Summer is here and every child in Beirut wants to come play at 2to12. This is also the time for parents to prepare for the school year ahead. Here is an intersting article we found on dubaiexpat.com/schools site…
Youtube clips. Playstation games. Instant chat. Tweets. Status updates. Kids today in schools in Dubai are often too distracted. Let’s face it, here in Dubai, we all live in a fairly materialistic world. The outdoors for many kids is the shopping mall. Electronics has invaded every day life and taken over.
It’s a fast moving world for today’s generation… and with information coming at us in constant short, swift bursts, are kids losing the ability to concentrate on in-depth subjects that require a deeper level of engagement, understanding and effort?
It’s not just the multitude of distractions that await us at every turn. There’s also the fact that surely very few children are born organized and focused. Organization is a skill that must be acquired just like any other, and is part of the process in building a child’s concentration. Yet the ability to stay focused, organized and on-task is half the battle won, whether it’s for an after school football match, a piano recital or preparing for an important test. So how can it be done?
Whether your child goes to a school in Dubai, or anywhere else in the world, here are a couple of tips… Break down tasks with a three-way approach. This will help your child to get better organized. And that, in turn, works towards establishing a calm, quiet setting which encourages focus and concentration.
1) The first step is to get your kids organized. Help them to make a list of, and then gather, everything that is needed. This should be collected and kept ready in the place where the work is to be done – at your child’s desk, for example. This could include paper, writing materials, textbooks, pencils, erasers, for example, if it’s a writing project for school.
Encourage your child to think about some of the other steps that could be included in this process, such as first reading over the teacher’s instructions, emailing the teacher to clarify any questions or doubts they may have or even coordinating with a classmate ahead of time if your child is working on a team project.
Also, make a list together with your child of all the step-by-step tasks that need to be accomplished on the project and include deadlines if any.
2) Next comes the most challenging part of the process – that is, staying on course. This means that your child will have to learn to resist the urge to let thoughts wander, to give in to impulses (perhaps checking email or strolling into the kitchen to see what’s for dinner) and to be distracted by what could be going on in another part of the house.
For younger children, learning to sitting quietly and calmly, without slouching or being fiddly, is a great way to settle into concentrating on the task. If it’s helpful, then closing the door and shutting out interruptions may also be a good idea.
If the project is time-consuming and arduous, then short breaks will be necessary.
Explain to your child that this is the time to stay focused, and not lose sight of the goal. Thus everything else can and must wait until the job gets done to satisfaction.
3) Finally, wrap up the process by tying up any loose ends. This is the stage where it’s about checking over the work and paying attention to the details, no matter how minor they may seem.
For example, if your child’s task is practicing piano, then this is the stage where it’s important to ensure that all the teacher comments have been followed, that the book is back in its proper place ready for the next practice session,the piano lid is closed and the piano stool neatly put away.
This is not only a way of ensuring that the task has been completed well and with attentiveness, but also a way of winding down and out of the task.
Remember to:
• Talk to your child about how you will work together to get more organized. Discuss the end benefits of this, ie more free time, less stress .
• Ask your child to think about how implementing an organized system could help improve different areas of your child’s life, not just academics.
• Use daily and weekly checklists, a homework and after-school activity schedule that can be ticked off as you go along, a dedicated calendar for weekly planning (use this on a Saturday night to plan for the week ahead) and organized binders to keep track of notes and papers.
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