One of the most significant factors influencing happiness is not wealth or physical health but rather the strength of our social connections. This truth holds for people of all ages, including adults and children.

According to studies, happiness also plays a key role in how well students learn.

The Link Between Happiness and Education

Research from Christina Hinton, founder and CEO of Research Schools International, shows that happiness is positively correlated with motivation and academic achievement.

During her doctoral studies, Hinton explored the relationship between happiness, motivation, and academic achievement among elementary and high school students. She discovered a positive correlation between happiness and both motivation and academic performance. Furthermore, her research emphasized the importance of solid relationships with teachers and peers in fostering student happiness.

3 Ways to Promote Happiness in Education

Hinton emphasizes that promoting happiness can be achieved through simple yet impactful actions. Here are some of her suggestions:

1. Keep Students Challenged

When students are bored, they are not happy or engaged in learning. Learning challenges are a great way to engage students. But the challenge can’t be too hard or too easy: too hard leads to discouragement, too easy leads to boredom. Optimal engagement lies in the “Zone of Proximal Development.” It is crucial to set realistic goals, understanding that students may progress at a different pace. Challenge goals should be adjusted to accommodate individual circumstances.

2. Provide Social Connection

A sense of community is vital to feeling part of the learning process, helping students feel engaged and connected to the learning process. Participating in activities in school, both academic and social, keeps students engaged and motivated. Parents and teachers can foster social connections and build community with students during academic or social events, inside or outside the school. 

3. Help Students Flourish

Students flourish when they feel capable and can handle a task with competency and mastery. Students who flourish are not only more motivated but also more effective learners. By setting small goals and taking small steps toward achieving the goal, students develop a sense of growth and fulfillment.

To encourage students to flourish, consider the following strategies:

• Practice Gratitude: Encourage students to express gratitude. Research suggests it significantly impacts happiness. A simple exercise like having students write down one thing they are grateful for can make a difference. Read more about gratitude and learning.
• Support Others: Happiness and flourishing are closely tied to supporting others. Encourage your student to engage in acts of kindness in their daily lives, whether inside or outside of the classroom. 
• Incorporate Humour: Finding humour can be challenging, but it is worth the effort. Laughter not only boosts well-being and happiness but also positively affects physical health.

By prioritizing social connections, understanding the significance of happiness, and implementing simple practices, we can create more meaningful and fulfilling learning experiences for students.

Small Changes Can Lead to a Big Impact

One small change that is easy to implement is investing in a specialized tutoring program for your child. Oxford Learning’s small class sizes and personalized learning programs can boost student engagement in the learning process as well as boost grades for this school year and every year.
Contact a location near you to enrol today!

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Sleep Promotes Brain Growth

Children’s brains are in a growth stage until the age of 21. The majority of that growth occurs while children sleep, so even a short reduction in sleep time—even as little as 15 minutes—can negatively impact academic performance. An extra 15 minutes of sleep can mean the difference between an A and a B for teens! 

How to Improve Sleep Habits

• Set a consistent bedtime routine to wind down. Learn more about establishing a nightly routine.
• Create a comfortable environment to prevent tossing and turning at night.
• Reduce technology during your family’s nighttime routine. Screens emit blue light, which can suppress the sleep hormone melatonin, making it harder to fall asleep.
• Follow a sleep schedule, even on weekends!

Meditation Can Help With Brain Growth, Too!

A full night’s sleep is the best way to recharge the brain so it can properly process and store information, but did you know that meditation can help boost brain growth, too?

Meditation can help with relaxation (try it before bed!), stress management, improved memory, and more, which can help with better sleep habits and school performance! Understand the benefits and how to implement meditation into your child’s daily routine here. 

Oxford Learning’s customized learning programs help students unlearn bad study habits while providing support as students learn healthier habits and work toward achieving their dreams.

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However, children handling stress presents challenges since their coping skills are not fully developed. Since school takes up a lot of space in your child’s life, ensuring that it is free from stressors is essential in making school less daunting. Learn more on how to loose all that stress and anxiety building up at Hollyweedcbd.com.

Recognizing School Stressors

When children learn how to overcome challenges and setbacks, they become more resilient students. But, school stressors could be presenting your child with more than they can handle, which can have long-term negative effects on their mental health. Identifying what is causing your child stress at school and teaching them how to manage these stressors are the first steps toward being able to perform at their fullest potential! 

11 Potential School Stressors

1. Getting a good grade on upcoming tests
2. Too much homework, which can lead to a stressful cycle of procrastination and stress
3. Overwhelmed with the workload
4. Poor organizational skills, resulting in no organization at all
5. Busy schedules, leaving no free time to relax
6. Poor sleep habits
7. Anxiety around participating in class discussions
8. Lack of support
9. Transitioning to a new school or new grade
10. Increased class difficulty
11. Lack of a consistent daily routine

See a full list of school stressors by grade here.

Is Your Child Experiencing School Stress?

Thankfully, once school stressors are recognized, they can be worked on! Our experts can help your child better manage school stress and provide them with healthy stress management skills for life!  Contact an Oxford Learning centre near you to learn more.

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The Mind-Body Connection

The mind-body connection is a powerful one. It shows how our mental health can affect our physical health and vice versa—if either one is unhealthy, the connection can weaken, causing various health issues to arise. Unfortunately, many students are struggling because of the pandemic, so ensuring they take care of their mental health is crucial.

Posture, as well as general body position, gestures, and facial expressions, can heavily influence how you think, feel and act. For example, if you’ve ever noticed how sitting or standing up straight can make you feel more confident and engaged in a task, that’s the mind-body connection at work! There are multiple ways you can strengthen this connection to better your overall well-being. 

Improved Posture = Improved Learning

With all of this said, good posture and mindful movement can be highly beneficial for students. They improve cognitive function, specifically concentration and mood—two major components for classroom engagement!

Here are some tips for implementing with your child:

1. Set movement reminders during homework time to improve productivity. Don’t be afraid to ask your child’s teacher if they incorporate movement breaks into the daily routine.
2. Teach your child about power poses—body language that helps with confidence.
3. Invest in ergonomic furniture that encourages good posture. Standing desks and certain chairs are a great way to avoid sitting in an uncomfortable position for long periods.

Confidence In The Classroom

We have more strategies to ensure your child feels confident as they learn! Check out these tips, or contact us today!

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Children are affected as well. They have high-stress levels due to factors such as an unstable learning landscape because of COVID-19, extracurriculars, social media, their own social lives, and responsibilities at home. Their developing brains can have difficulty keeping up and prioritizing time each day to relax and focus on themselves without distractions. 

If stress levels are not appropriately managed, cognitive development and functions, such as short- and long-term memory and information processing can be negatively affected; both are essential for academic success. 

MEDITATION AND OUR BRAINS

Meditation rests the mind, body, and spirit, causing numerous well-being benefits. Mindfulness meditation, specifically, has gained popularity in recent years and teaches the ability to slow down racing thoughts, let go of negativity, and calm both your mind and body. 

A study in Consciousness and Cognition revealed that participants who meditated for 20 minutes for four days showed lowered stress levels, as well as significant improvements in memory and cognition. Those who meditated also scored as much as ten times better on a working memory task. By flexing your memory muscle in meditation, your information storage mechanisms multiply, ensuring that your brain retains the ability to store new memories. 

CHILDREN CAN BENEFIT, TOO!

For growing brains, meditation has a lot of promise for children versus what it has for adults. Kids are more receptive and willing to try new things, whereas adults have a harder time relaxing and focusing on turning off their inner dialogue. 

Not only does meditation improve short- and long-term memory, but there are other benefits as well: 

• Enhances empathy 
• Develops better problem-solving and decision-making skills 
• Improves sleep
• Meditation decreases cortisol levels, which help with stress management
• Promotes self-image and self-worth 
• Increases attention span and focus 
• Can reduce pain sensations in the body 
• Helps manage mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and ADHD (source).

MEDITATION TIPS

1. Practising meditation is like a muscle; it gets stronger the more it’s done. 
2. Your child is more likely to adopt the habit if you also implement meditation into your daily routine. 
3. Meditating in a comfortable place away from distractions grants the ability to focus on observing rather than thinking. This helps teach how to be present in daily life.  
4. Thoughts will forever be in mind; the key is not to change them but to acknowledge them and give the mind some space to look at the angry thoughts and refocus itself.
5. Let the body breathe and focus on the breath pattern, no need to change or direct it. 
6. Use a digital app like Headspace that will help with guided meditation. This is also a great option if for progress tracking. There are other ways to make meditating a bit easier, such as books, audio recordings, and Youtube videos.  Start with using one consistently to build the habit. 
7. The practice’s length of time and frequency can vary, but the following time frames are recommended: Preschool children: a few minutes per day; Gradeschool children: 3-10 minutes twice a day; Teens: 5-45 minutes per day or more based on preference. (source). 
8. Encourage your child to incorporate deep breathing at bedtime or before answering a difficult question in class. Deep breaths can also help reduce anxiety before a big event or performance. 

OTHER WAYS TO HELP WITH MEMORY

If you’re looking for other methods for improving memory, try out these tips! It’s important to find an ideal strategy that works best for your child to boost motivation and improve school performance.

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The uncertainty that COVID-19 brought taught us to give our energy to the good things life has to offer. The great news is we can give attention to what we’re grateful for every day, and the whole family can be involved! 

The Benefits

While gratitude can play a huge role in your overall mental health, it can also affect your physical health. Positive side effects include reduced stress and anxiety, increased productivity, higher motivation, and improved sleep. All of these are vital in maintaining your physical well-being. Additionally, gratitude teaches everyone to be more present in the moment.

Your Child, Gratitude, And Learning

Gratitude bridges our brains’ cognitive and emotional realms, essential for your child’s development. It’s a valuable tool for developing resiliency and helping a student cope with the stresses of learning in a pandemic. As humans, we stress more about negative experiences than positive ones. Learning to find the good in a situation builds a strong sense of self. It also motivates the students to be more successful in the classroom.

This skill can positively impact your child’s education by:

• Improving the student’s social and emotional well-being. A recent study in China found that grateful teens tend to be less anxious and depressed. Engaging in this practice gives them a stronger ability to think of and use different coping strategies in any situation. 
• Leading to higher levels of life satisfaction and better grades.
• Teaching them to be comfortable with growth and change.
• Building connections among peers, which improves attendance and class participation.

How to Practise Gratitude

Mental Health can affect a student’s ability to be present and learn. Therefore, it is important to keep your child’s brain fit. Every part of our brains should be exercised regularly, including the “gratitude muscle”. Below are a few ways students can learn to implement gratitude into their daily lives.

• Write in a journal daily, guided by prompts or making a list of things to be grateful for 
• Participate in gratitude activities, like a gratitude jar or creating a collage
• Use a gratitude app 
• Get outside to appreciate the beauty of nature
• Sign up as a volunteer at a non-profit organization
• Meditate with your gratitude list 
• Say thank you more often 
• Make it a part of everyday life. For example, share what everyone is grateful for during dinner.

Gratitude strengthens a positive mindset by reminding us that everything is not as bad as it seems. With the power of appreciation, your child will have the resilience they need to achieve school success, no matter the circumstances!

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Researchers say the pandemic has had a profound effect on the mental health of children.

Surveying more than a thousand parents and 350 children, Dr. Daphne Korczak, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, found that roughly 70 per cent of children experienced a deterioration of their mental health since the pandemic.

Their research showed that many students experience an increase in depression, anxiety, and irritability. Parents and students also reported being less able to buffer the day-to-day frustration than before the pandemic began.

Pandemic depression can make students less able to tolerate disappointment and less motivated to get involved in activities. They also report being restless and bored. Issues with mental health can lead students to experience less resiliency when tackling new problems or recovering from learning setbacks.

Mental Health Can Impact Learning

Mental health can play a large role in how students learn. According to Dawn Shickluna, Ph.D. from U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, managing trauma—such as experienced by students during Covid-19—affects students’ ability to be present and learn. Students need to feel safe and supported when learning.

• Approximately 20 per cent (one in five) of children and youth have a mental health problem (Waddell et al., 2002).  

• Mental health problems can seriously impair children’s ability to be successful at school.

Taking care of mental health is as important as taking care of physical health. Practising self-care and using wellness tools daily can help students of all ages become more aware of their mental health and help them be able to verbalize if they are feeling unwell mentally.

8 Ways Students Can Practise Self-Care Daily for Improved Mental Health:

NUTRITION.

Nutrition plays a significant role in how students learn and how they feel. Healthy foods support and nourish the brain and body, increasing alertness and helping students learn. Brain-boosting foods that are high in protein will give your child energy and keep his or her mind sharp during the test. A good breakfast will also ensure your child doesn’t feel disoriented or lightheaded. Ensure your child isn’t snacking on foods too high in sugar—this will help ensure they don’t crash midway through the test or start to feel jittery. A full balance of vitamins and minerals keeps the brain happy, allowing students to perform at their best. Read more.

SLEEP.

Lack of sleep can do more than simply make kids grumpy the next day—it can substantially impact academic performance. Sleep hours correlate with students’ school performance. When teens don’t get enough sleep (nine hours), it causes learning problems—one statistic says that at least 20 per cent of high school students fall asleep in class on a typical day! Children’s brains are in a growth stage until the age of 21. The majority of that growth occurs while children sleep, so even a short reduction in sleep time—as little as 15 minutes—can have a detrimental impact on academic performance. Getting enough sleep and following a sleep schedule with bedtimes and wake times can help students feel well and become more productive.

EXERCISE.

When students exercise their bodies, they are also exercising their minds. Being active regularly can help sharpen a student’s focus and memory, allowing him/her to become more attentive in the classroom and better recall the subject. Making sure your student is regularly active helps lay the groundwork for effective learning by giving them the energy and focus they need to do well in school. Free, unstructured play is an essential part of development, helping children learn to explore, take risks, question, experiment, discover, and develop self-confidence. Read more.

ORGANIZATION.

Being organized can reduce stress levels long term by requiring less last-minute scrambling in various everyday situations helping students feel prepared and ready for the day. Students lose fewer assignments and are better prepared for class when they had a sense of order. Organization is a prerequisite for school success in every grade and every subject. One of the easiest ways for students to increase their organization is by using an agenda. Students receive a lot of information during each school day. Using an agenda helps them sort, categorize, and remember that information. It helps them to keep their priorities in order. It helps them learn how to prioritize their responsibilities. But most importantly, it reduces stress so students can learn more efficiently. Read more.

WRITING.

Whether journaling thoughts, chronicling the day, attempting poetry, or starting a novel, old-fashioned pen and paper have an immense impact on emotional well-being, helping students organize their thoughts and even improve their moods. Some studies show that writing about being grateful before bed can improve sleep, lead to better classroom performance and a sense of well-being. Read more.

MONITOR TECHNOLOGY USE.

Too much screen time can impact children’s social development and lead to social anxiety and create adverse effects on sleep habits and attention span. Children need a variety of online and offline experiences, including opportunities to let their minds wander. Screen time that promotes socialization, such as FaceTime with friends or a video conference with the teacher, is beneficial. Activities in which children feel engaged, such as playing video games interactively, are better than passive and solitary screen time, such as watching YouTube videos. Read more.

MINDFULNESS.

Mindfulness involves focusing awareness on the present moment while acknowledging all thoughts and feelings. When your child is distracted, encourage him or her to take a 5-minute break to sit quietly and take a moment for him or herself. Then, ask your child to consider what may be causing the distraction and ask them how they can get back on track. Read more.

FOLLOW A ROUTINE.

Routines are important for students of all ages. Routines provide structure to the day and bring calm and consistency to a child’s life, helping them understand what happens next. Read more.

By promoting focus,  even simple routines can act as anchors to maintaining good mental health by dealing with stress and ensuring that self-care and good habits are happening daily.

More Support:

Covid-19 has impacted students’ well-being in many ways, including their learning habits.

If your child needs additional support for coping with mental health, please reach out to community supports such as the local health unit in your area or one of these two National Youth Support Providers:

Youth Mental Health Canada https://ymhc.ngo/

KidsHelpPhone Text 686868 or call 1-800-668-6868

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