Academic transitions cause disruptions that can be challenging for students, especially adolescents. During adolescence, many students already struggle with their self-esteem. Read this article by Hodis Learning & Music president, Drew M. Hodis, on the South Pasadenan News website. The article provides parents with skills to help their adolescent children boost their self-esteem in academic transitions.
Finals week is a stressful time for students, and it can be a challenging time for parents, too. With your child feeling stressed and possibly overwhelmed, it’s natural to feel it with them. While students can implement stress-reduction measures on their own, sometimes they need a little extra guidance at home. We have provided a few steps parents can take to help their students feel less stressed and more in control.
We’ve all been there – when it comes to study time, we can sometimes get caught up in the distractions around us. Help your student create a distraction-free study space, or drive them to the library to study. Another valuable lesson you can teach your student is to turn off their phone and place it in another room while studying.
Getting enough sleep during finals is extremely important. However, many students struggle to cultivate good sleeping habits during this time. Help your student create a sleep schedule and help them stick to it.
No kid likes a “helicopter parent.” But if your student is a little less organized, they may really need your help in keeping track of exams and planning study schedules. Try creating a “team effort” approach where your role is to provide guidance and structure.
Stress and anxiety are contagious, and it’s normal to feel the pressure along with your student. But perhaps one of the most important things parents can do during this important period is to model calmness. When your student is feeling overwhelmed, your calm support will go a long way.
Final exams can put pressure on the entire family. Thankfully, Hodis Learning & Music has expert educators who are here to help. Schedule a session with one of our experienced tutors today!
While not all our students are K-12, a lot are, which means parents are involved in their student’s education. We understand that you are making an investment when you book a tutor with Hodis Learning & Music, which is why we want to offer some tips for how you can help us have productive tutoring sessions. These productive sessions will ultimately lead to your student’s success in the classroom and beyond!
HLM tutors and educators can meet wherever is best for you and your student. Sometimes that’s in your home and sometimes that’s a public location like a coffee shop or library. When choosing the location of your sessions, think of where would be the best for your student. While it’s convenient to have an educator come to your home, make sure there is a quiet space with limited distractions for us to work. Perhaps a busy kitchen where siblings and parents are coming in and out isn’t the best location. Instead, have us work in an office, or a different room and make sure TVs, phones, tablets, and toys are put away or turned off. If we as educators notice in-home sessions aren’t productive, we might suggest moving sessions to a library where students can focus.
As educators, we appreciate hearing how a student is performing in school and outside of sessions. The more information we have, the better we can focus our lessons to ensure students are getting the most out of our time together. If you received feedback from a teacher, let us know. If a student performed poorly on a test, we want to know about that and what concepts the student didn’t understand. While we as educators try to empower students to be responsible for their work and education, sometimes they don’t always tell us about homework, tests, or areas they need help with– they themselves might not even know because it feels overwhelming. As a parent, you have insight into how your student is feeling and performing.
Along the lines of tip #2, we want to gently remind parents to maintain reasonable expectations. If you want your student to score well on an exam, but you tell us about the exam the day before, there is only so much we as educators can do in one session. If exam scores are important to you and your student, let us know in advance. Even if you tell us weeks before the test, we will write down the date and plan our sessions accordingly! If you communicate an expectation to us, we want to support you, which might mean sharing our expert opinion on how that goal can be achieved reasonably.
If you’re considering hiring a tutor, call us or email us to learn more.
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