Make the Most of Study Time with These 3 Hacks

By Leigh Marcos

Life can be hectic for the homeschooling family, especially if you’re parenting teens. Not only do you need to work in enough study time, there are also many other areas of life – your kids’ activities, social events, and family time just to name a few. With how busy life can be, it can be a great idea to learn a few tricks of the trade to help your students maximize what they learn and retain during study time, so they can learn and still have time for all the other parts of their lives.

Take a Learning-Type Test

Everyone’s learning style is different. However, everyone tends to fall into one of the main learning types: kinetic, visual, and audio. You can find a learning-type test quite easily online that will help you and your kids determine the way in which they learn the best. Once you know that, it’s much easier to choose homeschooling materials and study methods that are the most likely to help them learn as well as possible.

Spaced Repetition

One of the biggest challenges in learning anything new, is finding a way to retain the information being learned. With any new material, or skill, the key to remembering often has to do with simple repetition. However, spacing the repetition out over days or weeks works better as a way to make sure that new information is retained in the long term. So if your teen knows that he has a deadline or test, it’s better to make sure that the material is reviewed every day for at least a few days, rather than trying to remember it all at the last minute. How you study and improve your memory is far more important than how long you study.

Micro-Goal Setting

It’s easy for homeschoolers to get bogged down and lose motivation throughout the year. To keep up motivation, and make things seem more manageable, setting small realistic goals can be great way to get the most out of study time. For example, on the list of things they need to do on a given day, instead of writing “study for test,” have them write, “make note cards for biology terms.” Or, “review flashcards for chapter 8 and read chapter 7.” Breaking larger assignments into smaller chunks and keeping track of what they need to do each day, can help your kids stay motivated and focused instead of feeling overwhelmed.

As the traditional school year starts up, the homeschooling family can use these hacks to maximize learning during study time. Using these hacks will help you stay motivated and enjoy learning. Plus, you’ll be better able to keep school time, school time, and still have time to have a well-rounded life.