Educating children can be a challenging task. It requires attention, determination and a lot of planning. Being a parent or a teacher is not an easy task.
You have to take care of yourself and your children. You, as a parent need to take proper care of your child in his growing years.
Adolescents have to go through a lot of changes like psychosocial and physiological changes. How an individual reacts under pressure and stress is also one such type of change.
Going through stress happens. It is an ugly truth of life. Some individuals can work under pressure without stress whereas others may not be able to handle such changes.
Some people resist changes whereas others like to go through any such changes. There are many circumstances when a child may go through stress. Children may get anxious or experience sleepless nights when there are exams on their heads. At this time, they need someone to teach them, plan with them and tell them how to prepare for the upcoming examinations.
Parents or caretakers should talk to their children on a daily basis and interact with them in a friendly manner so that they do not hesitate in sharing their thoughts.
However, here are the 5 best tips to help your kids cope with exam-related stress:
1. PLANNING: A CRUCIAL STEP
Prior and proper planning is essential. Generally, a child is judged on the basis of the academic score which he scores on the examinations.
So, as soon as the date of the commencement of examinations is announced, children and parents start to feel anxious or they may go under stress. A number of questions start coming up in their mind which may impact the overall health of parents as well as the children.
Proper planning may avoid such risks.
As soon as the academic curriculum is made, parents should ask their children to practice their subjects on a regular basis. Some can even plan on joining tuitions which may help your child in keeping pace with the classroom candidature. Planning and preparation should start as soon as the academic year has started.
Test results may help determine the child’s future career options, so a well-planned study schedule is crucial.
There are certain tips for helping students with anxiety when there are exams on the head:-
2. Plan, Prepare and Study
Make a proper timetable and set an appropriate amount of study time for each subject.
Those subjects in which your child is weak or needs more practice should be allotted more study time.
Make sure you include more time for studying challenging subjects, as per the skills and knowledge of your child.
Proper question and answer type class tests should be practised to avoid stress for upcoming examinations in the end.
Test the student on what they have already learned in school.
Previous year question papers should be practised to prepare the student for exams.
He will know the pattern and will get well aware of how the questions can be framed.
Friends can compete on who can score better.
This is fun and helps in building confidence. They will also know the areas of improvement.
If, by chance, your plan doesn’t seem to be working, don’t hesitate to change it. If the student finds the practice tests useful, spend more time on those. If your child finds a particular subject or topic challenging, focus extra study time on that. If he feels demoralised while competing with others, you may ask him you practice alone.
3. Discover Your Child’s Strengths And Weaknesses
Every child has a different aptitude. Some children find mathematics easy and get high marks in that, while others breeze through subjects like language and score well in those. You can help your child in identifying their strong and weak points and work harder as per requirements
As parents, you should try and understand your child’s capabilities, and make sure you don’t set unrealistic expectations from them; an average student cannot become the top of the class overnight.
He may feel pressurised while reaching out to your expectations.
You, as a parent should set realistic and achievable goals which are practical in reality.
Such planning and preparation will prevent future disappointments for both, parents and children.
4. Make Sure Your Child Indulges In Physical Exercise Or Any Form Of Entertainment
People go out for physical exercises to boost their confidence and relax their mind and body. Some may go out for a job while others may go out with friends and enjoy a gala time.
Your children also need some rest and fun time to feel relaxed and relieve stress.
With all the academic load and a number of changes in hormones, adolescents may feel very stressed and anxious.
They need to go out and relax. So, parents should encourage their children to go out for exercise as a form of rejuvenation.
It is also useful to have your child practise deep breathing and meditation during their study breaks, especially if they have stress-related or anxiety problems.
Some parents force their children to study for hours on a continuous basis. This will make your child lethargic and he may find it boring.
Watching television or playing games with friends is also one form of entertainment to relax your mind a d body.
5. Healthy Diet And Enough Sleep
Adolescents need more vitamins and proteins for their brains and body to function properly. A healthy diet will keep your child fit and active. Your child will be a bright one!
A disciplined life is the key to success. There should be a proper schedule for eating, studying, playing and sleeping. This will increase focus on studies and your child will be able to predict and perform better.
Sound sleep is very important so that your child feels fresh as soon as he wakes up.
A sleepless night full of stress will not let him concentrate on any activity throughout the day.
Scoring In Exams Is Not The Main Goal
Parents should make their children comfortable and let them know that a sheet of paper will not decide their future Health problems cannot overcome the need of scoring in marks. Marks are not everything.
Poor marks are not the end. One child may have a talent to perform well in exams while the other may have some other talent like that of cooking or dancing. All people are not the same
“I failed in some subjects in [my] exams. But my friend passed in all. Now he is an engineer in Microsoft, and I am the owner of Microsoft.”
—Bill Gates
Hence, life gives you innumerable opportunities to showcase your talents and therefore scoring marks is just a small part of the career.
Conclusion
Stress is a fact of life. Everyone goes through stress at one point in time or the other, in their lives. Some kids can manage them in an efficient manner while others may make it difficult to pave their way.
Stress during exams is a natural presence and parents need not worry about it. You can plan and prepare your child for exams so that he doesn’t feel pressurised.
The presence of mind, speed and accuracy will determine your child’s marks. You can help your child in planning and preparing the academic schedule so that he doesn’t feel stressed and anxious at the end time. Every child is not a prodigy!
