Sometimes, as a parent, you don’t know where to turn to get the best from your child. When your teenager comes home from school and tells you their day has been ‘boring’, how do you react? Are you angry that the teacher is not engaging with your child to get the best out of them? If your answer to that question is, yes, then how do you resolve the problem.

Firstly, you need to establish why your child is bored. There can be several reasons for this (especially in a teenager). The most obvious answer is that they can’t be bothered to tell you what happened in their school day. Alternatively, they could be bored because they can’t keep up with the class so they drift off into a dream world. Or, perhaps the most frightening, they are bored because the work is not challenging enough. Of course, it could also be that there classes are actually boring.

Only boring people get bored’. This little statement is so true! If your mind is busy and curious there is no need to ever get bored. If you are lucky enough to have a child who needs more challenging work, the answer is simple, extra tuition at a higher level that will give them a sense of achievement. In addition, your gifted child could contribute to the community in a way that suits his talents, or join a sports team to give him something more to think about. Of course, if your child is one of the unlucky ones who can’t keep up, some extra one to one tuition may be the breakthrough he needs.

There are other students who would benefit from extra tuition. Those children who struggle to keep their concentration would do better with one to one teaching.

It is not all to do with teaching. Engaging your child in outside activities from school can also be beneficial. Lots of children enjoy extra sports activities or doing something that gives them a sense of achievement. Encourage this, as the worst thing you can do is to shrug your shoulders and accept that your child is bored. Apathy is the result of boredom, so if your child sees apathy in you then it is hardly surprising if you see boredom in your child.