When the holidays are in full swing, the regular school routine will be no more and it will more than likely be an all-around far more relaxed affair. Bedtimes will probably be quite a bit later, with more evening and night screen time available, while the early morning alarm will be forgotten.
After any holiday, be it short or long, going back to school can be challenging for children and parents alike. It’s therefore very worthwhile doing some preparation in advance of the new school term, so that the transition is far easier to make.
Not to mention, a good routine helps to build good habits, ease feelings of anxiety, and reduce stress.
You can easily reduce the stress of returning to school with the following morning routine – tips that really do work. By following these helpful recommendations, as a parent, you can look forward to a calmer, less chaotic, less shouty experience when the actual return to school morning arrives.
As an added bonus, having a solid school morning routine will mean that you, as well as your children, will be more relaxed, better organised, and your kids will arrive on time at school with everything ready for the new term of classes.
Top Tips For A Back To School Routine
The night before school – what to do
Sign everything that needs to be signed – if you haven’t already, sign homework diaries, reading records, and permission slips.
Stump up the cash – any money for snacks, milk, lunches, and school clubs can be put into separate envelopes. Mark each envelope with a name and the amount of money inside.
School bags – these can be packed and at the ready with whatever’s required for the next day.
Make lunches – pack them, then store in the fridge so they’re fresh and easy to grab in the morning.
Get the school uniforms out – iron them if necessary, and do be sure that the shoes are both clean and shiny.
With the kids’ help, put together a morning checklist – add any essentials such as eating breakfast, having a wash, cleaning teeth, brushing hair, and placing the school bag and other essentials beside the door, all ready to go – plus anything else that’s important.
No computer games or TV – morning viewing should be permitted only once everything on the checklist has been checked off.
Make sure that the kids have a good night’s sleep the night before – with a good night’s sleep, everything should go far more smoothly in the morning. Keep a close eye on the back-to-school bedtime.
Morning routine for school
It’s best for you as a parent to rise at least 30 minutes before your kids. This way you’ll be able to enjoy a hit of caffeine as well as an invigorating shower.
Get your kids up at least an hour and a half before you wish to leave the house. Chances are they will not be happy about the early rise, but an early start can only help to keep things smooth and flowing nicely.
Perhaps the most important part of the morning routine is breakfast. There’s a long day ahead so be sure that everyone has a proper meal before you leave the house.
Parenting Hacks For A Less Chaotic, More Relaxed Return To School Morning
Don’t be tempted to leave organisation and preparation until the morning. Instead, try to do everything you can do the evening before.
The alarm needs to be set so don’t forget. When you have plenty of time available you’ll not be rushing and tempers will hopefully not become frayed.
Pick your battles. As an example, the kids might have a preference for what they eat at breakfast time so don’t try to experiment with something new and more healthy, at least not on a school day. If you do wish to experiment, it’s best to leave it for the weekend.
Having a rule of absolutely no screen time until everything and everyone is completely ready makes good sense as it will reduce a whole lot of potential nagging time.
Make Online Tutoring With Achieving Success Part Of Your Back To School Routine
Online tuition with Achieving Success has been the perfect path to success for hundreds of children across Birmingham in recent years. We provide the highest levels of teaching to all our students and offer support and guidance whenever needed. If you’d like to supplement your child’s current study schedule, look no further than Achieving Success. If you’re particularly interested in helping your child take their English learning to the next lesson, read our article: How To Make The Most Of Your Child’s Online English Lessons.
We offer online tuition across the UK – covering 11 Plus Mock Exams, GCSE tuition, holiday workshops and more – plus face-to-face tutoring at our tuition centres in Birmingham. All our courses follow the relevant curriculum, with all teaching completed by fully qualified teachers chosen for their ability to deliver clear and concise instruction while embodying all the values we strive to deliver at Achieving Success.
For further information on all our services, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our helpful team on 0121 769 2795, or alternatively, email us at info@achieving-success.co.uk. We look forward to taking your call!
We understand that at first, learning from home can be an adjustment for all of those involved. However, the benefits of learning online often outweigh the negatives, and the results achieved can really speak for themselves!
The team at Achieving Success have years of experience in both in-person and online tuition, and our lessons are delivered by certified, highly qualified teachers. To help you and your child make the most of learning core lesson material online, we have pulled together our top tips on how to succeed when learning from home.
Set Clear And Achievable Goals
First things first, to ensure that your little one is making the absolute most out of their online english lessons, you should take the time to determine exactly what they need support with. Ask them where they feel they may be struggling and start from there.
Help them to set goals of what they want to achieve. These can be then modified or changed throughout the duration of their tuition. Working towards something and the achievement of said goals, helps to provide a clear focus and structure to their learning.
When setting each goal with your child, you should keep the following in mind:
- Achievability – Rather than trying to run before you can walk, make sure that the goals you set with your child are achievable. This will help you to monitor your child’s progress more accurately. It’s better to take baby steps first!
- Specificity – Instead of being generic with your aims, ensure that the goals set are tangible and measurable.
- Relevance – These goals need to be relevant to your child’s learning of the topic.
Providing the online tutor with a clear idea and understanding of where your child is currently at and what they are trying to achieve, will enable the tutor to tailor their approach in line with what you’re hoping to work towards.
Create The Perfect Space For Learning
The key to a perfect learning environment is one that is free from distraction, digital and otherwise! Interruptions and excessive noise will only encourage your child to lose their concentration and focus. Their learning and progression deserves their full attention. If you’re looking for tips on how to create the best learning environment for your child, we actually have a complete guide on how to set up the perfect workspace for home learning, which you may find interesting.
Familiarise Yourself With The Platform
Before you dive straight into your online english lessons, consider first familiarising yourself and your child with the platform. Feeling comfortable with how to actively participate with fellow classmates, navigate through the features available and where to find resources will make all of the difference when it comes to confidence in class.
Ask Questions
It’s true – there is no such thing as a stupid question! If your child is unsure of the topic material at any point, encourage them to speak up and ask, rather than shy away. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The more they get involved, the more confident they will feel with their understanding of the material and their ability to contribute.
Stick To A Routine
Make a routine and stick to it! There is nothing worse than feeling left behind and overwhelmed by the amount of work that keeps piling up. Encourage your child to stay on top of their studies and make time dedicated to improving their knowledge and understanding. The quicker they get their ‘homework’ done, the more time they have to relax and do the things they love.
Organise Extra Reading And Tasks
It’s no surprise that those who work hard and go above and beyond the standard requirements excel. If the online tutor provides extra reading and materials to further develop the knowledge of the class, make sure that you and your child seize the opportunity. Anything extra is a bonus, and will only help your child to maximise their potential for success!
Measure Progress
As we previously mentioned, the setting of goals enables us to reflect on the progress and achievements we have made so far. If your child is actively working towards their original goals or has even superseded them, this will be a clear indication as to whether or not their online english lessons are benefiting them.
A great way to ensure that your child is staying on track with their progress is to have regular check-ins with their tutor. A check that you can make yourself at home is to review your child’s work to date and see whether their marks are improving. You may even want their perspective on how they feel their lessons are going and whether they feel more confident.
If your child isn’t making as much progress as you’d hoped, don’t worry. Try and organise a meeting with their tutor to see how they feel your child is getting on. It could be the case that your child understands the topic but struggles to maintain focus or simply doesn’t enjoy the tutoring experience. Once you have a clearer picture of the case at hand, you can make an informed decision on what to do next.
Online English Lessons With Achieving Success
At Achieving Success, we strive to provide our students with the highest standards of teaching and provide the much-needed support when it comes to delivering our online english lessons. If you’re considering enrolling your child in online tutoring and wanting to learn more about it, you can find our complete guide “Everything You Need To Know About Online Tuition” for your own education.
We provide online tuition across the UK and also provide face-to-face teaching from our Birmingham tuition centres. Our programmes follow a bespoke curriculum that was created to maximise success, and all teaching is completed by highly qualified and highly experienced teachers with a passion for what they do. For more information on our services please contact a member of our friendly team on 0121 769 2795 or alternatively, email us at info@achieving-success.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
If you’re looking to adopt a home teaching approach and start homeschooling your child, there are a number of ways you can start. One thing to remember is that you do have to follow the national curriculum set and you can actually receive support for home education from your local council.
At Achieving Success, we have years of experience in tuition, both in person and online, administered by our certified, highly qualified teachers. To help support you, our team have pulled together our favourite top tips on how to teach your child at home, making the transition to home teaching that little bit easier. We hope you find this helpful!
Set Up A Workspace
First things first, when you’ve decided to take your child’s learning into your own hands, you need to make sure that they have the right environment in which to learn. This will help to ensure that they are in the right frame of mind when it comes to learning and putting pen to paper. A dedicated place for lessons helps to instill a routine and set the expectation that they are there to learn.
Consider where this workspace may be set up – the kitchen table, a desk in your child’s bedroom or a dedicated room? Do you need to invest in equipment that will help you conduct your lessons, such as a whiteboard, textbooks or a desk? Wherever this may be, make sure that there is good lighting. If you’re looking to ensure that your child gets the most out of their learning, we actually have a complete guide on how to set up the perfect workspace for home learning, which you may find interesting.
Set A Routine
Follow Usual Habits
A routine is always key when it comes to learning. To make this transition to a home teaching model a little easier, it may be beneficial to follow your child’s usual habits. These can include:
- Setting a time to wake up and get out of bed.
- Taking a shower to be fresh and ready to take on the day.
- Getting dressed into a ‘uniform’.
- Ensuring they eat a substantial and healthy breakfast to fuel their mind and body.
Make A Schedule
Children often benefit from knowing what to expect from the day, so creating a schedule will help to organise their learning, encourage great habits, increase productivity and provide them with a sense of routine. Creating a schedule keeps learning organised and will help to achieve your end-goals. This also helps your child to focus on one task at a time, preventing them from becoming overwhelmed and settling into their learning schedule. This will make home teaching that much easier to adapt to.
Consider how you want to break down your schedule by timings and subjects. You may also want to consider how you want to schedule out your home teaching, week by week. Regular reinforcement is key to improving knowledge and information retention.
If you’re looking to create a detailed timetable, you could use the following information below to organise your child’s lessons into a weekly schedule.
- The typical ‘School’ day starts from 8:50 through to 3:00pm.
- There is usually a 20-minute break time in the morning.
- Lunch is typically from 12:30 to 1:30pm.
- A 15-minute break is then held in the afternoon.
Subjects usually include the following:
- English language.
- English literature.
- Maths.
- Science – Biology, Chemistry, Physics.
- A Modern Language – French, Spanish, German, Italian.
- Geography.
- History.
- Physical Education.
- Design and Technology – Woodwork, Metalwork, Textiles, Food, Graphics.
- Art.
- Music.
- Drama.
- Religious Studies.
- IT (computing).
- PSHE ( personal, social and health education).
If your child is particularly interested in an extracurricular activity, you may find it beneficial to weave it into your weekly schedule to capitalise on their passions.
Alternatively, you may decide not to follow a conventional school day, and instead prefer to ensure that learning is achieved little and often, opting to spread home teaching across 7 days finishing earlier. You may like to try different approaches and see which one works best with your child. Either way, there are different options available should you ever need to try something new.
Be Flexible
You don’t have to be rigid in your schedule, you can mix it up a bit, be flexible and fit your timetable to suit the needs of your child. You may also have commitments that you need to consider when planning. You may even decide to take a child-led approach, giving them the power to decide what they want to focus on the most, the approach taken to that learning and when they would like to learn. Adapting to your child’s needs will most likely result in you establishing a routine that works for you both.
Take Regular Breaks
In a similar way to a working day, your child will need short breaks to digest what they’ve learned and improve their memory. Breaks are important because it gives their brain the time it needs to process information and will also enable them to return to learning with a fresh and rested mind.
Rather than just turning to their phone, iPad or tv, encourage your child to get some fresh air and a change of scenery. Screen time will only make them feel more tired.
Keep Moving
During school, playground games and P.E. lessons are factored into your child’s weekly schedule. This means activities such as this should also be added into your curriculum, to ensure they’re exercising their body as well as their mind. Keeping fit and active can actually help to improve memory and gives your child the chance to blow off some steam and enjoy that all-important fresh air.
Make It Fun 🙂
Making your home teaching fun will only encourage your child to be more inquisitive and take their learning into their own hands. Anything that they find particularly interesting can be researched in greater detail online. If you fall into the same routine, chances are that this may impact their overall learning and attention span. Boredom will lead to frustration and eventually an unwillingness to learn. This also presents you, as a parent, with the opportunity to spend more quality time together.
Activities that we encourage to make homeschooling more fun include:
- Studying the flora and fauna outside in the garden, parks and farms. Get up and close with flowers, and pull out their roots.
- Creating your own experiments with gravity, pouring water downhill or rolling objects.
- Practicing cooking, weighing ingredients and calculating percentages.
- Exploring creative writing and critical thinking with exciting comprehension.
- Reading with storytelling and articles from the local newspaper.
- Exercising the application of modern languages by translating household items and replacing them in sentences.
- Exploring creativity through creating, rehearsing and performing drama acts.
- Listening to music at local performances and practicing musical instruments at home.
- Treasure hunts to hone their orientation skills.
There are so many ways to make learning fun, and it should definitely not be confined to the indoors.
Enrol In Online Tuition
Taking a home teaching approach can at times be overwhelming, and it’s not a sign of accepting defeat or failure by asking for extra support. If you feel like you need help to educate your child, then it may be time to consider hiring an online tutor to give your child some extra support.
Hiring a tutor can really help to reduce the pressure on you. This means that even if you’re homeschooling your child full-time, collaborating with an online tutor will ensure that your child receives an experience that is tailored to their style of learning and is all encompassing, covering every base.
How Can Achieving Success Help You?
Home teaching can be an adjustment, for both parents and children. To make things smoother, consider investing in an online tutor, helping support you and your child. In the same breath, it’s also important that you understand everything you need to know about online learning. You can find our complete guide “Everything You Need To Know About Online Tuition” for your own education.
At Achieving Success, we provide online tuition across the UK and teaching from our Birmingham tuition centres. Our programmes follow a bespoke curriculum that was created to maximise success, and all teaching is completed by highly qualified and highly experienced teachers with a passion for what they do. For more information on our services please contact a member of our friendly team on 0121 769 2795 or alternatively, email us at info@achieving-success.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
The pandemic has shown many people and businesses alike the effectiveness of working from home. Many teachers and members within the education sector have worked very hard to ensure that no child is left without an education and Achieving Success is no different. This new style of learning has come with many questions, such as ‘What are the benefits of teaching online?’ There are many benefits to online teaching, and we believe that it’s actually here to stay for good!
Both teachers and pupils have had to adjust to this ‘new normal’, however many studies have shown that online learning can be up to five times more effective than in-classroom teaching and is actually more convenient with the hustle and bustle of our busy day to day lives.
Please find a number of benefits that online teaching can offer your child.
The Comfort Of Home
Participating in online learning from the comfort of their own home allows your child to exercise their mind in a safe and familiar environment. Starting new material, in a new environment with a new teacher can be a completely overwhelming experience. This may even be detrimental to your child’s ability to learn – especially if they struggle with change.
Online teaching enables your child to learn in a setting that is more comfortable and conducive to their individual learning style and productivity. Every child is different; one may need complete silence to concentrate, whereas another may work best with background noise or quiet music to stay motivated. Lessons taken from home can be moulded to suit the needs of each child, empowering them to engage with the material in a confident manner.
Online teaching also prevents essential material from being missed. Due to your child not having to travel to receive their lessons, they may decide to participate in lectures, even if they are feeling slightly under the weather.
Accessible From Anywhere
Online teaching provides your child with learning that is very flexible and accessible from almost anywhere – so long as you have wifi! Our classes can be accessed on the go; whether you’re on holiday or waiting for an appointment at the dentist, and so can fit into busy parent’s schedules. As many of our online lectures can be recorded, students are able to access material they have previously learnt to refresh their memories and reinforce the information.
Creates Routine, Motivation And Discipline
Our bespoke classes are scheduled on certain days and times, creating a routine for your child’s learning experience. Because it is largely up to them to engage with the material, and concentrate outside of school hours, this develops motivation and a willingness to learn. Your child learns to hold themselves accountable for their own development and to take control of their learning, instilling a sense of pride in their achievements. Your child is largely responsible for their own success.
Increased Interaction
- Online teaching enables your child to interact with their peers and teachers in real-time, offering increased opportunities to participate in discussion, ask questions and develop their communication skills.
- Online learning often also provides more scope for positive and constructive feedback in areas that your child may be struggling with or excelling at.
- Interactive sessions where your child has the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers can develop important skills such as teamwork and leadership qualities.
- Interactive sessions also allow your child to practice their digital skills, which will help them transition to working with technology and online software in the future.
- Finally, your child will meet people and make new friends who are likely to have similar interests to them, making it more exciting to participate in class.
Reduced Pressure
More often than not, schools and institutions can create a competitive atmosphere amongst students which can lead to individuals comparing their ability and measuring their perceived worth against others. This can lead to negative and detrimental opinions, feelings and thoughts affecting their ability. Being presented with the option to learn in a safe space can help some ‘sensitive’ students to focus on their learning instead of worrying about in-class competition.
Learning Can Be Fun
Due to teachers not being confined to a classroom or the usual techniques adopted in school, they have more freedom to be creative, making online teaching often more impactful for pupils. Taking advantage of technologies such as animations, storyboarding, problem solving and games, and digital whiteboards, provides children with a more diverse and interactive learning experience – rather than reading straight from a textbook. Making learning fun is the key to immersive, effective and an exciting education.
Try Online Teaching With Achieving Success
At Achieving Success, education is at our core. We are proud to offer high-quality online tuition for school children across the country. If you have any questions about our online teaching services or our capacity, please contact us today. A member of our team will be more than happy to discuss your requirements.
Contact us today by completing an online form, phoning 0121 769 2795 or emailing info@achieving-success.co.uk.
Home learning can be a really difficult adjustment, for parents and children alike. Whether you are investing in online tuition or electing to do the teaching yourself, having the perfect workspace is essential for your child’s learning experience. It’s also important that you understand everything you need to know about online learning, which is why we have previously created informative articles such as “Everything You Need To Know About Online Tuition”.
At Achieving Success, we provide online tuition and teaching across the UK. Our programmes follow a bespoke curriculum that was created to maximise success, and all teaching is completed by highly qualified and experienced teachers with a passion for what they do.
Our extensive expertise in all areas of teaching, including home learning, means that we know what kind of environment children need to excel. On this basis, we have collected all of our top tips to provide you with a comprehensive guide to setting up the perfect workspace for home learning:
Invest In A Desk
It’s important that your child has a dedicated workspace when learning from home. Not only does it create a direct association between that space and their schoolwork, but it means that they have a proper set-up. A desk and an appropriate chair provides them with somewhere to sit and write that won’t hurt their back or mean that they get easily distracted (which we’ll get to in a moment).
With so many desks to choose from, it is best that you do your research. It should be of a suitable height and size, and having drawers or shelves in which they can store their work is an added benefit. You’ll also need to consider its size, colour and style, to ensure that it fits comfortably within your home without compromising the safety or interior design.
It’s important that your child has everything they need to get the most out of their education from home. We’ve compiled a quick list of the basic things that a child needs to succeed with online schooling:
- Access to the internet
- Access to a laptop
- Lined, squared and plain paper
- Pens, pencils, rulers, rubbers and other stationary equipment
While there are other things that would greatly improve their learning experience (such as a printer, headphones and a second screen), these will be enough to get your child off to a great start!
Poor lighting can cause headaches and eye strain, and can also make it more difficult to concentrate. Fortunately, the really easy solution to this is to make sure that your child’s home learning environment is well lit. This means choosing a study area that receives lots of natural light (which is always best), or ensuring that you have enough overhead lighting and lamps.
Incorporating some familiar items or stories into your home learning may make it easier to keep your child’s attention. This is especially true if they are transitioning from learning from a school to learning from home, as they will be used to certain processes and routines.
Keeping familiar items at their learning space could mean that they are allowed to decorate it with stickers and ornaments, or that they are allowed to use pens, pencils and rubbers that they previously used in a classroom. Adding in familiar stories pertains to the lessons themselves – using their friends and families as examples or problems, can make them more invested in finding out the answers. It’s little things like this that make all the difference.
Your home is full of distractions, especially if your child isn’t used to their home doubling as their classroom. The television, their toys, their siblings, any pets and even you, may pose a distraction. This means that you have to make it as easy as possible for them to concentrate, by putting some strict rules in place. This could be things like no television during a certain time, or no playing with your brother or sister until a certain amount of work has been completed.
While these rules might be a source of tantrums at first (no matter how old they are!), once you have established a steady routine, it will hopefully be smooth sailing.
Making sure that your child is drinking enough water throughout the day is essential, both to their education and to their overall health and wellbeing. Water makes up approximately 80% of the brain, which is why it’s so important that your child has it available at all times. Setting up a hydration station means that your child can help themselves to water, juice or another beverage of their choice, without having to leave the room, ask permission or disrupt their lesson in some other way..
In this same vein, make sure that your child has a selection of snacks available, even during lesson time. For all of you parents that have been working from home recently, you’ll know first-hand how important snacks are to an enjoyable and productive day. The best thing about your children learning from home, is that you can control the kind of snacks that they eat, which means that you can ensure that they have a lot of healthy choices available.
Some of our favourite healthy snacks include: apple slices, frozen grapes, carrots and hummus, and rice cakes.
We’ve all heard the phrase “dress for success”, and while your son or daughter won’t be headed to the boardroom, it still applies to their home learning. If they are dressed properly, they’ll be in the right frame of mind to absorb new information. This means that they shouldn’t be in their pyjamas or in lazy-day clothes. A fun activity for you to do together, is to create a home-school uniform!
Parental controls sound incredibly restrictive, but they can actually be really useful for both home learning, and the safety of your child online. Almost all learning from home is conducted online, especially if your child is enrolled in an online tutoring programme, and this means that they will likely use the internet to do their work, in one way or another.
You can set up parental controls that safeguard your child – on specific platforms, on the internet and even on your broadband. This will prevent them from accessing information they shouldn’t, from visiting dangerous websites and from potentially putting themselves at risk. On a lighter note, it can even stop them from accessing non-educational websites during school hours.
The perfect home learning workspace wouldn’t be complete without a clear plan in place, to ensure that your child is learning to the best of their abilities. If you are enrolled in an online programme, having a plan is considerably easier. This is because you can correspond with their teacher and find ways to support their teachings. A great example of this is knowing your child’s curriculum and being familiar with the lesson plan.
This is really important; setting up the perfect workspace for home learning is one thing, but it will be entirely useless if you are not prepared for the realities of learning from home. So whether you are paying for online tuition or attempting to teach the curriculum yourself, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. There is a wealth of information and support available online, so that you can be the most well-informed parent or teacher possible.
How Can Achieving Success Help You?
At Achieving Success, we are hugely passionate about child education. We are proud to offer high-quality online tuition that is available across the country. If you have any questions about our curriculum, our capacity or about home learning in general, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. A member of our team will be more than happy to discuss your needs, and to support you as much as possible. Contact us today by completing an online form, phoning 0121 769 2795 or emailing info@achieving-success.co.uk. And if you’re interested in receiving further guidance on the education and development of your child, be sure to take a look at our other tuition-related articles.
