How can I build my child’s study and learning skills for home education?
Your child has finally settled down for their lesson, now you just have to find a way to get all of the information into their brain and make it stick, by:
- Keeping your instructions clear and short, repeating the key learning points.
- Encouraging your child to ask questions.
- Breaking lessons or tasks into sections.
- Using mnemonics and visual aids.
- Finding out how your child learns best.
Video - Building your child’s study skills with Romesh Ranganathan
Comedian Romesh Ranganathan has some tips to help you make the most of your home education schedule. Romesh used to be a teacher, you know!
Romesh Ranganathan:
Another day home schooling. Yay!
And we’re meant to be helping our kids to remember things. I mean, mine can’t even remember to clean their teeth without being told a million times. How am I meant to put any learning into their tiny minds?
Apparently, the way to help kids learn is to give clear, brief instructions, so, that’s what I’ve been doing:
“Just… Do… It… Now!”
That’s a short, understandable sentence, right?
Also, we’re meant to encourage them to ask questions so when they’re home learning, they’re actually allowed to go: “Why dad? Why? Why dad? Why? Why dad? Why? Why? Why? Why?”
And you might ask the question: “Why did we ever have kids?”
Like I said, children have really small brains and remember things better if you make them simple. So we’re meant to break down big tasks into smaller components and take things one step at a time.
For example, one of my sons had to recreate a Roman coliseum, and we broke it down into little tasks like, first of all let’s establish what facts we know about the coliseum and, secondly, why don’t we email the school to ask the teacher why they set such complicated homework.
Sometimes, people make learning more complicated by using strange words like ‘mnemonics’. That’s just one of those weird memory devices that helps you learn the colours of the rainbow.
Do you remember, ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain’? Which is, ‘Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet’. I’m still quite buzzing that I got that right!
There’s also the ‘SMILE’ technique for English, looking at a poem for its’, ‘Structure, Meaning, Imagery, Language and Effect’. I don’t really use it, but it’s about the only smile we’re getting these days so we might as well have it on the wall.
My kids like using visual aids, by which I mean they like using pictures of me, surrounded by words describing me, like ‘silly fathead’ and ‘stink bum-bum’ and ‘this is the man that cries a lot’. Very expressive.
We’ve also tried notebooks with checklists, flashcards with key facts, wall charts with diagrams.
Of course, everyone has got a different learning style. Some people are visual learners, who respond best to seeing things. Some people learn best by hearing things. Some learn by reading and writing. Some learn by doing activities. And some learn by pushing their dad to the absolute brink of frustration.
I’m sure one of our boys learns best by picking his nose. I mean, he’s definitely trying to reach his brain up there.
So there we are. All kids are different and there are all sorts of ways you can help their memories grow. The only question is, will your own brain ever recover from the stress? Answers on a visual aid, please.
This video was recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope the advice will remain relevant and helpful to parents educating their children at home.
Home education hacks: How to build your child’s skills for study
- When you're talking your child through their work, keep your instructions clear and short.
- Repeat the key bits they should be learning and have them repeat it back to you. Repeat the key bits they should be learning and have them repeat it back to you. Repeat the…
- Encourage your child to ask questions on the subject you're learning (at your own peril).
- If the lesson or task feels daunting, break it into sections to tackle one by one.
- Use mnemonics. What's a mnemonic? It’s the weird memory trick from school which helped you to learn the colours of the rainbow: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Make up your own!
- Visual aids like drawings, checklists and flash cards are great for making a lesson easier to grasp.
- Find out how your child learns best. Do they work well with visual or listening aids, reading and writing, or activities? Once you know, you can plan their perfect lesson.
- If something's not working for your child, try something else!
Where can I find more support for home education and parenting?
The BBC Bitesize home education collection is designed to support you and your child’s learning at home with free resources for early years and foundation stage (EYFS), primary and secondary-age students.
Bitesize Parents’ Toolkit is the go-to place for the whole parenting community to find stories, expert advice and fun activities.
If your child has special educational needs and / or disabilities, be sure to check out the Parents’ Toolkit SEND collection.
For more information about home education, these BBC News articles cover the rise in families deciding to educate their children at home and, from 2021, the impact of Covid on home education.