The school year is upon us. What does science say about helping kids (and parents) find success?

My children are starting school this month (9th and 12th grade!) and so our house is awash in backpacks, 3-ring notebooks and low-grade anxiety. But fear not! There are ways to make this the best academic year yet!

Students need sleep, consistent wake up times, breakfast and adventurous play. A study of 3,000 teens found those who went to bed earlier and slept longer performed better on tests of memory and problem-solving. A Penn State study found it’s not just the ​amount​ of sleep that matters — kids with consistent wake-up times show stronger emotional regulation and are better at handling frustrations. And breakfast matters: Dozens of studies show young people who eat in the morning — particularly fiber-rich complex carbohydrates like oats or whole grains, and proteins like meat and eggs — perform better on tests of attention, memory, and executive function in school. Finally, what we do after school is also important: When children engage in slightly risky play (climbing, exploring, talking to someone you think is cute) they are exposed to small doses of fear and uncertainty, which activates stress responses in a safe context. Over time, that trains their nervous system to recover better and builds emotional regulation.

Parents can help by eating dinner together, setting goals, getting exercise and making homework more fun. One study found helping students set learning goals — “I want to get better at word problems ” — rather than outcome goals — “I want an A” — creates more motivation, persistence and deeper academic engagement. Families who eat dinner together at least three times a week see kids with better school performance and higher levels of self-esteem. Daily physical activity — a “morning dance-off” or riding a scooter to school — can enhance concentration, memory, and problem-solving. (In Japan, kids do Radio Taiso (“radio exercise”) in the morning to get ready for school.) And the best kind of homework help is creating a tidy and quiet workspace for our kids, making homework meaningful by tying it to activities (like cooking while practicing fractions), and offering simple rewards (extra screen time!) after assignments are done. (And not all tech is bad: A homework companion robot has been shown to increase students’ engagement and motivation – as long as it delivers hints and praise rather than answers.)

Finally, it’s not too late for parents to become students. A seven-year study of adults aged 50 to 79 who enrolled in university-level courses showed they experienced significantly slower cognitive decline. Online courses are a great option — as long as you interact with peers. (Pandemic data shows students who actively participated in online forums and joined class discussion threads saw higher GPAs, particularly among students who had previously struggled in classrooms.) And if you can’t do a class, do the next best thing: Studies show book clubs cultivate new social skills, happy adult relationships — and all the new ideas (and gossip) discussed at your gathering often spills into becoming more creative at work.

An aside: Does anyone else bemoan the death of the Trapper Keeper? Our children will never know the exquisite agony of trying to get three plastic circles to align perfectly, nor the joys of the super weird graphics and the satisfying rip of opening velcro dozens of times a day. (If you didn’t click on that last link, you should really do so. It’s so good.)

Hat-tip to Asha Smith for her help this week. And thank you to everyone who sent me ideas for paid additions to this newsletter!

What’s your favorite memory from school? Tell us in the comments!