The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
– Sydney J. Harris
This month’s blog posts will focus on creating study habits. There are numerous websites and courses that your teen can take to help them with study skills. However, to have good study skills the first things your teen needs to work on are the three study habits I discuss this month; note taking, using a planner, and having a designated study space. These three skills are the foundation. You and your teen can build from there. What else does your teen need to have to have their best school year?
Your teen needs to understand their own values, have a personal mission statement and write out goals and how to achieve them. The goals are not only academic but athletic and social as well. Your teen has many roles in their life and creating success through Smart goals will help them to achieve the success that they want in their life.
As a parent our role is to help them to achieve their goals and to grow into strong independent young adults who will change the world. Each of our teens has incredible potential and it is our parental responsibility to encourage and develop their potential. The easiest way to do that is to be present. To spend time communicating. Communication is the relationship. Communication allows for you and your teen to discuss numerous topics and to encourage their conversation skills and critical thinking skills. The world they are entering is more than just academics. It is looking at the entire person and how they will impact and change the world.
Our daughters gave us a run for it in many ways, and in other ways we are beyond blessed and thankful for our daughters and their friends and how we were always a part of their decision-making process and the consequence-making process. It is about keeping the lines of communication open and to work on listening with curiosity and to try and understand where your teen is and what they are going through. I had to remind myself, many times, that I have had similar experiences but not that experience, so although I could share my thoughts and how I felt, it may not be how our daughter felt or experienced a similar situation. Thinking about it, I never had to leave my high school, do online learning, or try to understand the complexity of COVID and how it dramatically changed my high school experience. What I could do was listen, to empathize and ask the right questions to help our daughters understand the abrupt changes in the world. That may be a dramatic example but that example applies to not making the soccer team or volleyball team, or failing a test, to not being invited to a party. We may have similar experiences but we each process and feel the experience differently. So be kind, listen, and provide that unconditional love our teens need.
I am looking forward to this month’s email and blog posts. Don’t miss it..