10 skills your child should develop before they start high school

Now that your child is starting high school, they’ll need to be more independent—including when it comes to their schoolwork. Knowing how to stay organized will go a long way toward helping them succeed. You can foster this skill by encouraging your child to do the following:

• Identify important instructions
• Use their agenda
• Avoid doing things at the last minute
• Etc.

At home, your child may be used to always doing their homework in the same spot. In high school, however, there may be times when they have to work on assignments at school, at a friend’s house, or at the library. This means they’ll need to know how to create an environment conducive to learning—that is, a space that has the following qualities:

• Calm
• Well lit
• Free of distractions
• Etc.

Being aware of your needs means being able to look after yourself and your well-being. To help your child do this, you can encourage them to state their emotions, strengths, or weaknesses and voice their corresponding needs. Here are some examples:

• “I’m nervous; I need to calm down.”
• “I’m always late; I need to be more organized.”
• “I’m distracted; I need to find a quiet place to read.”
• Etc.

Learning from bad experiences and not repeating the same mistakes is essential to both personal and academic growth. To help your child learn from their failures, you can encourage them to do the following:

• Accept their mistakes so it’s easier to fix them
• Keep things in perspective
• Identify what they could have done differently
• Find solutions
• Etc.

For some students, starting high school feels like a huge step. It can be nerve-wracking for a number of reasons: they’re about to be the youngest kids at school again, they’ll have more homework, there will be new subjects—the list goes on. Here are some activities that may help your child better manage their stress:

• Colour a mandala
• Play sports
• Read
• Etc.

Being flexible means being able to adapt to unexpected circumstances. A class getting cancelled, virtual learning being reinstated, or a teacher being absent are just a few examples. Fortunately, you can prepare your child to better cope with these types of events by teaching them how to do the following:

• Manage their emotions
• Embrace change
• Use coping strategies
• Etc.

High school students get their fair share of research assignments and are routinely confronted with other students’ opinions. That’s why it’s important for your child to learn to effectively process information and develop their argumentative thinking skills. You can help by asking them what they think about a certain topic (e.g., junk food, relationships) and encouraging them to do the following:

• Reflect on the topic
• Think about their values
• Consider their feelings toward the topic
• Etc.

Self-motivation becomes increasingly important as students get further along in their education. A great way for your child to cultivate this ability is to set goals that have the following characteristics:

• Clear
• Feasible
• Measurable
• Adapted to your child’s needs and capabilities

In our everyday life, we experience all sorts of situations that require us to make choices and find answers that align with our values. Your child will be faced with more and more of these situations when they enter high school. You can help them prepare by encouraging them to do a number of things:

• Do math word problems to get used to the problem-solving method
• Identify the relevant points when they’re provided with information
• Rethink their reasoning
• Etc.

To resist peer pressure, make wise course choices, and respond appropriately to events or situations, kids entering high school need to have a good sense of their own identity. In other words, they need to be self-aware. Your child can build self-awareness in various ways:

• By talking about their feelings
• By increasing their cultural knowledge (through reading, music, travel, etc.)
• By learning to express their opinions
• Etc.