The beginning of the new year is often the most exciting for parents and kids. You set goals with your child, and everyone is excited to reach them. Most importantly, you look for ways to support your kids so they can make the most of the new year.
However, this is where it gets tricky. How do you support your child through the year without becoming too overbearing? Understanding how to provide the right amount of support without pushing too hard is often the most challenging part for parents.
Fortunately, there are specific practices every parent can adopt to help their kids maximize the new year in the best way possible. This article discusses five simple yet practical ways to help your child make the most of the year.
Let’s take a look.
How to help your child get the most out of the year
It is easier to provide the support your child needs to achieve their goals and be their best in the new year when you follow these practices.
1. Focus on the process and not on grades
The new year often signifies the beginning of a new academic year. As a result, most parents channel their efforts into improving their kids’ grades. While grades are great, prioritizing them isn’t always the best approach for kids. First, it puts them under a lot of pressure, resulting in stress and hampering their mental health. Secondly, they focus solely on their grades, not the process that gets them there.
So, rather than enhancing their natural curiosity, competence, and learning experiences, they begin to care about acquiring “As” only. The downside is that high grades don’t always mean that kids have reached their potential. Also, failure to achieve their desired grade at the end of the session can lead to depression, lack of motivation, and low self-esteem.
However, focusing on the process will enhance their curiosity, understanding, comprehension, and retention, enabling them to reach their optimal potential throughout the year.
So, prioritize your child’s learning process over their grades. Listen actively to their challenges and concerns to understand their needs and how to help. Also, when setting academic goals for the new year, rather than goals emphasizing grades, help kids establish goals that improve their learning process.
For example, replace “Get all As” with “I will solve one chapter of my maths text daily,” “I will speak up more in class,” “I will read more and watch less T.V,” etc. Focusing on process-oriented goals will improve their learning experience and help them maximize their academic year.
2. Prioritize health and wellness
The way to help your child maximize the new year is to enhance their health and wellness. School preparation, activities, and pressure can put kids under stress. In addition, other social factors can impact their well-being.
For example, approximately 5.8% of children between the age of 3-17 years were diagnosed with anxiety in 2015-2019. In addition, 1 in 6 children aged 5-16 is likely to have a mental health problem. Therefore, monitoring your kids’ mental health and ensuring none of these pressures gets to them in the new year is essential.
Establish healthy lifestyle choices to do this. Practice active listening and enable a healthy open communication system where your child feels safe to discuss their fears and needs. Also, show affection, empathize with their challenges, and work together to combat them. Finally, seek professional help if necessary. Adopting these practices will create a supportive environment that boosts your child’s mental health and well-being.
3. Prioritize good sleep
Sleep is critical to stay healthy, stress-free, and productive. Without adequate sleep, kids are exposed to severe health conditions. Distorted sleep patterns also make them inactive, depressed, unenthusiastic, and unmotivated to perform effectively. This is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following sleep guidelines:
- Ages 4-12 months: 12-16 hours (including naps)
- Ages 1-2 years: 11-14 hours (including naps)
- Ages 3-5 years: 10-13 hours (including naps)
- Age 6-12 years: 9-12 hours
- Age 13-18 years: 8-10 hours
Following these guidelines based on your child’s age will improve their alertness, attention span, and focus. Adequate sleep also reduces the chances of anxiety, depression, and stress, promoting their mental health and wellness throughout the year.
4. Don’t overschedule
While you want to help your child get the most from the new year, it’s critical not to push them beyond reasonable limits. Overwhelming your child with constant activities is counterintuitive. Rather than help them maximize the year, your child will become stressed, overworked, and resentful. Consequently, it affects their motivation and willingness to achieve their goals in the new year.
So, set goals and activities within your child’s capacity. Include breaks and create room for adequate rest. Doing this puts your kid in the best emotional, mental, and physical capacity to do their best in the new year.
5. Make it a learning experience
Helping your child maximize the year is an excellent way to facilitate growth in different aspects of their lives. However, goals don’t always go as planned. When this happens, it’s essential to make the experience a learning process for your child. Teach them to identify what prevented them from achieving their goals and how they can improve. Whether it’s a lack of discipline, motivation, or time management, allow them to identify their shortcomings and develop new strategies to reach their goals.
Help your child maximize the new year with Explico!
A critical way to help your child get the most out of the new year is to improve their learning experience. You can prepare them to succeed academically in the new year by harnessing the Explico platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses. You will also receive detailed academic reports and AI intelligent foresight to track their performance throughout the year. This way, you can provide timely, relevant support to help your kids learn optimally. Therefore, visit our platform to help your child maximize their potential in the new year.
