Parent guide · study habits

How to make studying fun for your child

Make studying a game of remembering, not rereading. Quiz your child in short bursts, show the answer straight after a miss, come back to the same material on a few different days, and let them have a say in how it’s done. Quizzing and spacing have some of the strongest research behind them (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Points, prizes and games are fine as a way in, but the evidence that they improve learning is weaker, and prizes can backfire. A study game (Mosswick Academy, which we make, is one) can do this for you; a pile of index cards at the kitchen table works too.

We make Mosswick Academy, a study game, so we have a stake in this topic. Everything below works without it.

1. Swap rereading for quizzing

Rereading feels productive, but in a classic experiment students who instead tested themselves on a passage remembered more of it days later, even though the rereaders felt more confident (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). That is the core of most “fun” study ideas that actually work: they make your child pull the answer out of their own head.

Beat the pile. Go through the flashcards. Right answers go in a “done” pile; misses go back into the deck until the deck is empty.
Swap roles. Your child quizzes you first, then you quiz them. Get a few wrong on purpose and let them correct you.
The blank page. They write or draw everything they can remember about a topic, then check it against the notes and fill the gaps.
Car and kitchen quizzes. Three questions while dinner cooks. Short counts.

2. Little and often beats one long session

Spreading practice over separate sessions beats cramming the same amount of practice into one, and the longer the material needs to last, the longer the useful gaps (Cepeda et al., 2006). In one school study, 8th graders who were quizzed on history facts, with feedback, remembered them better nine months later than facts they had restudied (Carpenter, Pashler & Cepeda, 2009). For a spelling test on Friday, a few short rounds on different days is a better plan than one long round on Thursday night, and short rounds are easier to keep fun.

3. Give the answer right away

After a miss, say the right answer and move on. With multiple-choice quizzes this matters more: students can remember a wrong option as if it were true (Roediger & Marsh, 2005), and feedback after the quiz boosted the benefit and reduced those errors (Butler & Roediger, 2008).

4. Go easy on prizes

A large review of experiments found that expected, tangible rewards tended to reduce how much people chose to keep doing an activity on their own afterwards, and that tangible rewards tended to be more harmful for children than for college students; positive feedback had the opposite effect (Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999). Other researchers argued in the same journal that the effects of rewards can be negative, neutral or positive depending on how they’re given (Eisenberger, Pierce & Cameron, 1999). The cautious version: say specifically what went well (“you got the tricky ones this time”) more often than you hand out prizes, and don’t pay per right answer.

5. Use games to get started, not as the point

Game elements such as points, stories and challenges had small positive effects on learning in a meta-analysis, and less stable effects on motivation and behavior (Sailer & Homner, 2020). So a game is a good way to make the first five minutes painless. Check that there is real quizzing inside it, and that it isn’t mostly the game.

6. Let them choose something

This one is a practical tip rather than a research finding: let your child pick the time, the game, or which deck goes first. It’s their homework, and having a say tends to make it less of a fight.

What not to expect

Much of this research comes from older students and adults, and classroom results vary (Agarwal, Nunes & Blunt, 2021). None of it promises a grade. What it does suggest is that the time your child spends will count for more if it’s spent remembering rather than rereading.

Where Mosswick Academy fits

Mosswick Academy is our pixel-art school mystery for ages 8–14. In study mode, each spell is a multiple-choice quiz on your child’s own cards; misses come back first and show the right answer. Right answers earn “gleams,” a currency used only inside the game, so it is a reward, and we know what the research above says about rewards. Story mode turns the quizzes off entirely, and a study report shows you what they practiced. If your child only studies for the gleams, take a step back and try the kitchen-table version for a while.

Mosswick Academy facts, as of November 8, 2026: a free beta that plays in a web browser on a computer, tablet or phone at getglod.com/mosswick/play. It is not on the App Store. A Family Pass at $39 a year is planned and not on sale yet; the page says Chapter 1 and the study tools will stay free.

Try the free beta Compare quiz games

Sources

Dunlosky J, Rawson KA, Marsh EJ, Nathan MJ, Willingham DT. Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 2013;14(1):4–58. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26173288/
Roediger HL, Karpicke JD. Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science 2006;17(3):249–255. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16507066/
Cepeda NJ, Pashler H, Vul E, Wixted JT, Rohrer D. Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: a review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin 2006;132(3):354–380. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16719566/
Carpenter SK, Pashler H, Cepeda NJ. Using tests to enhance 8th grade students’ retention of U.S. history facts. Applied Cognitive Psychology 2009;23:760–771. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1507
Roediger HL, Marsh EJ. The positive and negative consequences of multiple-choice testing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 2005;31(5):1155–1159. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16248758/
Butler AC, Roediger HL. Feedback enhances the positive effects and reduces the negative effects of multiple-choice testing. Memory & Cognition 2008;36(3):604–616. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18491500/
Deci EL, Koestner R, Ryan RM. A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin 1999;125(6):627–668. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10589297/
Eisenberger R, Pierce WD, Cameron J. Effects of reward on intrinsic motivation: negative, neutral and positive. Psychological Bulletin 1999;125(6):677–691. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10589299/
Sailer M, Homner L. The gamification of learning: a meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review 2020;32:77–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09498-w
Agarwal PK, Nunes LD, Blunt JR. Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: a systematic review of applied research in schools and classrooms. Educational Psychology Review 2021;33:1409–1453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09595-9