3 Budget-Friendly Hacks for Helping Kids With Classroom Struggles
This is a guest post from Gwen over at InvisibleMoms.com
Watching your child wrestle with education struggles can be so heartbreaking. Of course, you want to help them fight the battle, but you may not know how best to do it. All too often, learning activities and supplements outside of the classroom can be too expensive for parents.
This is why we have gathered a few budget-friendly and effective suggestions for helping your kids and teens keep learning outside of school, all while encouraging them to have fun and pick up some serious life skills.
Update Their Technology Without Spending a Fortune
There’s no question that tech is here to stay when it comes to education. Kids are using tablets and laptops in the classroom every day. While tech can get a bad reputation with parents, having the right tech at home could help your child overcome learning challenges.
The thing is kids love technology and they tend to crave screen time. So, why not put that passion to good use and allow your children to play or watch educational games, videos, and TV shows? Experts agree that quality content can make expanding screen limits worthwhile.
If you’re working with a tight budget, you may be thinking that the latest tech for your kids is out of your financial reach, but this isn’t true. You can easily find promo codes, coupons, and cashback incentives from popular stores, and then use those codes to pick up the tech your kids need for a lot less. Best of all, you can shop online to save time.
Look for Local Educational Programs That Offer Scholarships
Sometimes, what kids really need is a break from the traditional classroom. All too often, education is limited to a slim range of basic subjects, such as math, science, language arts, and history. While these subjects are pretty important, kids who are struggling may benefit from hands-on experience in subjects and fields they’ve never encountered before.
If your child is struggling with math and science, for example, setting up experiences and experiments with agriculture could be a creative and effective way to help them. Even something as basic as growing a garden can do worlds of wonder for kids who are struggling.
Set Up Budget-Friendly Experiments With Basic Household Items
Growing a garden or getting involved with agricultural programs are both fantastic ways to offer your kids more hands-on learning outside of school. If you’re looking for something a little more basic, though, you should try looking through your kitchen cabinets for a few educational ideas.
Breaking out the salt, food coloring, vinegar, and other low-cost kitchen staples will help your little ones learn about science. More importantly, they’ll have so much fun with these activities that they may not even realize they’re learning! This can be helpful for kids who are struggling. By the way, you can also use coupons and loyalty memberships to save on those ingredients.
When children are having a hard time keeping up in the classroom, they may also begin experiencing feelings of anxiety. Allowing your child to blow off some steam with budget-friendly home science projects can help break down some of this anxiety. It allows anxious kids to learn in an environment that is free from the traditional pressures they may face at school.
Make an Impact on Your Community
If helping your child with their educational struggles has inspired you, consider becoming a teacher to help other children and make a long-term impact on your community. With a degree in elementary teacher education or early childhood education, you can support children at the preschool or elementary school level. If you’re busy caring for your family or have a full-time career, explore online programs which allow you to learn at your own pace.
Some kids may begin to thrive when they can use the tech they already love to learn outside of the classroom, while others may need more hands-on and practical experiences. Whatever your child needs, know that you can provide it without wiping out your savings.