Sometimes, it can be tough to know how best to help your child to achieve school-life balance.
On the one hand, you want them to do well academically as you know that this will set them up for a much brighter future.
On the other, you want them to be able to enjoy their childhood without putting too much pressure on themselves.
Finding a middle ground is something that can take a little time, as it will look different for every child.
Let’s talk about some of the ways that you can help your child to achieve that balance.
Time management
Time management is an important part of making sure that you get everything done that you need to, without becoming stressed and overwhelmed.
If you want to teach time management to your child, there are some simple ways to do so that you can tailor, based on your child’s age and temperament:
- Creating a routine. You can start this right from when your child is a toddler. If you keep a fairly consistent routine, with things like meal times and nap times always taking place at the same time of day, this will help your child to understand routine and be better able to create one themselves as they grow older. Maintaining routine is an important part of finding balance.
- Modeling good behaviors. Even from a young age, your child will be watching the things that you do for guidance. This means that it’s a good idea to model ideas like getting up early, going to bed on time and limiting your use of technology. If you don’t model these behaviors, you are likely to get push back if you try to enforce them.
- Encourage independent planning. When they are old enough you can allow your child to plan their own schedule (with your guidance of course), to help them to fit in everything they need to. This is much more effective than planning a schedule for them.
Choose a school with the right ethos
It’s quite hard to encourage school-life balance if your child’s school is demanding an unreasonable amount of work from them.
Schools like The Rugby School encourage an holistic approach, which means that they encourage academic excellence, but they also appreciate that students are rounded human beings with needs outside of the classroom.
They encourage students to take part in a range of co-curricular activities so that they have the opportunity to build essential skills and confidence outside of the classroom.
Finding a school which has a similar approach is a good way to ensure that your child has a good school-life balance.
Setting realistic goals
While it’s important to help your child to aim for the things they want, it’s also important to let them know that they have value outside of their goals and ambitions.
A good way to do this is to help your child to set smaller achievable goals.
This means that they can get a sense of accomplishment, and they aren’t always pushing themselves too far.