In an age of constant distractions, these tips will help your little ones keep on track.

Your child sits in class all day but doesn’t remember a morsel of what he learned. He often drifts off task and has trouble sustaining his attention for longer than just a few minutes. As children progress through school, the focusing demands increase rapidly. They are expected to concentrate when reading stories, listen to teachers explaining multi-step directions, and stay on task while completing increasingly challenging tasks. Help your child stay focused in school with the ideas detailed below.

Multi-Sensory Activities

Working out of a workbook or listening to an adult explain a concept can seem mundane for many children. Instead of using one-dimenstional instruction, try employing a multi-sensory approach when working with your child. For instance, to help her focus on comprehending material when reading, try this tri-colored highlighting strategy: have her read a passage, then identify the topic, which is 1-3 words describing the passage, and highlight it in blue; then identify the main idea, which is what the author is saying about the ‎topic, and highlight it in green; and finally find the important details and highlight them in yellow. Interacting with the text will help your child process the information and remain more focused when reading.

You can also teach younger children how to write letters using a multi-sensory approach. First demonstrate forming a letter in the air while saying the strokes aloud, like “down, up, and around” for the letter p. Then have her trace the letter in the sky with you and on her own, then in colored sand, sugar, or shaving cream. The more multi-sensory you can make the activities, the more you will captivate her attention and increase her ability to stay focused on a task.

Remove Distractions

When your child sits down to complete homework, remove any and all distractions that may de-rail his focus. If he is sitting at a desk with a computer, make sure the computer is turned off or is in sleep mode to avoid any flashing lights or sounds that may distract him. The same is true for iPads or other electronics — move them to a place that is out of sight for your child. If he works at a kitchen table or desk in another room, try to minimize all background noises and even smells that may be distracting.

Play Games

Playing certain games can help your child improve her ability to stay focused for longer periods of time. Try playing the game Red Light/Green Light, for instance. To do so, all players stand on a starting line. When you say “green light,” the players start moving towards the finish line. When you say “red light,” the players must stop immediately. If a player keeps moving when you say “red light,” she moves back to the start line. The first player to reach the finish line wins. When playing this game, you child must listen carefully and focus on the instructions in order to make it to the finish line, thereby exercising her ability to remain focused.

Playing other games, such as Memory, can also help increase your child’s focusing abilities. To play, lay down a series of cards upside down and have each player turn over any two cards. If they match, the player keeps them but if they don’t, the player must focus on the card images in order to remember them for her next turn. Playing similar games, like I Spy, Simon Says, or Concentration can all help your child develop stronger focusing abilities.

Focus-Building Apps

You can also download some focus-building apps for your child to play. Concentration – the Attention Trainer is a great one for preschoolers and kindergartners. This app consists of puzzles and memory exercises that are fun and engaging, and that also build focusing, problem solving, speed, and retention skills. Players can track their progress and earn rewards along the way.

Your child will inevitably be required to focus for longer periods of time in school, and on increasingly complex material. Try these exercises and help him become more on task, focused, and ready for the challenges to come.

The post Help Your Child Stay Focused In School With These Expert Tips appeared first on EBL Coaching.

How parents can use technology’s power over their kids for good.

Many children view tablets and computers as tools for having fun. They love to swipe, press, and play games, relishing in mindless entertainment. Yet tech-based tools can be used for more than just sheer entertainment. Help your child use technology to gain many new and valuable learning skills.

Build Reading, Writing, & Math Skills

‎When most of us were kids, working on a computer meant clicking a mouse and typing on a keyboard. Yet tablets and most computers today contain touch screens that allow users to engage with content and offer great opportunities for learning. To develop handwriting skills, for instance, your child can use various apps to practice forming letters and numbers while writing on the screen – such as creating the letter p while moving down, up, and around – a great kinesthetic approach that helps information stick in childrens’ long-term memories. Try the app iwritewords with your child as one option, which is designed for pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students. With this app, players select either numbers, lowercase letters, or upper case letters, and use their fingers to practice writing with proper formations on the screen. For added fun, they work with Mr. Crab to “collect” numbers as they properly form each figure. Users are later rewarded with a colorful picture at the end of each segment.‎ By engaging with this app, they are taking advantage of technology to help improve their writing and fine motor skills.

Help Your Child Become More Focused

Your child may zone out while playing a game or listening to a story, but take advantage of iPad time to help her become actively engaged in the task at hand and foster both her learning and focusing skills. For instance, if she is playing a game or listening to a story, stop the program at certain intervals and ask her content-related questions. She may, as an example, be using an iPad to listen to (and view) the story Cinderella. Instead of having her simply listen to the story – and possibly zone out – try pausing the screen after every few lines and ask her questions about the story. You might ask her direct questions, like: Why were the stepsisters so mean to her? Why couldn’t Cinderella go to the ball? or Who gave her the beautiful dress and carriage? You can also ask her less direct, more inferential questions, like: How would you feel if you weren’t invited to a ball? Why do you think Cinderella’s stepmother didn’t buy her a dress? or What kind of traits do you think the prince had? The more you can help your child engage with the story, the more she will process and the information and develop stronger focusing abilities.

Foster creativity

Some feel that creativity has been lost with the advent of technology. Yet while our kids may not be creating medieval castles out of blocks or playing “house” with pretend animals as much as we did as kids, there are many ways to use technology to help bolster creativity. With the PicsArt for Kids app, for instance, children can develop their early learning skills while coloring and drawing with various shapes and images. They start with a blank slate and engage their imaginations to create various “silly” pictures by dragging objects and using different color options. With the Create a Car app, kids can build their own cars by selecting a car style, then choose different car parts, such has fire hoses, panels, and the like, and drive their cars through different animated scenes. With the Toontastic app, players create their own cartoons with various characters, backgrounds, sounds, and play sets. The tech options are seemingly endless for engaging the imagination and stimulating creativity.

Technology will only continue to develop and become increasingly widespread as our children grow older.‎ Embrace these new and advancing tools and help your child develop stronger learning skills while having fun along the way.

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Start nurturing the focusing skills school demands

Your Kindergartner’s teacher tells you that he consistently has trouble staying focused at school. He misses directions, forgets to bring home books, and loses his belongings. You may notice these patterns at home, too. His room is a mess, his toys are frequently missing, and he seems downright scattered. As students move through school, they are required to stay focused on tasks for increasing amounts of time. Help your Kindergartner develop stronger focusing skills with the ideas detailed below.

Set a Timer

Many, especially those who have challenges staying focused, become antsy after just a few minutes of being engaged in an activity. Help your child extend his focusing window using a timer for completing tasks. Start by setting the timer for 10 minutes and have him work on a given activity for that period of time. When the timer rings, give him a five-minute break, then have him work for 10 more minutes, then take another five-minute break, and so on. After several days or weeks of following this pattern, try increasing the “focusing window” to, say, 12 minutes, then 14 minutes, and so on. You might also find that you need to start with a shorter initial time window if even 10 minutes is too long for your child. The key is to start with a small window and increase it as your child develops stronger focusing skills.

Limit Screen Time

Most parents have witnessed their child watching television with such focus that they seem to be in a “zone,” completely out-of-touch with their surroundings. This type of focus, known as “hyperfocus,” when a person focuses on one subject exclusively, can harm a child’s ability to excel in school.‎ At school, kids need to have strong “intentional focus,” which involves setting a goal and focusing on it for a given amount of time. Instead of allowing your child to zone out while watching television, encourage her to engage in hands-on activities that require intentional focus, such as building a castle using blocks, finishing a coloring book, or completing a worksheet.

Play Games

Play active games that help strengthen your child’s focusing skills, such as Follow the Leader or Simon Says. To play Follow the Leader, a leader is chosen to head the line while the rest of the players line up behind him. The leader performs certain actions and the other players mimic them. Any player who does not correctly “follow the leader” is out. ‎Likewise, with Simon Says, one player, deemed “Simon,” dictates specific actions for the players. The players must only follow Simon if his command begins with “Simon says,” requiring players to stay focused and only move when these words are spoken. Those who follow an action without the words “Simon says” are out. By practicing these types of games, your child will learn to focus better on a given task, a skill that transfers directly to the classroom.

Integrate Rewards

Most children, especially those of Kindergarten-age, respond well to rewards. Set up a rewards system to help your child develop stronger focusing skills. For instance, create a chart with stickers. When she successfully completes a 10-minute activity without getting distracted, for instance, she earns a sticker. If she earns, say, ten stickers, she earns a prize from your “prize box,” which could be a shoe box filled with small toys such as bouncy balls, sticky hands, bracelets, and so on. If those types of prizes don’t motivate her, sit down with her and come up with rewards that excite her, such as extra screen time, a trip to the movies, or a special lunch date.

If you find that even after trying these tactics, your child still struggles tremendously to stay focused, and is also disorganized, scattered, and forgetful, he may have a deeper attentional challenge, such as ADHD. If that’s the case, a complete evaluation may be useful so that appropriate accommodations and services can be integrated into his classroom. For others, however, using the strategies above can help them develop stronger focusing skills and academic success.

The post Four Ways To Help Your Kindergartner Focus appeared first on EBL Coaching.

These tips will help reduce careless mistakes

Your child comes home from school, eyes his newest video game, and speeds through his school work to “get it over with” and start playing. Does this scenario sound familiar? Many students rush through their schoolwork, doing the absolute minimum required, and make careless mistakes along the way. Rushing through work in this fashion can harm students’ grades and negatively affect their overall performance in school. Help your child slow down and improve his homework skills with the ideas detailed below.homework

Use a Timer
Identify a specific amount of time that your child should spend completing homework in a given night, and set a timer for that period of time. A general rule of thumb is 10 minutes of homework per grade per night. Thus, if your child is in first grade, she should spend roughly ten minutes per night on homework; if she is in third grade, she should spend about 30 minutes per night. When she sits down to begin her homework, set a timer for that specified amount of time. If she finishes before the timer rings, have her do another academic activity, like writing in a journal or reading a book.

Find the Right Homework Time
Children tend to perform best at various times in the day. For some children, completing homework as soon as they arrive home from school is best. Yet others many feel frazzled or overwhelmed after a long day of school and, if expected to do homework right away, may rush to “get it over with” and relax. Rather than forcing your child to work at a time that is not ideal for him, try to assess when he works best. He may need some down time after school to play outside or have a snack before beginning his homework. This approach can help him slow down and feel both focused and refreshed when starting his homework.

Encourage Self-Checking
Many students rush through their assignments and neglect to go back to self-check their work. Rather than telling your child to simply “check” her work, provide her with tools for doing so. The COPS checklist, for instance, is a useful one for self-checking writing assignments. Once she is done writing a paragraph or essay, have her go back and check individually for C (Capitalization), O (Organization), P (Punctuation), and S (Spelling). You can create similar checklists for math sheets, book reports, projects, and so on, and individualize them as much as possible to common errors that your child makes.

Prioritize
Encourage your child to prioritize his assignments. Some students prefer completing longer, more arduous tasks first. Others enjoy the confidence and momentum they gain by starting with smaller, easier tasks. Try to understand your child’s preference and help him order his assignments each night accordingly. For instance, if he prefers the harder assignments first option, help him number his assignments in order from most to least arduous, such as: “1) Complete essay; 2) Answer reading comprehension questions; 3) Complete math problems.” Encourage him to prioritize assignments in a manner that suits him best.

Talk to the Teacher
Some kids rush through their work simply because they are challenged by it. Rather than trying to grasp a confusing topic, they may choose to rush through the assignment just so they can be done with it and put it aside. If you notice this pattern, talk to your child’s teacher to see if she is noticing these patterns at school, too. If so, help your child (or seek outside support) to truly understand the content being taught.

Many students experience slipping grades and poor work products as a result of rushing through their work. Use these tips to help your child slow down, stay focused, and ultimately excel in school.

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