When your child returned to school after the winter break, you probably discussed goals for the school year. Maybe your child wanted to get an A in math or improve by a letter grade in English class. Whatever the goals were, now is the time to remind your child of them. 

If you did not set goals, you still have time to have this conversation. Remember, it's never too late to start! Help your child set goals for the remainder of the year. These goals should come from your child with your guidance. Your child must have buy-in, so make sure they come up with the goals. At the same time, you want to make sure they are realistic and achievable; if a child sets an unachievable goal and fails, they will probably not want to set goals again in the future in fear of failure. Once the achievable goals are set, begin a plan on how to reach each one. 

Since this time of year tends to disrupt your regular winter schedule, create a new routine that works with all of the new springtime activities. Sit down with your child and create an outline of their day-to-day and week-to-week activities in their planner. This outline will help keep your children in a routine which is beneficial because it's very easy to stop keeping track during this time of year. Help them rediscover their planner so they can keep themselves organized. Set a time aside each evening to ask about the planner and then check-off all of the completed tasks. Checking off the completed tasks at the end of the day will also make your child feel productive and successful! Lastly, it could be a good idea for you to model this behavior by keeping a family calendar to stay on top up of all the extra activities! 

Remind your children what they’ve worked for during the school year. Now is not the time to give up as the end is approaching. Explain to them that this is the time when they must get motivated to finish strong. It would be terrible for your child's months of hard work to be impacted by a few weeks of laziness! You can help them set up some type of rewards and incentives program to help them stay on track. You know your child and what helps them stay motivated, so assist them with achieving their goals through incentives. Your children should want to finish strong, so the incentives/rewards should be small such as serving their favorite dinner, allowing them to pick the family movie, or allowing extra time on a video game. A little extra motivation never hurts!

The weather this time of year is beautiful (when it's not raining), so encourage your children to go outside and get fresh air. You can set up a place for them to do homework outside or use the outdoors for study breaks. After studying or doing homework for an hour, there’s no need to stay cooped up. Take the dog on a walk or go for a bike ride. Enjoying nature and the sunshine can be refreshing and motivating. Incorporating outside time can make a big difference in helping kids stay on task because they don’t have to feel like they’re missing out on any fun!

Your kids aren’t the only ones ready for a break from the hectic school schedule. Make sure you pay attention to your own motivation at the end of the school year. Ask your children if they need help studying or with anything else related to school. Show them that you are still interested in their success! Engage your child in a conversation about their school day. Let them dictate what they talk about, but show them how much you are interested regardless. If you stop showing that you care, there is less reason for them to care. You don’t want them to know how excited you are for the end of the year--at least not yet anyway! 

The warmer weather seems to encourage a busier schedule, so try to be acutely aware of how many activities your kids are involved in. Kids don’t want to miss out on the fun, so they tend to say yes to any offer without considering what’s already on their plate. Kids are craving social interaction with one another, and it is definitely important that you allow them to be involved in activities. However, there needs to be a balance. For example, if you have a child who is on the soccer team, volunteers at church twice each week, and babysits most weekends, you need to step in and help them set limits and priorities. Each activity in this list is worthy, but having an overscheduled child hampers the focus and energy they need to have to finish the school year strong!

Club Z! Tutoring of Glenbrook specializes in providing individualized, in-home, and virtual tutoring for students K-12 in Northbrook and Glenview. We also work with students to complete the college application process. If you want your child to work on developing skills that will translate to improved grades and self-esteem, contact us today at: bbalatsos@clubztutoring.com. You can also reach us at 847-440-3440 and by visiting clubztutoringglenbrook.com.