Does child hate studies? Tell him you can solve his problem in minutes … How?
With a little intention, out of the box thinking, engagement, sincerity, and a little effort, you can make your child’s academic journey of school enjoyable.
Most children are weak or average in their studies. Intelligent, sensible, having different qualities but they hate textbooks. They somehow manage to grab the passing grades and move on.
If you estimate the unseen weight or burden on their psyche, the actual weight for their age in a day would be 5 kg, but unluckily they carry many a times more weight than that.
Multiply the original five kg weight by 50. It weighs 250 kg! Believe me, every morning and evening your child carry a sack of 250 kg on his young mind:
1. The impression of being an average and below average student in the eyes of teachers. The traumatic impression of not being more intelligent, or not being more hardworking which crushes his self-confidence.
2. In the eyes of parents, idle, indolent, incompetent and dull minded.
3. A sense of comparison and competition in terms of grades with fellows. The tension of being inferior to them and constantly being that way.
Speaking the truth, except for a couple of children, no child comes to school in interest of acquiring knowledge. Rather, every one of these hundreds, thousands of children, every day, from getting out of bed in the morning to going to bed at night, is looking for just one thing, and that is the taste of accomplishment in their favour.
That is, your child wanders in search of admirable testimony in his favour. Whether it’s on a playground, in a classroom test, or in a classroom activity. This kid wants to hear something like this, every day, for himself:
Wow, what a great leap Abdullah made, and never fell!
Wow, Salman dodged two players and reached the goal!
Wow, Huzaifa finished the science test first!
Wow, Omar immediately understood the maths question!
Wow, what a wonderful read by Ayesha!
School cannot give this “Medal of Excellence.’’ How can a teacher give in a class of thirty, forty or fifty students?
However, in one case it is possible, and that is the role of parents, parental involvement. How can you help?
Again I repeat, tell the child who hates studying, you can solve his problem in minutes. How?
Suppose your child is in Grade 6, and science is a difficult subject (since science is considered a textbook in educational institutions, only a means of passing exams by rote learning, not of conducting colourful experiments, an interesting ‘process’ of finding answers, researching, creating something and drawing conclusions that can make a child happy by achieving something step by step).
You open his book, or Google it by writing Grade 6 Science Topics List.
You will soon learn that at this stage you have to educate your child on the following topics. There are 8 of them.
Objects in Space
Forces and Movement in Space
Force and Motion
Newton’s Laws and Energy
Electricity and Magnetism
Earth Systems
Rocks and Minerals
Plate Boundaries and Movement
While in the textbook they are divided into 10 chapters. Bloody boring stuff written in pure English!
First of all, get your child to read this list, and do it yourself.
Secondly, you type the words of the first topic in the search bar of YouTube. Dozens of videos will appear in response. You can also write Grade 6 Science on YouTube. Or there are subheadings within each chapter. Their words can be written individually. You will find dozens of videos on each topic. Choose the simplest of these videos, and the goal is to find out what this video has to say on the subject.
Third, you are to help the child. You should have enough patience to watch a full video with the child.
Fourth, time to time pause the video and talk, or ask short questions. Appreciate the correct answer.
Fifth, it is not necessary that you be a scholar yourself, then it is possible. These videos are available in Urdu, English and in every language. Also, you understand something and the child will understand the rest.
Sixth, ask the child to summarize all the points at the end of the video. He will definitely tell because every point has already been discussed during the video watching.
Seventh, after watching two or three videos equivalent to an entire chapter, now celebrate, compliment. Tell his aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. to express surprise on WhatsApp etc. Child should feel like something has been achieved extraordinarily. Even contact his science teacher and ask for compliments according to a pre-arranged plan.
Eighth, is the child irritated by writing?
No problem. Tell him you have all the knowledge now. That was the real work. All you have to do is write the points on a page that you will show to your teacher. Instead, ask his teacher to say something like this:
“Wow Omar, you have done a great job! But it also remains to be seen whether you can write down the points of what you have learned. Just points! ”
Now you tell me, is it possible that after such a compliment the child is not ready to write? You will see that the excitement of the child will be at its peak.
Ninth, you don’t have to sit down and watch the whole video of the next chapter with same involvement. Rather, the work has to be started, and it will keep going.
Tenth, gradually finish the curriculum by showing the child videos on the topics of each chapter with enthusiasm and patience. When the first chapter is completed, announce by waving a fist in the air: We are going to finish this book in just seven days by watching about 15 to 20 videos.
Believe me that this will take five to six hours. Some videos are ten minutes long, some fifteen minutes long.
Now one more thing.
Tell the child, “We just want your knowledge to be completed on every topic. We don’t want good grades. ”
By saying this, you have done two things:
First, you have unloaded a 250 kg sack loaded on the heart, mind and psyche of the child.
Second, you have given your child a taste of accomplishment. He has been endowed with self-confidence.
Now do one more thing. The most important!
As you cover the science book, you secretly prepare a written quiz. Quiz with short answers! Ask your child these questions randomly so that he can memorize the answers. Once all the topics have been covered, leave this quiz to your child’s science teacher. Request him/her to ask these questions from your child in a free period, for ten minutes in front of whole class as a surprise test. When you have done such a unique effort, it is your child’s right.
You will see, what will be the level of happiness of this child. After giving correct answers, teacher should announce in front of everyone that the real thing is to have knowledge on every topic which he has done, “Applause!” And also give a small prize.
In other words, arrange this drama in an imperceptible way. The same formula can be tried for other subjects.
As for the so-called grades and the temptation to get into good institutions and academic achievements, leave it to your other children, and to other children in other parts of the world who are intelligent in studies. And it is not far off that in practical life this child has the highest graph of achievement.
Take a look at the scene outside the house. Matriculation failed children have set up plazas, became owners of large hotels, restaurants, and departmental stores. They are visiting other countries and a lot have been done. Mega projects have been set up, and it’s an interesting irony that yesterday’s A grade holders are polishing their CVs today and running for job interviews to these average students.
This is the lesson for today; lots of prayers!