How To Create A Good Home Environment During Exam Revision

How to Create a Good Home Environment During Exam Revision

Introduction: When supporting your children with revision, it’s important that you provide the best home environment and give them the best support possible. To do so, it is essential to have a calm and pleasant home environment. The schedule for the children must be flexible. On top of this, children should have the right balance between work and leisure, exercise and fresh air and treats.

a) Ensure that the Home Environment is as Calm and Pleasant as Possible: It`s essential to keep a positive attitude when working. Staying positive affects people`s ability to work efficiently and their ability to revise over long periods of time. However, for many people, the atmosphere of the home will affect their cheerfulness. Being in a particular working environment often reminds people (both consciously and subconsciously) of the politics that are going on in that environment. As such, they will inevitably think of these when revising. In turn, this will affect their mood. If children are working in an agitated and difficult environment, this will affect their attitude and concentration for the worst. Therefore, when supporting your children it`s important that you create an atmosphere which is as calm and pleasant as possible.

b) Change the Schedule to Suit the Children if Appropriate: Admittedly, chores are important (even if sometimes unenjoyable). However, during exam times, exams are the top priority. These exams determine what paths the children go down in later life chores do not. Don`t necessarily throw the need for children to do chores completely out the window. However, it`s a good idea to adjust the schedule as appropriate to fit the children`s needs. For example, set them chores on designated hours / days off. During this time, they`re less busy and stressed. On top of this, they have more time to help. Admittedly, this may feel a bit strange at the time. However, remember, this change is only temporary. You can get the schedule back to normal as soon as the exams are over.

c) Ensure that the Children eat Properly: It`s very tempting to eat improperly when stressed. A lot of people try this when they go to university for the first time. However, they quickly realise that they aren`t doing themselves any favours. People who eat unhealthily tend to develop high blood pressure, heart problems and health ailments. People will feel this temptation at high school and it`s very important to make them realise the consequences of eating unhealthily. A good way to ensure that they get the best nutrition is to invite them to family meals. These are meals that you are in charge of. Thus, you can ensure that your children get the correct nutritional content. Also, during these meals it`s a good idea to not talk about exam revision. They`ll have been working very hard and will want to talk about stuff other than revision. This is the perfect opportunity to do so.

It`s equally important to make sure that the fridge is full with healthy snacks. People tend to get very hungry when revising since they are exerting an awful lot of brain power. Unfortunately, hunger and revision do not mix. Hunger distracts people and so stops them from working efficiently. For morale`s sake, it would be nice if the snacks were tasty. Whatever snacks you get are completely your own concern, depending on what works best for your children. If sweet, that is fine provided that the children remember to have fruit and veg alongside it.

d) Make sure that they get the Balance between Work and Leisure: Admittedly, working hard on revision is important. However, equally important is leisure. If you spend all your time working, you become cranky, overworked and inefficient. It goes without saying that this really isn`t a good state to be in when revising over so long a period of time. To help children avoid getting into this state, make sure that they balance work with breaks and leisure. A good way to achieve this balance is to work a specific amount of hours during the day, with a 20 minute break in between.

I would personally recommend 5 hours a day. Less than 5 hours is too short and does not allow you to get enough work done. However, longer than 5 hours is when (I find) your concentration and mood tend to go downhill. When children do the 5 hours is completely up to them. The children should then take the rest of the day off. This will allow them to regain their concentration and good mood. The next day, they will be ready for further revision. The children should also have at least 2 designated days off. Whichever one they take off is completely up to them. However, for many, this is the weekend.

e) The Need for Exercise and Fresh Air: Most people would agree that life confined to a study and revision notes is incredibly depressing. Steady discipline is certainly important for revision and revising in a study is part of this. However, morale is equally important. Without morale, revision deteriorates into a very depressing and tedious process. You are very unlikely to revise efficiently when feeling this depressed. Therefore, it`s important that children spend time outside the house so that they`re reminded that there`s more to life than revision and the study.

It`s further important that children are reminded of this not just occasionally but very regularly. Thus, it`s a good idea to spend some time outdoors once every morning and afternoon. They should even go out in in evening if they are the outdoor people. Depending on the person, this can be either exercise or walking - whatever they prefer.

f) Treats: Exam periods are obviously a very difficult and stressful time for children and so it`s very important to keep morale up. Since this is a harder time than usual, you`ll have to find more creative ways to maintain morale. A good start is treats. This will obviously vary depending on what suits your child best. Some examples include: special cakes, new games and films etc.

Some parents take this to the extreme and `bribe` their children to do well in exams. For example, they might say `if you study and work hard, we`ll get you a new laptop`. However, I would not recommend this approach with this particular age group. This approach may have worked with children who were younger than 12 and not old enough to understand the need to work hard for their own sake. However, at 16 - 18, children should be old enough to know that it`s in their best interests to work hard for their own sake and not simply for a reward. To encourage someone to work hard just for a reward implies that you don`t see them as mature enough to realise that they need to work hard for their own sake. This is a somewhat patronising attitude for a 16 - 18 year old. Feel free to get your children rewards for working hard during exams as a recognition of their hard work. However, do not use this as a motivation.

Conclusion: To anyone who’s read this article: I wish you all the very best in creating the best home environment for your children. I remember all too vividly the struggle of exams and the effort that my parents made to create the best environment for me. However, the important thing to remember is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. This light is a prosperous future for the children: a good job, friends, independence and perhaps even a family. The journey to reach this light will not be an easy one. There will be many challenges and hardships from work, friends and even family. This is a journey which every person goes through at 16 - 18. Eventually, your children may start a family of their own. Remembering this journey will give them the compassion that they need to help others who are going through a similar process. But for every person, there is always the light that is worth working towards!