Posted by Robert Zellmer on

Five Tips To Start The New School Year On The Right Foot With Your Teenager

In a few days, your children will be back on their way to school. Who says back to school also means new year and new expectations. For parents, going back to school is often a source of anxiety. The anxiety that we also communicate to our children in awkward and unconscious ways. We give you our five tips to start the new school year on the right foot with your teenager.

Reassure your teenager

You are not the only ones for whom back to school is a source of anxiety. For your child, back to school is synonymous with something new: a new school, a new class, a new teacher, new friends. It can be disturbing for your teenager, even frightening. Also, the somewhat specific context of this new school year can be destabilizing for your teenagers, who, for some, have not walked the benches of school since last March. This is why you must show your teenager that you will support him, concretely or psychologically, through this new stage. List of school supplies ok, mask ok, week planning ok. Show him that he has in his possession all the elements to start his school year without worrying.

Adapt to their needs

If he goes to college, your teen will start asking for more and more freedom. Going to MacDonald’s or the cinema with his friends, the opportunities to go out while respecting current health instructions will multiply as part of their socialization. It will be important to talk to him to allow you to remain calm when you let him wander about his business.

Start giving him pocket money to empower him

As we said, the outings will multiply for your teenager and the expenses at the same time. It is important to teach him the value of things. Define together an amount of monthly pocket money, for example, and let it manage its budget for the first month. Take stock the following month. If the amount was not enough to cover all of your teen’s expenses, study his expenses with him to determine if he has overdone to adjust or not the amount of his pocket money.

No panic! Stay tuned, and don’t put unnecessary pressure on him

For most parents, a new school year is a source of anxiety that we also communicate to our children unconsciously and awkwardly. The most important thing is to stay tuned to your child and that no matter the past school year (good or bad), this new year is a sign of renewal, of a new beginning. Do not needlessly compare your children with others; each child is unique with their strengths and weaknesses. The best you can do is support and empower him. This will give him the feeling that you have confidence in him and that you are ready to help him or her if they feel the need.

Talk about money with your teenager

The transition to adolescence (the ungrateful age) of children is often difficult for some parents to accept. No more docile and attentive children, adolescents will seek to assert themselves, make their own decisions, be more autonomous. The important thing is to remain available and to support them in carrying out their projects. As mentioned earlier, he will ask you a lot more freedom and multiply the conviviality moments with their friends. The outings will be more present and the expenses too! Money can then be a source of tension between you. We recommend that you have a discussion on this topic at the start of the year.…

Posted by Robert Zellmer on

Three Tips To Help Your Teen Organize Their Exams

Your teen feels like he still has plenty of time to study; he is zen and very relaxed, while you know the days will pass by.

An exam is like a marathon: it’s hard to believe in winning without proper preparation. So that’s it, let’s go; it’s time to start revisions, and to get him to get started now, you can help him quite simply.

1 – Start by making a schedule of revisions with him

List together the subjects to be revised and the time remaining until D-Day. You will have a clearer vision of the amount of work to be distributed each week.

Keep in mind that a good schedule is a realistic schedule!

And yes, for your teenager to commit to respecting it, he must consider his daily constraints: we do not revise with the same intensity in the evening after a day of classes and the WE.

Remember to vary the materials every 2 hours maximum and do not neglect the breaks, essential to ventilate the brain.

Do not forget to integrate into his schedule on the board his outings and extracurricular activities ;

Finally, as to which subject to work in priority: to each his strategy. Your teen can start with materials with a higher coefficient to ensure his back if that reassures him or the subjects where he is a little late to not lose his footing completely.

2 – Once this schedule is established, you can offer him your help to memorize his lessons

Encourage him to make index cards that he can read quickly and often. This is essential for the long-term recording of knowledge because otherwise, the brain very quickly forgets what has not been repeated and reviewed at regular intervals.

You can also ask him to lecture you: by explaining his course to you, he will work on his memorization, his oral expression, and his synthesis skills. This is a good way to pinpoint the course parts that he has not yet fully mastered; if he’s having trouble talking to you about it, it’s because you still have to work!

So listen and be available to him. And if he prefers to recite to his brother, his cousin, his friends, that also works.

The important thing is to combine the methods of doing things: learning, rereading, making cards, reciting, and watching course videos: the more the methods are varied, the less the brain will get bored. Your teen will learn faster and for longer.

3 – Simplify their daily life

He will go through a few difficult weeks filled with doubt, stress, and sometimes discouragement. To help him hold on and get in good shape on the day of the exam, you can, for example, reduce their participation in household chores, asking siblings to turn down the volume at home while studying prepare him balanced meals (no more sweet treats that soften the brain and energy drinks!) ensure that he sleeps enough because it is during the night that the learning of the day is consolidated; then 9th is a minimum!

In short, show him that the whole family is by his side to support him.

Finally, during this period, he will need your encouragement. So, even if the prospect of a baccalaureate or a certificate makes you terribly worried, avoid putting pressure on it. Trust him, be present, listen, and tell yourself that a positive and relaxed parent is the best gift you can give him during this time of intense revision.…

Posted by Robert Zellmer on

What Is An Educational Counsellor For? What Is Its Importance? 

The Educational Counsellor is a very important piece within the current educational system. Regarding its importance, it must be said that the figure has existed rather for a few years. Their role is to detect any educational or personal problems for students in time to advise teachers and families. In addition to detecting and treating learning problems, they also determine schooling in the different existing programs. Types of programs: integration, compensatory, curricular diversification, basic learning, high capacities, etc. Another function would be to guide students in the various educational and professional outings.

When a student has some type of disability (cognitive, sensory, or conduct disorder), the counselors make a psycho-pedagogical report and an opinion on schooling, which must be approved, through a resolution, by a schooling commission (educational inspection and advisers). In said opinion, the material or human resources and the curricular adaptations required by the student throughout their schooling are provided.

When a student has high capacities, and the teachers show some difficulty in handling them or in addressing the contents in the classroom, the figure of the educational counselor is essential to advise on the possible methodology to be used with these children or to guide the adapted educational materials to its high capacity with which to work in the classroom.

Faced with families’ difficulties in the education of their children (childhood tantrums, times of rebellion, control of homework, jealousy of siblings, school demotivation), the educational counselor can stimulate meetings or schools of parents were to approach said problematic.