Don’t let your child slide by with C’s when you know he or she could be getting A’s. All children have untapped potential that parents can help bring out. Since students in
United States are in school fewer days and fewer hours than many other countries, this leaves many hours available for parents to step into a role far more influential than they might imagine. Education isn’t just teacher’s job. A parent is a child’s first teacher from birth to school age. Involved parents can make a difference in their child’s success in school using some common sense approaches that are important to do. Parents can and should prepare their children to learn and prepare them to do their best in school. Involved parents have several things in common. They make time to do things with their children. Involved parents display a positive attitude about school and learning in general. By promoting a "can do attitude" in their children, involved parents can be a catalyst to their offspring. Finally, parents can demonstrate that they are life-long learners by modeling certain kinds of behaviors, such as reading and involvement in hobbies.
The key areas that parents should address are: simple things that can be done in home; activities in which they can get children involved; and how to work with school and teacher. Parents do not have to be experts in field of education to be a valuable resource and supporter of it. They do need to find time and spend that quality time with their children. Remember general rule of "children thrive on attention, no matter what age."
The six basic things that parents can do at home with their children are: 1) start with lifelong skill of reading, read aloud everyday starting with short periods which increase as children grow older; 2) discuss what is being read, asking questions and encouraging comments and predictions; 3) model habit of independent reading because children will eventually be reading independently, too, and they need to see that; 4) have reading materials available at home which should include books, magazines and newspapers of interest (the public library and garage sales can be an inexpensive sources); 5) have frequent talks about school and everyday life with children, to help them become good listeners who will be able to follow directions and pay attention in school; and 6) and make children establish a regular homework habit in a quiet, adequate space which can be (and needs to be) monitored frequently by parents. With each of these basic elements key is consistency and longevity.
Parents play an important part in guiding their children into productive activities that will support learning and strides that can be made in school. It should go without saying that television time, internet time and video game time should be limited and monitored closely. Parents should encourage activities that promote problem solving and exploration of interests, and this is a major time commitment for parents to make. This could include such things as sports, music, art, family outings to museums. The more mundane, but equally as important, activities that need to be included are: setting up home/family rules; being consistent in enforcement of rules; designating house and yard chores to teach responsibility; providing play time and free time which encourages independence; and monitoring a child’s choice of friends, which is most important older a child gets.
