Schooling

How to help children conquer the fear of failure

Fear can be crippling for children, impacting everything from a child’s confidence to their academic performance. In order to give your children the best chances of achieving their potential then, removing a fear of failure is nothing short of crucial. What is fear? The Amygdala plays a large part in the fear response and has been called the “CEO of the brain”, as it can override the rest…
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Mums TipsParenting SkillsSchooling

How to Help Your Teenager Achieve at Exam Time

Parents are uniquely placed to understand their own teenagers. It is parents who have nurtured them from birth and even the best teachers have only known your teenager for a short time. Teachers have the ‘good of the group’ in mind and examination outcomes to work for and whilst a good teacher is a great help when it comes to achieving in a particular subject, it is parents who affect teenage…
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Schooling

What role will you play in your child’s career path? Why I encourage my daughter to go into engineering

I am Chloe Agg and I am Senior Mechanical Engineer at Cundall. I will discuss here the perceptions parents may have of engineering and why I’ll be encouraging my daughter to enter the industry. This week, The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) launched a campaign called Engineer a Better World. The campaign is aimed at parents to encourage their children, especially daughters, to…
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Schooling

Schooling: How to make school homework fun for children

School holidays are long enough to get kids out of their homework routines. There are many resources available to parents and here are some ideas to make school homework fun for children. Children claim that homework is boring. But parents can help them focus and make school homework fun by turning it into a game and by getting rewards for achievements. To do maths homework for example, you can…
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Schooling

Easy ways to make maths fun for kids

Confusion. Rage. Tears. Panic. The maths homework of a ten-year-old can turn the cheeriest household to a warzone. Scribbles are scribbled, diagrams are destroyed and protractors are flung. I’ve had countless conversations with children – and their parents – about struggles with maths and who declare they “hate maths” or simply I “can’t do it”. But maths can be enormously…
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Schooling

To tutor or not to tutor? The honest tutor's perspective!

To tutor or not to tutor? That is the dilemma. I thought I ask honest tutor Erica Gillingham for her perspective on challenges, homework, parents’ dilemmas and the BIG question about State versus Private schooling. Image by Mark Maclaine, Tutorfair.com What are the challenges that parents face with children in primary school? One of the biggest challenges is their own subject…
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Schooling

To tutor or not to tutor? That is the question

I never really believed in tutoring as I always thought my son was extremely intelligent. How wrong could I possibly be?!! I don’t refer here to my son’s intelligence, but to the importance of tutoring. Media debate whether to tutor or not to tutor all the time and I have never thought of becoming an advocate for that myself. I had to try it first to be able to understand the…
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Schooling

Computing in the curriculum: a hands-on experience & FREE resources for parents

As I parent, I keep wondering whether I do enough for my child in terms of homework support. I feel quite lucky that I have an academic background and professional qualifications to understand the National Curriculum, but was unfamiliar with the changes being introduced in the new curriculum from this September. Have I have enough knowledge in computer science and computer coding to help my 8 year…
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Schooling

Back to school: Ideas for after homework and play time treats

The Summer holidays are over and we are now slowly getting back into the swing of things at the start of a new exciting school term. We have so far sorted new school uniforms, after school clubs but we are still dealing with daily homework dilemmas. I have noticed that if I promise decent treats and rewards for completing the homework, my son is eager to work without a fuss. Here are ideas for…
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Schooling

BACK TO SCHOOL AND BACK TO SLEEP & 'NORMALITY'

Is there any such thing as normality with kids? Of course not, but a decent routine is likely to help us run a smooth family life. With children heading back to school after the long Summer break, it’s important to help them get back into a sleeping schedule to ensure they are well rested and prepared for the day ahead. As a bonus, more sleep for the children generally means more sleep for…
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