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Last week, I spoke with a lot of families about their Easter plans, which all revolved around family time and food and fun (tbh I got a tiny bit jealous, I’m currently in the Middle East and missing my family big time).
About a third of these families, however, were not excited. Some parents shared that it was yet another weekend meant to be doing fun things together but instead would be spent sitting at the kitchen table catching up on missing work, or studying for tests this week that they can’t afford to fail.
In a couple of cases, the students are doing online self-paced school and their parents warned that if they didn’t progress to a certain point, they wouldn’t be allowed to partake in their usual festivities. Both students missed the mark and both parents confided they wished they hadn’t drawn that line, but felt they had to deliver on the punishment.
Having to choose between family time and school, doling out threats or punishments you hate, feeling like ‘bad guy’/homework police/nag – or in general feeling like you’re the one dragging your kid through school – sucks. These are just a handful of ways that school steals not just confidence and happiness from your son or daughter but from your relationship with them.
Some people feel that this is the way school ‘is’ for them, and they have to struggle through it. Some people have tried tutors, counselors, neurofeedback and other things to try to alleviate the problem, but nothing moves the needle in the long-term.
If school stress and struggle persists, I can about promise you that it is due to a skills gap. If your child doesn’t have the skills to manage and engage in their work, they will always struggle more than they have to.
You can have the best teachers and tutors and external interventions in the world, but if your teen doesn’t know how to learn – if they don’t have the skills to process and retain information – they will never learn or achieve to their potential.
If you think this might be the case but aren’t sure, book a Learning Skills Assessment with my team here. We’ll be able to tell you in less than an hour whether your child has a skills gap that is keeping them (and you) stuck, how significant it is, and how to start bridging it.
If you think this is definitely the case, use this assessment to kickstart real change. Understand that this call is about your child. It’s a 1:1 conversation with student and parents, facilitated by a professional, to help them understand the real reason they’re struggling and get them excited (or at the least, believing) that they can change their situation and that doing so is actually quite simple. Even if they’ve struggled for years, they have ADHD or autism or other diagnoses/differences, they’re certain they suck at a subject – we know for a fact they can take control and start feeling GOOD about school and themselves in a matter of weeks. They deserve to know this too. Click here to book in.
Cheers to the last weekend stolen by school,
Kelsey
