As a parent you are the first and most important teacher for your kids. When parents and families are involved in schools for their kids, the kids do better and get better feelings about going to school. However, several studies suggest that what the family does is more important to the school success of a child than how much money the family earns or how much schooling the parents get.
There are many ways parents can help learning about their children at home and throughout the school year. Here are a few suggestions to get you started!
Build a relationship with teachers and school administrators in your child
1. Meet with teacher of your child. Consider finding a way to meet your child’s teacher once the school year starts. Let the teacher know that you are looking to help your child learn. Make it clear that if any problems develop with your child you want the teacher to contact you.
If you feel uncomfortable speaking English, don’t let a barrier to the language deter you. What you have to say here is more important than the language in which you say it! Ask the school to find someone for you to interpret.
There may be contact with a teacher or parent who can assist. Or you can bring a friend or relative who is bilingual.
2. Parent-teacher conferences attend, and keep in touch with the teacher of your child. Every year schools usually hold one or two parent-teacher conferences. You may bring a friend to translate for you, or ask the school to make an interpreter available. You can also apply to see the teacher of your child any time of the year. If you have a concern and are unable to meet face-to-face, send a brief note to the teacher or set up a time for phone conversations.
Develop reading atmosphere
3. Many people would argue that reading that is the secret to life’s success.
We would most certainly argue that at least reading is a key to success in learning. Children who love to read develop develop a love for learning. Kids struggling with literacy, struggling with writing.
Not only does reading help kids grow a much richer vocabulary, it also helps their brain learn how to interpret ideas and structured communication. And the reading skills acquired go far beyond increased performance in language art classes. Students who read well experience an enhanced learning ability in all subject areas–including technical topics such as math and science.
Help your child grow the strengths of reading and a love of reading by filling his world with reading.
Frequently read it to your child. Have a real aloud on your kids. Create a read time for the family where everyone focuses on reading for 20 minutes per day. Through filling your classroom and/or home with reading materials (novels, posters, newspapers, magazines, etc.) through your own example of reading, you will build a reading environment that will teach your child (or students) how important reading is. A key to developing good readers, it will make reading enjoyable–not boring. If a child decides that reading is boring or stressful, he or she will not want to read and his or her ability to learn will be that.
Let the kids pick up their own books to read, help them learn, and develop activities that make reading enjoyable for them.
4. Have a look at how your child is doing. Ask the teacher how well your child does when compared to other students in class. If your child doesn’t keep up, especially when reading, ask what you or the school can do to help with that. Acting early on is crucial before your child gets too far behind. Also be sure to check the report card for your child every time it comes out.
5. Make sure your child does his or her homework. Let your child know you think education is important, and you need to do homework every day. Through setting aside a special place to study, setting up a regular time for homework, and avoiding distractions like television and social phone calls during homework time, you can help your child with homework. If you are reluctant to help your child with homework because you feel that you don’t know the subject well enough or because you don’t speak or read English, you can help by showing that you’re interested, helping your child get prepared, providing the necessary resources, asking your child about regular assignments, tracking the work to make sure it’s done.
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