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Watch above for 3 videos that will help your child develop focus and make this school year the best yet!
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Focus for Better Grades: 3 Tips from Your Kids Martial Arts Instructor
Okay, parents, here we go. Here's our number one tip to help your children develop focus so that they can have the best school year yet. The first tip is to create a distraction-free environment. In today's world there are so many things that can distract us, might be gadgets of some sort, the smartphone, the tablet, the television, other kids, you. So it's really important that we create an environment where they will be free from distraction.
Another thing to think about is the general ambiance of the area. Will it be quiet? Will it be soothing and suitable for concentration? And the third thing is in this space that you create, make sure that everything that your child might need to get the task done is readily available. So if they have to get up and leave, that creates a task-switching scenario. Maybe they have to go to the kitchen, maybe they go to another room and then they can get pulled away. So let's create a distraction-free environment. It's free of gadgets, it's potentially free of other family members, and everything that they will need is in one spot. Give it a try and I hope you're successful.
The number two focus tip is to chunk things down. So remember, we're working on some tips to help our children have focus and make sure that this school year is the best yet. The idea of chunking things down is two-fold. Number one, make sure that a single task is not too big. If it's too big, it's overwhelming, and they're going to be seeking breaks, and these breaks will present as distractions. Number two, we need to manage our expectations. The chunk of time so the size of the task, but also the amount of time that we're expecting a child to focus should be managed, and you can manage this by planning breaks.
For example, we might focus on a chunk-down task for 20 minutes. Plan a break where they can get up, walk around, move around, maybe have a snack, if it's appropriate, and then get back to the next chunk of that task. So remember, focus tip number two, chunk the scope of a task down into many more smaller pieces, and also manage our expectations on how long we're going to expect them to stay on a single task at hand without taking a break.
Our third and final tip on helping our children develop focus so that they can have the best school year yet.
This last tip is the idea of managing a child's energy, the body, and brain connection. There are several ways that you can go about this. Here are a few examples.
Kids may have a lot of active energy that they need to release so they can sit down and focus. There is a need, a time, and a place for physical exercise among children. Of course, as a martial arts instructor for over 25 years, my recommendation is martial arts classes. Both will engage the mind and the body to burn off some of that anxiety, what looks like hyperactive energy, and then when the time comes they can sit down and focus.
Conversely, a thing they may need is sleep. Here's a trick I used to use when I was in college. We were burning the candle at both ends and often we would go to the library and fall asleep while studying. So instead, I would take a quick power nap and then be able to get hours upon hours of studying after my nap. That might be something that your child needs. They get home from school, and take a quick break. Maybe it's a quick power nap. They might not actually fall asleep, but that little bit of relaxation will enable them to focus on their homework and the necessary tasks at hand.
So two things to think about in this third tip. Number one, is physical exercise, so consider martial arts training. Number two, is the importance of high-quality sleep, so consider power naps.
Best of luck.
