ONCE kids go to Primary One, they spend close to half of their waking hours either at school or taking part in school-related activities.

By and large, children whose parents place a high priority on education do significantly better at school than those whose parents take a more casual approach.

There are many things you can do to make school a productive and rewarding experience for your children.

First, you need to develop in them good study habits by establishing a regular homework routine.

Here are some hints:

• Doing schoolwork for short periods of time is better than the last-minute panic over an assignment. Set a specific study time each day.

• Get actively involved by checking your kid’s assignments. You will get an idea of what is expected of him or her.

• Set-up a study area so there are no distractions like the television, telephone or radio.

• Look over his or her homework. This is a good way of developing a rapport with them. But on no account do their homework for them.

• Encourage your child.

• Get your kids to form the habit of organizing things by planning for the next day.

• Demonstrate a love of learning yourself by asking questions, exchanging ideas, reading books together – and separately, of course) and allowing your child to arrive at his or her own conclusions.

• Complement school study with interesting outings and excursions in which the whole family can enjoy.

• Be a good role model – let your child see that you enjoy learning through new challenges and activities.

Secondly, you need to instill good organizational habits, too, centred on study.

• As mentioned, you should set aside a distraction-free study area. This should have a desk and accessories, various study aids and material, a filing system for class material – and it should be well lit.

• You should help your child develop a system of storing various school material that includes accordion-type files organized under subjects or file folders (again under subjects) placed neatly on cardboard or plastic folder-holders, shelves for paper supplies and stationary etc.

• Create a homework award chart. Develop a method of giving your kids an incentive to do their schoolwork, with rewards for completing assignments and achieving good grades.

• Most homes these days have a PC. Scout around for fun learning software programs to stimulate your child’s mind t learn.

• Make reading a habit. This is alluded to earlier, but it is important to stress the need to set up ‘reading time’ to help develop a positive reading habit in your child. It’s the key to good study habits.

For the older child, you can add the following tips:

• Create a school assignment board using a self-made vertical calendar chart on a magnetic and erasable board, similar to the ready-made charts for professionals. This should break down assignments into component parts, with specific tasks in the school project. This gives your child planning experience, too. Study time for examinations should also be allocated on the board.

• Keep a daily schedule. Create daily schedule forms to delegate the amount of time needed for the most important study priorities. Plan study time in blocks of time (say, half hour). Include appointments, errands and time off.

• Establish an indexing system. A note-card system can cut the time it takes to research and organize a term paper. Set out a list of resources by category (for instance, magazine articles, encyclopedias, books, newspapers etc

These things should be done with the active involvement of your child so that he or she becomes responsible for making sure the ‘system’ works.

It follows that good study habits ingrained from a very young age translate into good work habits in adulthood.