They’ve been away from school for nearly a month now. If you’re reading this, chances are, you’ve seen that the kids have completed (or started on) their holiday homework or reviewed some of the work they covered in term 1 and 2. What else do you need to do to get ready for Term 3?

If you did not do any goal-setting at the beginning of the school year, now is a good time to do so, or to conduct a review.You can take this opportunity to take stock of your child’s achivements and ongoing challenges, and together, chart the path towards greater improvement.

Take a good look at your child’s mid-year performance – and we don’t just mean scores. What are the areas for improvement? As far as possible, identify specific problem areas – e.g. ‘Fractions’, ‘Comprehension’ etc.  Go for specific skill-oriented goals rather than numbers e.g. ‘I will work to avoid common mistakes in my problem sums’ rather than ‘I will aim for 80/100 in Maths this term.’

2. Write THEIR OWN goals

Ask YOUR child to list down what he or she wants to achieve – this helps them to have ownership of these goals.  They should be able to think of their own goals and viewpoints. In the beginning, your child may put forward big or impractical ideas, but being a parent, see how you can scale it into smaller, achievable goals.

Although tests and exams are definitely checkpoints in your child’s schedule, be wary about fixing specific deadlines to ‘test’ your child’s progress in certain areas. Not only is this a source of stress, we also cannot assume that all or some of the goals can be attained within a specific time limit. It is more effective to review and assess frequently to look for noticeable (and constant) progress rather than to work towards a ‘major test’ and expect to see a big improvement.  In addition, once your child has made considerable progress in a certain topic, continue to review and practise from time to time, even after you have moved on to tackle other topics. This is a good revision habit that will prevent last-minute cramming.

4. Guide rather than control

When a child is internally motivated to achieve something, he or she may achieve better results than when simple TOLD to do so. Once your child has decided on certain goals, help them to develop a plan to achieve it. Give them a chance to be personally responsible for the results they want to achieve; you can support and supervise, but try to refrain from organising everything for them or going back to ‘do as you’re told’ mode. However, if you see your child’s focus and commitment wavering, then do step in and review the situation with them.

5. Show by example

If you want your child to stick to his or her goals, show them that you too can formulate goals AND stick to them! You can even set ‘family goals’ – such as learning a certain game or skill together e.g. rollerblading, or something as simple but fundamentally useful such as getting ready for a family outing on time.

How did YOU get your children to develop and stick to their goals? Share your thoughts and gain EduPoints.

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