Revising with your child for a big exam, a quiz or just simply trying to recall a recent lesson at school can sometimes be difficult for both the parent and the child.
It can be a struggle for children to stay focused and for the parents to keep encouraging them. Here we have six effective techniques to revise with your little one! Keep in mind that these revision techniques can only be successful when it applies to your child's learning style. These techniques will also need to be implemented over a period of time in order to establish structure.
1. Summarise- one of the best ways to assist your child in understanding the lesson is for them to summarise or share it in their own words. Make it interesting by letting them act as a teacher. They can also use cue cards to better understand the content they will be summarising.
2. Revise Early- revise actively! Make it a routine for your child to revise. Getting used to it will help them when they need to review for big exams.
3. Quiz- self-testing can be an old fashioned way to revise but is still proven to be effective. Quizzing can be in written form (for those who are visual and kinesthetic learners) or oral form (for kids who are auditory learners).
4. Mnemonic- This is used to assist children in remembering large amounts of information. This technique can come in an acronym, rhyme or story form. This technique can be effective for all three types of learners. Examples of these are:
Stories: Every Good Boy Does Fine = EGBDF to remember the order of the notes
Acronym: ROY G. BIV = First letter of the colours of the rainbow in order. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Indigo and Violet.
5. Use games- who says revising can't be fun? Make revision time interesting by mixing up items or adding games into it. Maybe a matching game (kinesthetic learners), drawing/writing what they've learned (visual learners) and a quiz (auditory learners).
6. Start with Content Heavy Items- children will have the most focus and attention during the first few minutes of revising, and it is the perfect time to work on the heavy topics! Lastly, split revision loads into chunks and have breaks in between!