The Learning Stategist’s Guide for Parents
How to help your child become an empowered, curious, and autonomous student
Dear Learning Families,
Last week, I watched my neighbour's daughter sprawled across three different surfaces in their living room—textbook on the coffee table, laptop on the couch, notebooks scattered on the floor. Her mum looked exasperated. "She's been 'studying' for hours," she whispered, "but I don't think she's actually learning anything."
Sound familiar?
Here's what I've come to understand after years of working with learners: most of us have never been taught how to study…or how to learn. We've been given content to remember, tests to pass, assignments to complete—but rarely the tools to figure out what actually works for our unique brain, context, and aims.
That's where the magic happens. Not in finding the "perfect" study method (spoiler: it doesn't exist), but in helping our children become curious scientists of their own learning.
🌟 Your Child's Brain: Beautifully One-of-a-Kind
After we’ve been working with a learner-client for awhile, it’s not unusual for us to hear something akin to:
“I used to think there was something wrong with me because I couldn't study like my friends. They could sit quietly for hours; I needed to pace while reading. They could memorise in silence; I needed to explain concepts out loud. What I know now? There was nothing wrong. My brain simply had its own preferences, its own rhythms, its own way of making sense of the world.”
Your learner’s brain is the same—gloriously unique. And that means the study strategies that work for their classmate might fall completely flat for them. The goal isn't to force them into someone else's mould. It's to help them discover their own.
🔍 Becoming Learning Detectives Together
One thing that flourishing learners do differently? They pay attention to their own thinking. They notice what works and what doesn't. They adjust. They experiment. They inquire into their own learning process.
We can teach our children to do the same with what Bella taught us this week, namely the Test, Reflect, Grow approach:
Test Something New
Maybe it's a study technique. Maybe it's tending to room or backpack or digital organization. Maybe it's adjusting a sleep schedule for better rest. The key is changing just one thing and giving it a real try—at least a week of devoted, awake tending.
Reflect Together
This is where parents can be invaluable. At the end of the week, sit down together and explore:
What felt good about this approach?
What felt challenging or frustrating?
If you were to keep one thing and change one thing, what would that be?
Grow and Adjust
Apply that adjustment and notice what happens. Sometimes the change is tiny—switching from a desk chair to sitting on an exercise ball. Sometimes it's bigger—realising they focus better in 30-minute chunks of time than in long stretches.
The point isn't to find perfection. It's to build their capacity to notice, reflect, and adapt.
Missed our live session in May? Grab the recordings for a limited time!
The Learning Strategy Studio: Workshops for learners, families & educators is an interactive workshop series hosted by Awakened Learning’s team of Learning Strategists.
Test, Reflect, Grow: Smarter Strategies Start Here - with Bella Scurfield
Your brain is as unique as you are — and the way you learn should be too. In this webinar, you'll discover how metacognition — thinking about your thinking — can help you choose learning strategies that truly work for you. We'll dive into how reflection empowers you to test new approaches, refine your study habits, and grow into a more confident, effective learner.
This product will be sent to you via e-mail as a secure digital download link.
💡 How the right technology can help
As a holistic learning strategist, I’m cautious of the way tech is a thief of our attention. But there are genuinely helpful ways that digital tools can support learning, including studying given the time of year. We all got to enjoy learning from Mona’s insights this past week as she shared her top AI tools for studying.
For the chaos of keeping track:
Tech tools like Google Calendar and Trello can help with “time awareness,” Mona’s starting place
Break down overwhelming assignments into small, manageable pieces (this is where asking "What would you need to do each day to finish this without stress?" becomes gold)
For making abstract concepts stick:
Create practice questions together with CoPilot—you ask your child to explain a concept to you, they teach you, you both learn
Making flashcards via Quizlet or ANKI for facts that truly need memorising (dates, vocabulary, formulas), but using them as just one tool, not the whole approach
For the emotional side of studying:
Timer apps that build in breaks (studying for 25 minutes, then taking a 5-minute break to chat, stretch, or grab a snack)
Apps for mindfulness or calming when the stress builds up
The technology isn't the point. It's simply there to support the human work of learning.
Missed our live session in May? Grab the recordings for a limited time!
The Learning Strategy Studio: Workshops for learners, families & educators is an interactive workshop series hosted by Awakened Learning’s team of Learning Strategists.
Effective Study Strategies with AI: Learn how to leverage AI to study smarter while maintaining academic integrity - with Mona Frial-Brown
Learn the secrets to mastering the use of AI tools to maximize your study time and improve your chances of success — all while maintaining academic integrity. Walk away with techniques that boost output through clarifying concepts, adding structure, and reducing time and effort like never before.
This product will be sent to you via e-mail as a secure digital download link.
📚 How the right foundation can help
Before memorizing, understanding. Before drilling, connecting. Before testing, exploring.
I see so many learners re-read their notes over and over, getting frustrated when information won't stick. But memorising without understanding is like trying to hang a picture on a wall with no nail—there's nothing for it to attach to.
Instead, try this:
Ask your child to explain a concept to you as if you're learning it for the first time
Have them connect new information to something they already know well
Encourage them to find their own examples, metaphors, or create stories that help the concept make sense
Only then move to any memorisation that might be needed
When understanding comes first, memory becomes so much easier.
🏠 Learning strategy experiment to try at home
Rather than overhauling everything, what if you and your child became curious about just one thing: their study environment?
Take a learning walk together through your home:
Where do they usually try to work?
What do they notice about the light, the sounds, how they're sitting?
What feels energizing? What feels draining?
If they could change just one thing to make it feel better, what would it be?
Maybe it's as simple as facing a window instead of a wall. Maybe it's adding a plant or a soft throw. Maybe it's switching locations entirely—kitchen table instead of bedroom desk.
Try that one change for a week. Then check in together. What do they notice? How does it feel? What might they want to adjust next?
💗 Reframing the hard parts
Tests and assignments will happen. Often. But we can help our learners see them differently:
Instead of "judgment day," they become feedback—information about what's been learned and what needs more attention.
Instead of "pass or fail," they become one piece of data—useful, but not the whole story of who your child is or what they're capable of.
Instead of "something to survive," they become part of learning—sometimes difficult, often valuable, always temporary.
This shift in perspective doesn't make tests less important. It makes them less scary.
🌱 How to build habits that have longterm impact for students
What we're really doing here isn't just helping with this year's math test or next month's history project. We're building something much more valuable: the ability to notice what works, to experiment with new approaches, to bounce back from what doesn't work, and to keep growing.
These are the skills that will serve your child long after they've forgotten the details of grade 9 chemistry or the specific dates from their history unit.
You're not their learning strategist. You're their guide in discovering what kind of learner they are. You're their partner in the beautiful, messy, ongoing experiment of figuring out how their unique brain learns best.
Wishing you kind learning,
Deena
