If you are wrecking your brain over how to help your child with college essays, you are definitely not alone. We hope these practical tips will come in handy.
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Build Self-Confidence
If there was one thing to choose, it would be it. Building self-confidence is critically important as it helps your kid in college deal with most of his or her assignments on their own. Lots of mistakes are made only because students are not confident enough. We can’t tell you what it means to build confidence in your kid in college in particular, because students are different and the way you can make them believe in themselves are different. For what it’s worth, you should show that you have full confidence in their skills and studying capacities, that you fully realize that being in college is hard, and you never underestimate their efforts. Show interest and be engaged. Of course, you are not supposed to flatter your kid all the way, fake self-esteem won’t do any good.
Source: SpincycleNYC
Brainstorm Ideas Together
Very often students know how to write essays, but they lack ideas and can’t get their minds working straight. Help them out! You have a much better experience in brainstorming ideas and coming up with solutions than your kid in college has. Even if you were not exceptionally talented essay writer yourself, you have life experience, and it truly matters when it comes to crafting ideas. Show your child how to draw mind maps and try to create one together. Talk to your child, ask questions, encourage him or her to dig deeper.
Show How to Use Online Services
There are plenty of online services that can be of help. First, there is Google Scholar. It is the simplest thing to start with. Looking for sources from Google search, you find blogs, videos, hardly relevant academic sources. Using Google Scholar search, you can stumble upon brilliant, academically valid and legit sources. Most of them are online academic magazines and databases, but colleges have contracts with those and most probably you will be able to use 90% of them free of charge. Later, find some effective grammar and style checker that will help you kid check his essays before submission. Lots of mistakes can be avoided this way. If you are not ready to pay for a premium subscription for Grammarly, for example, find several free options — they have different algorithms and find different mistakes. However, a paid subscription can help immensely. It doesn’t only show mistakes, it is also a good learning tool. Later, find an effective citation generator so your child can save time on formatting. Make sure it supports the latest MLA and APA manuals.
Source: Thebestof
Take Care of Daily Routine
To be efficient, your kid needs to have a stable and healthy routine, and it is your responsibility as a parent to help them with it. The most critical point is sufficient and healthy sleep. OUr neurons don’t work correctly if we don’t sleep enough. Make sure there is enough air in the bedroom. You can also try to help with nutrition — living on fast food destroys cognitive abilities. Of course, we are not living in a perfect world, and you can’t control your teenager in everything, but at least try to set some routine rules. DOn’t be too strict or pushy, try to explain your way of thinking in the world of your teenager.
Order an Essay Online
It goes without saying, that sometimes a student just gets stuck, and the deadline is too close, and, finally, you remember about your ultimate goal — non-problematic graduation. You can order a professionally written online once in a while, with the educational system right now it’s not a big deal, considering the load they overwhelm students with. You can also use a professional paper writing service to order a high-quality custom written essay for you and your child.
Source: Parent Toolkit
Parents can genuinely help when it comes to essay writing, but they definitely should not press on their children too much, as teenagers like to rebel. Be engaged, interested, motivate and offer some technical help when applicable. Good luck!
