Five Top Tips for Exact Path for Parents & How They Can Help Encourage Learning

It’s the start of the new academic year for many of us, so I wanted to give parents some pointers on using Exact Path at home to start the new academic year in the right way and encourage learning with it. As Edmentum’s Head of International Customer Services, I am also a parent and have lots of experience helping schools and parents access Exact Path and encouraging its usage, so I hope these tips are helpful. Plus, you can use some of them at home too.

1. Build a Schedule

My first tip for parents to encourage learning is to create a suitable daily or weekly timetable to use at home, which will support your child in keeping on track of their home learning. This should include time spent on Exact Path (which we recommend using for 30 minutes per week per subject). Writing their learning activity down in a timetable format will help create clarity between yourself and your child with clear expectations. You should ensure this is focused around their out-of-school activities, such as swimming lessons, dancing, or sports activities, and that the time expected isn’t unrealistic, too long for your child, or doesn’t include breaks. 

2. Set Up a Suitable Workspace

It may seem obvious, but it’s worth reiterating; the second tip is creating a suitable environment at home to work in to encourage learning within Exact Path. I suggest having a calm, quiet area with no distractions. It is also essential to check that your child has access to their device during this time. Is it free to them or being shared by another family member? Has this device been charged in preparation? Also, it’s worth making sure your child has enough time to complete the task in hand and that they are feeling energized to finish their work and are refreshed. Your child may work better at different times, such as after dinner, so it’s worth keeping an eye on that and factoring it in. 

3. Get to Know the Online Learning Platform

I also recommend, where possible, to speak to your child’s teacher about Exact Path if you have any questions. Your child’s school may also run parent workshops which would be useful to attend, and it’s also worth mentioning that we have some helpful guides for you to use to learn more about Exact Path too if you need them:

• Exact Path Student Guide Grades K-2
• Exact Path Student Guide Grades 3-5
• Exact Path Student Guide Grades 6-12

You can also visit my recording to gain more knowledge of using Exact Path – I did this for a school where parents listened in, so it’s worth checking out.

4. Communicate with Your Child’s Teachers

Where possible, another tip is to ensure you are communicating with teachers regarding your child’s development, whether this is to address any challenges they may face or to share their successes (which is equally important, of course!). You can view the Rewards area within Exact Path to understand what areas your child is currently working on, or if it is suitable, you could reach out to your child’s class teacher for advice and support or tips on how to better help with learning at home.

5. Share and Celebrate Your Child’s Successes

Another great point, and as mentioned above, is that your child can review their success within their Rewards area in their Exact Path account, which is worth taking advantage of. This area shows the skills recently mastered, as well as the class challenges that have been completed. You could arrange time each week to look at these together and share any success with your child or other family members. You could also decide on your own reward for your child to work towards once they have completed the expected time or areas within Exact Path that they have chosen to do. Alongside this, there’s also the idea to create a weekly reward chart to keep track of these successes, where you and your child can see the progress towards their chosen reward – a great motivator!

I hope you found my tips useful, and they have given you some ideas into how you can use Exact Path at home to support learning. Remember, Exact Path has numerous features to support home learning and student progression, so it’s well worth checking out.

It’s also worth pointing out that we love hearing about student success, so if you have any success to share, please do! You can tweet us at @Edmentum_INT or email us on international@edmentum.com – we look forward to hearing from you!

If you’re a teacher at a school using Exact Path and need a little more help with parental engagement and the platform itself, we are always welcoming all schools to get in touch with us if they need to by emailing international@edmentum.com. Remember, you can also see our parent guide here, which we did for a school too.