The school term is about to end: this is the time of the year when kids often need to get ready for a gruelling schedule of exams and concentrating on school work may become more and more difficult. Once the term has ended, they will have their much-awaited holidays to look forward to, but also lots of homework to do.

Here are some suggestions on how to help your children cope with all this. Firstly, you must have the right attitudetowards school work and homework, that should be mirrored in your children; secondly, your children’s diet should support and help them both mentally and physically.

 

 

The attitude that we adults had as children towards school work influences the way we support our children.

 

It is however important to understand exactly how your children should be studying and doing their homework.

 

The most common mistake is that of trying to take over what your kids do, making them study in a certain way or even doing their homework for them. The long-term results are always self-defeating: your child will not learn how to deal with situations that may be frustrating or find ways to resolve the problem on his own. Sometimes, allowing your child to go to school without all his homework done, because there is something he doesn’t understand, if he has done his best to do the rest of his homework on his own, teaches your child to take responsibility for what he does.

 

In order to do school work and homework properly, your child needs to have the right attitude, but it also requires organisation on your part:

• A quiet room where he can do his school work without distractions like pets, or Mom doing housework, having the TV on or younger brothers and sisters playing in the same room.
• What should be done first: studying or homework? In general, your child should be encouraged to study first, but you can also work out a plan that takes into account extracurricular activities.
• Get your child to take a small break every 45 minutes or so, to helphis natural concentration cycles. This should help him recover energy to cope with the next step of his homework, without distractions of course. The number of subjects your child studies will keep him focused: if he has too many exercises in one subject it may be useful to get him to stop and do his homework in another subject.

 

a proper diet and, above all, a good breakfast, affects the academic performance of children

 

Unfortunately, the importance of a well-balanced diet in terms of improving academic performance, is today still not widely recognised. Our body needs many nutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, dietary fibres, vitamins and minerals which must all be well-balanced in your children’s diet, to ensure the best performance.

Hundreds of studies have confirmed that a proper diet and, above all, a good breakfast, influences the academic performance of children. Breakfast should be complete: fruit, milk or yoghurt with cereals (muesli with cornflakes) or bread (preferably, wholegrain) with honey or jam. Breakfast should however also include a portion of protein: an egg (egg on toast or a boiled egg), two slices of ham or a small piece of cheese. Then give your kids carbohydrates for lunch and proteins for dinner!

 

Fruit or even a sandwich with ham filling, yoghurt, fruit-flavoured fruit ice-cream or a milkshake are delicious healthy mid-morning and afternoon snacks.
Just one last word of advice. Say no to junk food! It is so very important for the health of our children.