3 Creative Ways to Make Learning at Home Fun

3 Creative Ways to Make Learning at Home Fun This post is part of a month-long series to help you start 2018 on the right foot. Throughout January, visit the Varsity Tutors blog for advice, tips, and tricks on how to reignite your passion for learning this winter. Getting your student excited about learning outside of the classroom can, at times, be a challenge. However, introducing your student to engaging educational activities at home can inspire a passion for learning. Creative ways to make learning at home fun can involve hands-on educational activities, catering projects to your students current interests, and incorporating educational games. Make learning at home fun by incorporating hands-on educational activities Encouraging students to have hands-on experiences with the concepts they are learning in school, or with topics they personally find interesting, can help your child better understand academic material. If you student is struggling with a math or science concept, try illustrating it through a visual or kinesthetic game. For example, if your student is learning about plant or animal cells, work together to create a cell diagram using LEGOs. This will allow your child to build something physical, and to see what he or she has created and how the cell works. Your student can also build bridges, race cars, or skyscrapers out of LEGOs or other building materials and conduct various math and science activities with them. [RELATED: 4 Educational Family Field Trips] Make learning at home fun by listening to your child's interests A great way to make learning at home fun for your student is to engage in activities surrounding any current interests. Gearing learning time toward topics your student already finds interesting can increase his or her excitement. For example, your student might be interested in dinosaurs. If this is the case, activities could include: Visiting the local library or bookstore to find books on dinosaurs, both fiction and nonfiction. Then, incorporating these books into blocks of time set aside at home for learning-related activities. Incorporating STEM activities and experiments, such as creating fossils using modeling clay, leaves, and shells. These experiments can be followed by a conversation on the activity topic, in an effort to instill a deeper understanding. Encouraging your student to write a short storyor simply a book of illustrations depending on the students ageabout dinosaurs, including any facts he or she may have learned that stand out. As previously mentioned, visiting places like the local library could help your student better connect with the material. Incorporating field trips to science centers, historic sites, or other local centers could provide your student with an opportunity to absorb material he or she might not otherwise come into contact with. You can translate this new knowledge into additional at-home educational activities. This will allow your student to make a direct correlation between what he or she discovered and activities you can do right at home. [RELATED: How to Enhance Your Student's Experience With Literature] Make learning at home fun by including educational games Educational games allow your student to absorb information in a low-pressure, creative environment. If your child is struggling with spelling, create a Jeopardy game to help him or her improve his or her skills. Make different categories based off of the types of words your student is struggling with, and have five questions under each category that are worth a specific number of points from 100-500. Every time your child gets a spelling word correct, add points to the total. You can add another level to the game by reading a definition and having your student guess the correct word and spell it properly. Gauge your childs knowledge level and base your rules off this. In addition, there are hands-on math games your student can play to assist in his or her understanding of subjects. Simple games like dominoes or Connect Four can help your child better understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Other games, such as Equate, which allows students to solve equations in crossword-puzzle form, and Sequence Numbers, which puts a fun math twist on the classic game Sequence, encourage students to learn in a fun, relaxed environment. [RELATED:Educational Road Trip Games for the Whole Family] Any topics you want to know more about? Let us know! The Varsity Tutors Blog editors love hearing your feedback and opinions. Feel free to email us at blog@varsitytutors.com.

Test Taking Tips for High School Students

Test Taking Tips for High School Students Test Taking Tips for High School Students If your teen struggles with test taking, he or she isnt alone. For many students, tests are highly stressful, causing fear for even those who study diligently in advance. Luckily, there are a number of test taking strategies and tips that will help your teen boost his or her chances for exam success, whether taking a standardized exam or a pop quiz in English class. Adopt a positive and realistic outlook. Before your teen ever cracks a book to study, be sure you explain this: no test is a completely accurate measure of a students knowledge and no test is worth excessive anxiety. Remind your teen frequentlyand especially before a test daythat all you and the teacher expect is sincere effort, not perfection. Putting things into perspective will help ease those worries and allow your teen to simply demonstrate his or her knowledge. Adopt a few go-to stress management techniques. Teens who experience test anxiety should arm themselves with a few trusted relaxation practices and stress busters. For many students, taking a few moments to close their eyes and think and visualize positive things works wonders. For others, stretching and deep breathing can slow down a racing heart and bring oxygen into the blood flow, creating a calming effect. Talk with your teens teacher about effective techniques to calm oneself and stay focused and optimistic during a test. Jot down the cant forgets right away. When beginning a test, your teen should take a minute to write down (on a piece of scrap paper, if provided, or in the margin of the exam) any formulas, key facts or other important information that he or she might need to refer to during the test. Calculate a time budget. Encourage your teen at the start of the test to perform a quick calculation on how much time to spend on each question. If given 60 minutes to complete a test with 45 multiple choice questions, your teen should average around one minute 20 seconds per question. So, this means your teen must pace him or herself and check the clock a few times throughout the exam. Managing ones time well is an essential part of being a good test taker. Save the hardest for last. Every exam will have a few brain busters that trip up your teen, and getting hung up on these mid-exam can cause unneeded anxiety. Instead of spinning the wheels on a challenging question for more than your teens budgeted time, encourage him or her to skip and circle such problems. Your teen can revisit those questions at the end of the examas long as he or she leaves sufficient time to work on them. Leave some review time. Ideally, your teen will be able to go over the exam one final time before the test ends to review all answers and re-read any confusing questions where your teen wasnt certain about the answer. At that time, your teen should also review the test for any glaring errors such as leaving their name off the test or any unanswered questions. Test taking isnt easy for many students, but there are few signs to watch for that may indicate your teen has more than a case of pre-exam nerves: Consistently panics about exams and studying for them. Studies for long periods of time, but exam scores dont reflect the effort. Consistently underperforms on exams for which the student studied or claims to have studied. Whether your teen struggles on tests occasionally or always, or would simply like help becoming a better test taker (and better at preparing for tests), Huntington can help. Our highly trained tutors can work with your teen to develop the confidence and test taking skills and strategies he or she needs to make high schooland collegea success.