up the following tips:

1. Building up child’s confidence / self-esteem

Many a time, parents are unaware that children, especially young ones, need encouragement rather than reprimands. This could be due to their prior experiences of setbacks, thus instead of scolding the child and calling him ‘stupid’, we should help them to overcome their fear of failing. Parents and teachers could help build up child’s confidence by helping him to see what he is good at and give him bite-sized assessments where he can experience success. This will help him to build up his confidence and he will not give up trying the next time he faces a difficult question.

By condemning the child and calling him names like ‘stupid’ or ‘dumb’, it will only cause him to lose moral and to give up easily. The child’s subconscious mind will absorb what he has been termed as and he will end up thinking that he is really stupid! This is very unfair to the child as every child is capable of learning. As the great child educationist has ever mentioned, a child’s inability to learn could be due to the school’s lessons being boring or that the teaching method is not pitched at his learning style.

2. Understanding your child’s learning style and act on it

Not all children learn the same way. Some children are visual learners whereby they need to see the words or objects in order to understand the concept or vocabulary. Such children might face some problems in following verbal instructions. There are also children who are auditory learners. These children learn best by listening to sounds so they need to hear the words said to them or they might even talk to themselves in order to understand the concepts. Yet others are kinesthetic learners. This group of children learns best by touching the objects. As such, their best method of learning is when they are allowed to carry out experiments or in touching the teaching aids. Most of the children will learn well with a combination of methods. By tuning in to the child’s learning style, it will help him to understand the concepts more easily and thus learning will not be a struggle to him anymore. When he is able to learn easily, naturally his grades will improve tremendously.

3. Displaying only positive parental influence

Yes, parents can be role models for their children. One way in which this can be displayed is to read with their children. It is not necessary to read the same materials as them every time but it will help if parents are seen to be also reading some form of reading materials such as newspapers, magazines or books instead of watching the television programmes when their children are doing their schoolwork or reading. Beside cutting down on distractions for the children, it will also show them that their parents view reading to be a good habit too.

Another way in which parents can show a positive role model to their children is by showing persistence in carrying out their own tasks. There are times when we, as parents, give up when we face an obstacle while doing something, for example, solving a jigsaw puzzle or baking a cake. The parents might not be aware but when they give up, their children will learn that it is perfectly fine for them not to carry a task through should they face difficulty.

4. Goal setting

Parents can set achievable target with their child for each examination. This target should not be so high that it is impossible for the child to achieve as it will only further demoralize him. However, it must be higher than what he had been getting. After each exam, the parents should sit down with their child and review the target. If there is a need to lower the target because it has been set too high, revise it! On the other hand, if the goal has been attained, set a higher target so that the child can work towards achieving his desired grade. It is important to note that the reviewing session is just as essential as the goal setting session because it helps the child to enjoy the sweet taste of success while at the same time making it challenging enough.

5. Rewards

Is a reward important? Definitely! Even adults look forward to bonuses and pay increment, don’t we? Therefore, parents can plan out the rewards system with their child so they have a sense of accomplishment. Parents could set the budget for each category of prize for instance, a small reward, a medium sized reward and a large reward. It is important to have different categories so that children do not find the rewards to be too difficult to achieve. Parents could work out a set of rules and the equivalent prizes with their child, such as a awarding a small prize if the child has accumulated five stars for doing well in practices, tests or examinations. Having an incentive system in place will motivate children and stir up their desire to learn and to work harder.

As you can probably tell after reading this whole article, it is definitely not impossible for the lazy kids to improve their grades if their parents and teachers work at it with the child. Parents will be able to see tremendous improvement in their children’s grades if they combine the tips above with lots of patience, love, encouragement and support for their child.